October 14, 2005
My New Name
Behold, my new name in Chinese:
It's Min Li which translates in English to smart and nimble jasmine flower.
I know where my colleagues got the smart and the jasmine part (I love jasmine leaves in all my teas). But where the heck did they get nimble from? Must investigate... excuse me while I send off a few text messages.
This. however, is not my first adopted name. When I taught English as a 2nd language in the Middle East, I was given a name that people could pronouce locally because otherwise I would have been known as Miss. The naming task fell squarely on the shoulders of the Village Chief where I lived just 100 miles outside of Cairo.
He gave me a very unusual sounding name, but one which I took too easily because everyone could pronounce it very well. Phonetically it was pronounced Neal-ba. I thought it was neat sounding name so I kept it and never asked what it meant. It was only later on, almost upon leaving really, that the translation of my arabic name was revealed to me, after much grinning ensued at the airport. It was Big Storm Amounting To Nothing. To this day I don't know what the Village Chief saw in me on that first day, as he stared into my eyes, to come up with such a name.
I guess I've moved up in the world since then, huh?
Yeah, you've sure amounted to a great person!
i shudder to think what my name would be in chinese. it would probably mean "he who kicks dead squirrels off his deck" or something like that, eh?
Posted by: mr. helpful at October 15, 2005 02:36 PMDANG!
The Chinese letters aren't showing up in my browser.
Would it be possible to post a jpeg?
Posted by: Harvey at October 15, 2005 06:17 PMHey Michele;
Here's a better translation for your Chinese name:
'Keen Jasmine'
Let me explain. Min is hard to translate; but I wouldn't use smart and nimble - As min does not refer to just book-smarts or high IQ (I am not saying that you don't have that!) it is more along the lines of both book-smarts and being able to use those book-smarts in a clever way (is that where they got the nimble from?)
However, I wasn't aware of this word 'min' being used for physical agility; I had always thought that it refered to mental agility, but perhaps I am wrong. Can we say someone is nimble-minded? That just doesn't sound so good!
The word min has good connotations - so words like 'sly', or 'witty' are out. I think, perhaps, quick-witted, clever, or, perhaps, the best translation would be keen.
The only problem with 'keen' is that it seems to me that we don't use this word often enough or by itself enough that it can sound funny or somewhat archaic, and I don't mean it that way. But, ask your colleagues if they think these suggestions might be better words to express the feeling of 'min'.
The 'li' part is easy; that is white jasmine flower.
But, no matter how you translate it; it is a really great name and sounds very much like an authentic Chinese name; not something 'made-up' for a 'wai-guo ren' (foreign person) And from reading your writings here on your blog it does sound very much like you!
congratulations, Keen Jasmine!
Posted by: Charles at October 18, 2005 10:00 PM