The Name Game, Part Deux

Just for kicks I posted some of the fun English names I encountered in my first six months in Hong Kong a little while ago. I appreciate the interest but I don't want to keep you waiting any longer. The answers are below, and no, they don't make any sense to me either.

Pinkie ………… Ingrid Millet (salon) employee
Kinke ………… Ingrid Millet employee
Winky ………… Jusco (like Walmart) employee
Fish ………… Hair stylist
Rainbow ………… Student
Circle ………… Student
Sony ………… School administrator
Luparker ………… School principal
Bobo ………… 2 Primary school students: one a boy and one a girl

The Name Game

This is why we name our kids instead of letting them do it themselves. In Hong Kong people pick their own English names and they usually do so in elementary school, at least the first time. English names can change as quickly as hairstyles. Perhaps this is a compensation for a universal resentment from teenagers that their parents chose their name instead of them, but names are frivolous things here. To help you better appreciate the situation, dear reader, I have prepared a little game.

Each of the names below corresponds with one of the contexts in which we met each person. To make it a little easier, we have included multiple students' names. When you think you have figured out who is who, submit your guesses as a comment so all can enjoy.

Pinkie ………… School principal

Kinke ………… Hair stylist

Winky ………… 2 students: one a boy and one a girl

Fish ………… Student

Rainbow ………… Ingrid Millet (salon) employee

Circle ………… Jusco (like Walmart) employee

Sony ………… School administrator

Luparker ………… Student

BoBo ………… Ingrid Millet Employee

Taken by the Wind: 'Engrish' T-Shirts are Hirarious

Taken by the Wind: 'Engrish' T-Shirts are Hirarious

I found the picture for my post on the blog and I could not pass up the opportunity to direct you to this excellent sampling of what I have been talking about

T-shirts

The import export business in Hong Kong is a major source of revenue for the city. An uncle drove us by the shipping terminal, which is one of the 3 busiest in the world in terms of containers handled. Most major Asian economies have made their money by exporting goods to other markets and importing less. I have noticed one exception to this typical import deficit. Stylish Hong Kongers have a strong appetite for t-shirts with English on them. These shirts take a variety of formats.

One of the items worn by more the more fashion-conscious is a black shirt with what appears to be a dictionary entry. The definitions seem to have come out of the Oxford English Dictionary. These lengthy definitions are of the type of words I would have used a thesaurus to find when I wanted to replace small words with big ones while writing high school papers.

I have also seen the distinctly less-cultured frat-boy t-shirts. While walking to a local park last week, I passed a middle-aged man who looked prematurely aged from spending the majority of his walking years on manual labor. What did this man wear? A t-shirt with a stenciled drawing of a tractor and the phrase, “Farmers do it in the dirt.” The women are not left out in their pursuit of tasteless t-shirts; the Playboy bunny logo can be spotted in a variety of neighborhoods.

One of the less surprising models I often see is the athletic t-shirt. People sport the Nike slogan, “Before Nike, people walked.” You see a variety of shirts supporting companies with American and European brands and trademarks. This is also reflected in the widespread attention given to European football leagues.

One of my favorites, and, admittedly, one of the most stereotypical examples of importing western t-shirts is a shirt I saw on Tuesday at a doctor’s office. In the waiting room a woman and her small child waited for the doctor to write the prescription. The woman’s shirt indicated her apparent English abilities, as it was a mere collection of characters in different fonts arranged in some sort of pattern.

My t-shirts simply cannot keep pace with the haute couture here. I have resolved that I will have to pick up a few select items to bring my wardrobe up to speed. To that end, I have actually been thinking I need to buy a screen printer. I mean, how hard can it be to sell t-shirts here? All I need is a dictionary and some crayon-scrawled notes from my nieces and nephew.

New Position opening: Marketing Director for growing apparel line, seeking to expand into the mainland Chinese market; Cantonese and Mandarin are a must.