Friday, September 01, 2006

Writing my name















Many Chinese take an English name because their names are hard for us. I've always felt this was an unnecessary concession to our chauvinism, but the practice is so ensconced in English teaching practice that I felt I couldn't fight it. So I took a Chinese name: Gan Mei. 'Gan' is the Chinese word for sweet; 'Mei' means rose. Sweet rose. Similar to the English Rosalind, fair Rose.

It's not hard to write the Chinese word 'gan'(top left) but 'mei' is a complex character and difficult to write. Yesterday, some students on the beach were giving me lessons (below).
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