<p>hey folks..
when i go to college, i was wonderin whether ppl will have difficulty pronouncin my name (dong-gyun)..</p>
<p>should i use my name or actually create one?</p>
<p>thx</p>
<p>i understand your pain (i'm asian). What i do is i tell everyone my name is XXX, but on my legal forms it's YYY. But i dunno if you should follow the same path or not. Too many asians are being americanized. Stay with your heritage!!</p>
<p>I kept my asian name is my legal name. but I use an american name for the sake of convenience...it gets annoying when different ppl call you by different pronunciations. </p>
<p>on a practical mindset, english names are more memorable for americans and i live in american society.</p>
<p>I would keep your own name and just teach folks to learn to deal with it.</p>
<p>Did your parents let you take an American name? Just wondering.</p>
<p>(^_^)</p>
<p>my parents let me choose it. its not like im dropping my name. its just wat I go by. my friends know my real name, and some choose to call my by my asian name. </p>
<p>you see, my asian name is harder to pronounce than a lot of other asian names. it actually 1 syllable when in english its impossible</p>
<p>i know a kid named Dong. you could just shorten it</p>
<p>Have them call you DG or something...</p>
<p>yeah, just come up with a nickname... my name isn't TOO hard to pronounce, but people still have trouble with it and there are so many different pronunciations that i've just given up... for heaven's sake, each of my parents pronounces it differently... as long as it sounds somewhat like my name, i'm fine.</p>
<p>yeah, dg or dong would be fine. or you could just adopt an english name</p>
<p>
[quote]
Too many asians are being americanized. Stay with your heritage!!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Maybe that's because they live in America...or they're actually just Americans at heart. Meh. </p>
<p>I'm on the fence with "American" (read: English) names for people just because of the difficulty of getting people to properly pronounce a name.</p>
<p>For one, you are giving up something meaningful to you for mere convenience.</p>
<p>However, the argument that Americans should "just get it right" is also a bit unfair. Let's face it, my name (Ari) doesn't get pronounced too well in China, Korea, or Japan, so I just let it get "nativized" so to speak. I've come to terms with the fact that my name will be butchered abroad, but not everyone else is as comfortable with that.</p>
<p>You may consider having two names (as cumbersome as it may be): one for people who get the "real" name right on the first few tries, and the other one for the people who just cannot get it right.</p>
<p>thx alot for all of you!!!</p>
<p>if u look at my name up there and and try to say it, do u find difficulty?</p>
<p>nada I can say your name just fine and I have a weird accent!</p>
<p>I tell you, the going by your initials idea that some folks pointed out sounds darned nice, though. It is cute how the D and the G would go together since those two letter kinda rhyme and stuff.</p>
<p>it's a bit hard to know whether we can or cannot easily pronounce your name!
We may or may not be getting your name right by reading it.</p>
<p>I might pronounce something like (in IPA):</p>
<p>[don(g) ji-yn]</p>
<p>Ultimately, though, you're going to get a lot of different pronunciations.
One of my friends is Italian and has a name that, despite it's simplicity and similarity to some American names, has a closed e [e] in it--which is a vowel not present in English (and fairly difficult to teach Americans--it's a sort of a cross between a short I and long A in English)--so she gets all kinds of butchered versions of her name.</p>
<p>On the other hand, though, students will likely enjoy trying to learn your name, so if you're not offended by bad guesses or frustrated by repeated failures to pronounce your name properly, I wouldn't change it; however, if you do not wish to go through that, then you might consider adopting a nick-name.</p>
<p>honestly, if ppl have a hard time pronouncin my name, wont they treat me kinda differently when they pass me by? (since im an international student?</p>
<p>not just bc its a unique name or pronouncin but more like seein me ("hes just another asian" or somethin like that)</p>
<p>I don't mind pronouncing people's names. I have much experience with long-winded names being a German-speaker (of course it all comes naturally in that case), but I do try to pronounce people's names correctly. Many of my Chinese/Taiwanese and Korean-American friends will use their Chinese names, while many of the international students like to take American names. Its all a matter of personal preference.</p>
<p>My friend his name is Han, but he tells everyone to call him Michael. You can do something like that. Or tell people to calll you DG, Dong. Would be fine.. shouldnt worry about it to much.</p>
<p>If you choose to go american I wouldn't use Dong(not american at all) but rather Don, Donny, or D.J.(They just sound more american)</p>
<p>One thing that no one has bought up yet: the word "dong" is slang for male genitalia here. For that reason alone, I would recommend that choose an Americanized name if you feel comfortable doing so.</p>
<p>Don would probably be a good choice.</p>
<p>Don is perfect dude. That way, if they ask what your real name is, you can tell them and it wont be some huge mystery as to why your name is something else. Don is awesome.</p>