My name is Joanna.
My name is Joanna [FOREIGN].
My name is Shaq.
>> My name is Abishek Malakar, [FOREIGN].
>> My name is Botai.
My name is Botai[FOREIGN].
[MUSIC]
>> For a lot of Chinese students,
we have our own English names since we are very little cuz we have English classes
when we were kind of in kindergarten >> I remember
back in class our English teacher said, you all, you guys need an English name.
>> The teacher literally was like you Cindy, you Peter, you Charles,
and then names stick with them for like 20 more years.
>> I'm from Seoul, South Korea, and
my original name is Ming Sung Kim, but now in the US I go by Jeff.
When you grow up in a completely different culture zone and
moving to another culture zone, it's all about adjusting your life culturally,
socially, fully in one language.
So basically everything personally I felt like I had to change,
not change but adjust my character into the new environment and
that first step was to change my name.
>> So my full Indian name is Aditya Pal, but
a name which I've adopted as an English name is Adi.
People say that when you move to a new city, you can reinvent
yourself you can get a new personality new name, but to me I've always been Aditya.
The name is just for other people so
that I don't feel like I'm causing a burden for them to pronounce my real name.
>> When I'm trying to introduce myself or tell my name.
First, I have to explain us to people as to how to pronounce my name.
This becomes slightly difficult and redundant, come on.
If I'm making a friend or making a new friend or something,
they should be able to be comfortable calling out my name.
And the most comfortable method for that is give them a nickname that's easy for
them, right?
>> Some of us pick our English name for fun, like me, I just pick up a dictionary.
Stan, Stanley, I remember that's the name for a wooden floor manufacturers, so
I'm like, okay, Stan, that's my name.
[LAUGH] >> Some student just choose to name after
their characters in the TV drama.
Recently I have a friend who named himself Lancelot.
>> I know a friend of mine who doesn't have an English name when he came
to high school.
And somehow he chose his name to be Google.
And that is what we call him for the rest of four years.
Yeah, his name is Google.
Actually, it was Google's birthday two weeks ago and
one of his friend's name is Moses.
When you're like 15 years old, choosing a name is like choosing a gaming
identification, people throwing all kinds of stuff in there.
>> My Chinese name is Wu Yuanyuan and my first English name actually,
it's given by my teacher in primary school and it's Angel.
And then I got to choose my own name in high school, and I choose Amanda.
It represent brave, how brave, how confident a woman can be.
I feel like this name can show how I seize the power to control my life.
>> When I came to the US, I saw people couldn't pronounce my original name,
which is Botai.
Then I think that sophomore year in high school,
I realized the thing people wear is actually called bow tie.
So now, when I introduce myself, my hands are suddenly do this thing over here, and
people immediately was, bow tie.
I'm really thankful whoever came up with that word,
he saved me tons of time explaining my name to other people.
>> My name is Joanna, but my Chinese name is [FOREIGN].
I can really feel my identity when I was introducing myself to others using
my Chinese name.
And for my English name, I think Joanna is a pretty name, but
I feel less proud when I'm introducing myself using my English name.
If someone reached out to me and then is interested in Chinese tradition or
is interested in my Chinese name,
I would love to teach them how to pronounce and then what meaning it is.
>> I really appreciate it actually when a lot of the people,
a lot of my international colleagues are very close to me.
They know my real name as well and they call me by my real name.
And for them, Adi, Aditya is the same thing eventually.
>> I think one thing maybe people should try to do more
is showing the willingness you actually wanna try to pronounce
their real name because most time we just assume, it's such a difficulty.
If you show a little bit effort, people realize, they actually wanna try to
pronounce our real name and it's definitely very appreciated.
>> Nice to meet you.
[MUSIC]