Name Calling

At my current place of employment 6 out the 120+ staff speak English with any confidence.

Of those remaining staff some speak a very small amount of English. The rest know how to say “Good Morning”, much like I know how to say “Ni Hao”. Those who can speak even a little English though will usually adopt an English name. Most will choose a very common English name, like Eric or Amy, or Kevin or Judy. 

My favourites so far have been Queenie and Dream, which was apparently chosen for her by her boyfriend at the time. Smooth. So, in the interest of embracing my time here with as much vigor as possible, it has been suggested that I now adopt a Chinese name. Ving Vong was floated as a possibility by an Australian work colleague back home, however the final decision has been made and from now on I will be known as Bao Bei (pronounced bow bay). 

Basically it’s a Chinese interpretation of my surname. From what I’ve been told Bao Bei is an affectionate term meaning ‘precious’ or ‘treasure’ or ‘baby’. So it’s appropriate then that even before acquiring this name the staff in my new office actually thought that my name was in fact, Vaughan Baby. 

So far I’ve used my new pseudonym to signed up to play basketball with some of the guys from the office and hopefully next week I can get some business cards made up. At the very least, all my new work colleagues think I have a very nice name.