after school names part 2

My first round of afterschool classes finished last week with an exciting day of trading in their earned class points for Chicago souvenirs and Korean snacks/candies. Fun day.

Gave away my Michael Jordan jersey to the top points earner. The jersey was an "imitation" as the kids called it (not knowing that a real MJ jersey goes for hundreds in the states) and I had gotten it in Itaewon (the "international part of Seoul - which is to say it's for English speakers) for about $25 bucks. The kids were impressed I was giving it away. The teachers were impressed I was giving it away. But I had realized a while ago that I got paid more for one after school class than the jersey. I'll get another one soon. I'll have to take a picture of the jersey shops there - cool "retro" ones.


anyway, so my new round of after school class started with many new students. As now is my tradition, I asked the kids to pick English names. I gave them three options:

1) English-size your Korean name: so one could be Park Joon Woo

2) Pick a famous persons name: so one coul be Ronaldo or Obama

3) Pick any random English name you know: so one could be Steven or John


Here, listed, are the names my students picked.

Hot Cheol
Mu Mu
Chicken Mu
Ace
Ferdi
Bong Bong
Muscle
Lie
Smobs
Reges
Minwooks
Hai
Mustard
Wooks
Jose
Calvin
Jic So
Puck
Desouphe
New Chim
Lupin
Bob
Jim
June
Lee

favorites:

Puck - see: Shakespeare, William "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Desouphe - pronounced "day-sue-fay".....french word for something???

Smobs - ????

Lie - has no idea the English translation of that word

Muscle - skinniest kid in the class. and note, it's not "muscles" just a singular, one muscle

Jose - when I told him that this was a common Mexican name, spelled with an accent, he was upset. He wanted me to confirm that his name was American and not Mexican.

Reges - pronounced more like "reggae" than "regis" but I still haven't gotten it completely how he wants it.



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