First name, last name
Over the weekend I took my son out for a bowl of gyudon, steamed beef over rice, the most popular form of fast food in Japan. The restaurant was crowded, so I added my name to the list, writing “Peter” in the katakana writing system that’s generally used for foreign names and loan words, and sat down to wait.
“Everyone else wrote their last name,” my son observed. “Why did you write your first name?”
This was an interesting question, and I didn’t have an answer for him right away.
Ostensibly, names in Japan are written in family name, given name order, so someone named Taro Yamada in English would be Yamada Taro in Japanese. But by unwritten rule, Westerners nearly always continue to use their name in the same order as they do back home. When I was a teacher, I was universally known as “Peter-sensei” by my students, never “Payne-sensei” as you’d expect.
I’m pretty sure this is done unconsciously — the Japanese staff at J-List, who are used to me asking them difficult questions when I’m posting an update, all said they’d never noticed this phenomenon — and probably because English teachers are supposed to be as “fun” as possible. Having my students use my first name certainly did seem to bring them a little closer to me, so it was never a problem.
While Japanese never use English name order for themselves while in Japan, it’s not uncommon for TV “talents” (comedians, actors etc.) to choose stage names that sound more like English.
When the Los Angeles-born son of legendary martial arts film star Sho Kosugi started his own career on TV here, he debuted using the name of “Kane Kosugi” (in English word order) which underscored his American-ness and the fact that he could speak English fluently, and added a bit of spice to his appeal with fans.
Poor Mari….she’s my favorite. If I ever become a j-pop singer and part of the...
Interesting post….
I grew up in English Canada and I recall calling all my teachers by their last names. My daughter is now attending a French school here in Montreal and I realized the other day that all the teachers are referred to by their first names. Not sure if this is a cultural thing (English vs. French) or if it’s because so many female teachers now have long hyphenated last names (which may complicate things for young kids).
Whenever I visit Japan, I am referred to by others either by my given Japanese name or by my given English name, depending on where in the country I am and on the type of person with whom I am interacting (relative versus non-relative, for the most part).
I also worked for a bit in an office environment in Japan. Japanese employees were referred to by their last names and foreigners (myself included) were referred to by their first names. I wonder if there are any exceptions to this general rule of thumb. (What about university professors, CEOs, and baseball players, for example?)
February 12th, 2008 at 4:31 amBut also in English we say Picasso not Pablo, Schumacher not Michael, Putin not Vladimir. Why I guess is to convey a sense of importance. So if you’re a nobody and someone addresses you by your last name it probably come across as a bit rude, depending on the tone.
February 12th, 2008 at 9:22 am“But also in English we say Picasso not Pablo, Schumacher not Michael, Putin not Vladimir.”
Except, when we refer to these people by their last names, we are doing so in reference to people with whom we are not conversing face-to-face at the moment.
Going slightly off-topic, I notice that many newspaper articles in Japanese will often not mention anywhere in the article what the first name of a non-Japanese person (such as an important foreign dignitary or politician) is (or at most, will give only an initial) where the name is written in katakana and is stated with a title attached (such as “Prime Minister…” or “Company President…”). Just something to note….
February 12th, 2008 at 9:39 amWe have a similar thing in Turkey – when Turks refer to each other by Mr. and Ms., they use first names, e.g. “Mr. Ahmet” and “Ms. Seline.” But if it’s a non-Turk, they use the last name – “Mr. Smith” rather than “Mr. Bob.”
February 12th, 2008 at 4:48 pmWhen I used to go to French Immersion High School, we called our French teachers by their last names, as well as our English teachers.
Course, that may be *so* ‘last century’… .
The real problem for us was when we had a young-ish female French teacher. Everyone would have to sit there and wait for her to introduce herself a couple of times ’cause we didn’t know if we should be calling her ‘Madam X’ or ‘Madamoiselle X’. And the Madamoiselles would all eventually end up being Madams either through marriage or age.
So every fall, we’d have to wait for the French female teachers of a certain age to reintroduce themselves to see if they were still ‘Madamoiselle’ or not.
I’m thinking sticking with first names is the way to go if you actually like your students… .
Oh, and the French stuff doesn’t stick unless you get your kid into the language stuff before high school. I honestly don’t think any of the kids I went to school with would consider themselves ‘bilingual’ after four years of graduating and, God knows whenever I have to take a French placement test, the testers are always confused by how I could have such an extensive vocabulary and such crappy grammar beyond the present, past and future tenses
February 13th, 2008 at 5:20 amUntil recently, many of the students (and teachers!) at the high school where I work thought I had only one name–Rachel, or Reicheru in Romaji. This became an issue when, for the yearbook, I made a correction to the list of teachers’ names and added my family name before my given name. An hour later, the teacher in charge of the yearbook approached my desk in a huff and asked what I was going on about and how dare I correct my name. Even after explaining that Reicheru was my given name and that I indeed had a family name, he left grumpy due to the fact that my clumsy katakana name–made even clumsier by the addition of my family name–mucked up the formatting.
I don’t know exactly why teachers here assumed that I’d be comfortable with them calling me by my first name when they’d never dare do the same to a Japanese co-worker, even one to whom they are particularly close. Having lived here 5 years now (not long compared to some, I realize) and having endured/unwittingly blundered through the rules and regulations governing school office interactions for just as long, I’ve become a little sensitive to the fact that people use my given name when they remember my name at all.
While I agree with Peter that having students call me Rachel (or a close equivalent) brings the students a little closer and makes teaching a bit easier, I wonder if I’m not teaching them bad habits in the future. I am constantly having to remind them that referring to someone of higher status by given name, or calling someone by his or her last name without some sort of a title can be construed as very rude in the U.S. and other countries. Some of my students will undoubtedly go on to work in a field requiring English (that’s the goal of my school) and I cringe to think of what might happen if they cheerfully greet/call their bosses by their given names, title-less.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:17 pm[...] so I added my name to the list, writing ???Peter??? in the katakana writing system that??s generallhttp://japundit.com/archives/2008/02/12/7846/Mailbag: Why is Hill struggling? Chicago CubsMailbag: Why is Hill [...]
May 15th, 2008 at 4:21 am