One new and interesting aspect of the Thai cultures is nicknames. My class of students is no exception. One of the most fun parts of my transition was getting my class list and seeing all the names.
I've had many "Mariams" all with different spellings. I've had a couple of Alexes, two Dereks, and some Brians. I've had some amazing multicultural names like Lowaliya, Lars, Aave, Felipe, but never have I had such a fun group of names.
We have the theme names that imply wealth and prosperity-Porsche, Diamond, Bank. A number of kids whose parents went with a Western name like Jack, Mac, Lisa, Nikki. A few daring parents braved the no nickname idea all together. Four out of 21! A couple of girls have diminutive names like Minnie and Noi (small), and Axe is as cool as his name implies. My favorite name, however, is Party! Not only is his name Party, but we have two Partys in the grade. Instead of the usually First Name Last Initial routine, we differentiate by gender. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I have...
Party Boy.
I think that name will do him quite well in any university he goes to!
Here is a fun article about Thai students picking suitable names in college.
I'm LOVING that! Party boy! The twins have a new grade-mate named Brock. Now that is a heck of a name. I'm loving the names this year. Victor's made a new friend (also form the South) named Hank and I'm imaging 70 year old men playing checkers on the street... Love, love, love it!
ReplyDeleteHaha! The kids in HCMC picked nicknames too. It was hard to take some of them seriously!
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