Why Hong Kong people like to have english name?

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Slew Foot

Lifer
Sep 22, 2005
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batman.jpg
Batman Bin Suparman!
 

Dari

Lifer
Oct 25, 2002
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Have you tried prouncing Chinese names? It's like cat-talk. I prefer the English first names.
 

torpid

Lifer
Sep 14, 2003
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I'm having trouble understanding you. Please use some Afrin so that your sentences make sense.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
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Either a glorious troll or a complete fucking idiot. Says he didn't realize the Brits had Hong Kong until '97 but a few posts later, after seeing evidence of said fact and agreeing with it, says "Well it was the Americans that give HK back to China, right?".
 

TuxDave

Lifer
Oct 8, 2002
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Either a glorious troll or a complete fucking idiot. Says he didn't realize the Brits had Hong Kong until '97 but a few posts later, after seeing evidence of said fact and agreeing with it, says "Well it was the Americans that give HK back to China, right?".

Yeah, my brain hurt a little after reading that.
 

Svnla

Lifer
Nov 10, 2003
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I'm chinese in indonesia and i don't use chinese name too . all chinese here use english / indonesian name i think and it just like that i think since i was born LOL

Oh hello there. I do travel to Asia extensively and have been to Indonesia before. I feel a connection, do you? :p
 

OBLAMA2009

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2008
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its funny the way they always pick names of famous people. theyll give their kids names like "edison" "einstein" and "franklin"
 

Tiamat

Lifer
Nov 25, 2003
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I have worked with some and they all have English names but Chinese last names. I was told but could not verify that each Chinese name has a literal translation to English, so that whatever Chinese name they are born with also ends up determining their English, which tends to be the name they go with when dealing with Westerners.

Anybody know if that's true? I had thought prior that Chinese simply just pick whatever the heck name they want when they go into business.

That wasn't true for my mom who was born in HK. It could be "true" if the family just doesn't care and they just happen to go with whatever it translated to...
 

NiceCold

Senior member
May 14, 2011
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i play alot of tekken since late 90s ps1 tekken 3. i have always wonder why Forest Law is named Forest which is pretty strange and it didnt even come to mind that he is also hong kongnese then quickly this name stuff wa sout of my mind and forgotten completely about that he has a strange name since i play alot of tekken and grew on it.

Marshall Law, his father and again i did not question his name before. now it sound like Martial Law. even Marshall itself is strange.
 

NiceCold

Senior member
May 14, 2011
543
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who the heck is Jacky Chang?

not sure if you were joking or serious. now i finally get it. you were joking and i know why. it snot chang but chan.

sometimes i crack myself up. i have always pronounce jacky chang ever since i was a 7,8 years old that just know about a famous actor. i didnt know how to read nor did i look at his name spellings.

ever since.... i carry on the pronouciation, i mean i got used to saying chang. now when i type.... it comes up with the chang automatically although i know that it is chan and not chang.



yeah my engnlish not so good. im probly a kid from far europe.
 
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rh71

No Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
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pretty funny. A lot of times they use the literal translation from chinese for their English name and it's just funny. I can't read chinese, but I'm just guessing that's what happened there.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
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pretty funny. A lot of times they use the literal translation from chinese for their English name and it's just funny. I can't read chinese, but I'm just guessing that's what happened there.

I doubt it.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
99,350
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considering my aunt's name is Shadow, I wouldn't doubt it unless you can actually read that.


The Chinese below his name is a designation. I am not sure what it is though.
Originally I thought it was MBA, but MBA is 工商管理碩士

BAFS is a different designation.


Yes. I can read Chinese. Shadow is not a strange name, probably not the best translation either. I am assuming its 影. It is probably closer to impressions as opposed to shadow.
 

UncleWai

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2001
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BAFS stands for business, account, and financial studies. It's a secondary school curiculum.
 

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
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Most Chinese seem to adopt Christian names when they move here. I always figured it was because their names were too difficult to pronounce properly. Chinese is supposedly grammatically similar to English but it's a tonal language. The same word can mean two completely different things depending on how you say it.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
99,350
17,547
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Most Chinese seem to adopt Christian names when they move here. I always figured it was because their names were too difficult to pronounce properly. Chinese is supposedly grammatically similar to English but it's a tonal language. The same word can mean two completely different things depending on how you say it.

Think of them more as constructs.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
99,350
17,547
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BAFS stands for business, account, and financial studies. It's a secondary school curiculum.


I am assuming it's Bachelor of Actuarial and Financial Studies

University Degree.

But then I am not from HK.