词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Lida Baker: Names in America

Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": October 10, 2002
Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: October 13, 2002

AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is on assignment. This week on Wordmaster -- names in America. And now here's a name that should be familiar by now to our listeners: Lida Baker¹ teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. I asked her for some advice for students who come here and wonder what to call themselves.

BAKER: "One way to select a name that they're going to use in this country would be just to translate their name from their native language. Now a lot of other students, what they do, is that they choose an American name that sounds similar to their name in their native language. So, for example, right now I have a student from Korea, a man whose name is Jong-il, and he calls himself John.

"Another thing that students often do is that they'll just simply use their native name. Or they might shorten² it in some way. A lot of Japanese students, for example -- Japanese names are not very difficult for Americans to pronounce. If you take a name like Masahiro, we can say that. And so students will tell you to use their actual name or just maybe shorten it to something like Masa or something like Hiro. That's not a problem for Americans."

AA: "You don't have to go through the courts to do this, do you?"

BAKER: "Oh, no, no, no. No, you just use it as a nickname³. On legal documents, I would tell students that they have to use the name that's in their passport. But in any situation where people are asking them, 'Well, what would you like us to call you?' they can choose any name that they like."

AA: But Lida Baker says it's a good idea to ask a native English speaker whether a name may have an unintended meaning. She gives an example of students she's had from Thailand. Thai names can have many syllables⁵.

BAKER: "What Thai students very often do is that they ask us to pull out one of those syllables and they use that as a nickname in class. I would want to counsel⁶ that student not to pull out the syllable⁴ P-O-R-N and use that as a name in the United States."

AA: "Because it would refer to sexual⁷ ... "

BAKER: "Pornography."

AA: "Right."

BAKER: "I try to counsel students not to choose names that have any kind of sexual connotation."

AA: And there are other connotations to consider to avoid possible embarrassment⁸.

BAKER: "One example would be the Chinese family name Fat, very common in Chinese, but of course in English the word 'fat' has not the nicest meaning."

AA: "It means overweight. "

BAKER: "Right, it means overweight, and Americans would find it very strange if a person asked to be called Fat."

AA: There are even some names that are perfectly⁹ fine, yet people might want to avoid.

BAKER: "A couple of examples would be -- and these were students who were in my classes -- I had a woman whose name that she wanted us to use was Fifi and another student, a man, who asked us to call him Lucky. What these students didn't know is that those names are often used for dogs in the United States. And I had a student who wanted us to call her Meow -- M-E-O-W -- which is the sound that a cat makes. And it turned out that she really liked cats, and so that's why she chose that name. But again I had to tell her that Americans might find that amusing¹⁰."

AA: "And now speaking about cultural norms¹¹, let's talk a little bit about the order of names in typical American names."

BAKER" "OK, well, my name is Lida Rosemary Baker. Lida is my first name, Rosemary is my middle name and Baker is my last name. So the normal word order for names in the United States is first name, middle name, last name. However, there is an exception to that. Anytime that you're filling out a form or an application, such as an application for a driver's license¹² or something like that, they always ask you to list your last name first. So the order in that case would be last name, comma, first name, middle name. So I would be Baker, comma, Lida Rosemary.

AA: "And so now in a situation where you know someone's name, maybe you work with that person, when should you call that person just by his or her last name? Is that ever appropriate?"

BAKER: "I hear it in sports, when there's a bunch of guys out playing basketball together."

AA: "Well, you know what's funny is just yesterday my daughter was playing in a lacrosse game, and one of the things she really liked was that the coach had called her by her last name. She got a kick out of that and enjoyed it."

BAKER: "It's done in sports, but it's not done in business and it's not done among friends very much."

AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the UCLA Extension program in Los Angeles. Her textbooks for English learners are available through the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. And that's Wordmaster for this week. We're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is。。。。。。。。。 I'm Avi Arditti.

 

1 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

2 shorten   

vt.弄短，缩小，减少

参考例句：

• Minor accidents can shorten the life of a car.小事故会缩短汽车寿命。
• My dress is too long I must shorten it.我的连衣裙太长了，我得把它截短些。

3 nickname   

n.绰号，昵称；v.给...取绰号，叫错名字

参考例句：

• She called me by my nickname.她叫我的外号。
• Why do you fasten such a nickname on her?你为什么给她取这样一个绰号？

4 syllable   

n.音节；vt.分音节

参考例句：

• You put too much emphasis on the last syllable.你把最后一个音节读得太重。
• The stress on the last syllable is light.最后一个音节是轻音节。

5 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

6 counsel   

n.忠告，劝告，律师，法律顾问；vt.劝告

参考例句：

• The judge asked counsel for the defence to explain.法官要求被告的辩护律师做出解释。
• He refused to listen to the old man's counsel.他拒不听从老人的忠告。

7 sexual   

adj.性的，两性的，性别的

参考例句：

• He was a person of gross sexual appetites.他是个性欲旺盛的人。
• It is socially irresponsible to refuse young people advice on sexual matters.拒绝向年轻人提供性方面的建议是对社会不负责任。

8 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

9 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

10 amusing   

adj.有有趣的，好玩的

参考例句：

• The girl was amusing herself with a doll.那女孩在玩洋娃娃自娱。
• He related some amusing stories in his childhood to his children.他向孩子们述说了他少年时代的一些趣事。

11 norms   

n. 规范 名词norm的复数形式

参考例句：

• deviation from the previously accepted norms 违背事先接受的准则
• Everyone should abide by our social norms. 我们每个人都应该遵守社会行为准则。

12 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。