Kim, Kim, Kim, Kim

 

This week, our class mainly focused on two pieces that were significant to culture and scrutinized key selections such as language and mood. The first writing, the “F Word” by Dumas, highlighted how being multifaceted in your identity proved to be ineffective and rather a disadvantage through the specific challenges she faced because of her name. The disguised motive that Dumas planted was the notion of just being yourself, ignoring external factors and implications that distract you from it. Dumas switched her name countlessly, but chose to stick with her forename, proud of her ethnic and cultural background. Right before changing back to her forename the very last time, she gave herself the name “Julie.” This was primarily for the comfort of herself and others, easy to pronounce and common. She ascertained that when changing her name to something prosaic, weirdly but understandably, more job interviewers were interested in her. Simultaneously both good and bad, sadly, this is the true nature of our society today. Like Dumas, I came from a country where names aren’t the shortest or easiest to pronounce. In South Korea, instead of using individual letters, words are composed and best explained through the conflation of syllable blocks. Each name is usually a combination of 3 “blocks,” with some exceptions such as 2 and 4 blocks. The first block, when reading in Korean literature, is the surname, or the last name of an individual. When reading in English however, this is flipped with a surname at the very end (In Korean my name would be Cho Daniel, instead of Daniel Cho). The surnames are limited, roughly 200, with surnames such as Kim, Park, and Lee being the most common. In the 2022 world cup, whoever commentated Korea's game was literally going through hell, because all 4 defensive players were named Kim, which coerced them to learn the long, and hard first names. Because most Koreans have first names consisting of 2 syllable blocks, they’re often mispronounced due to the unfamiliarity of such names. However, unlike Dumas, I’ve noticed that we, Koreans, have pride in our names, and pride in our country. Although it may be embarrassing when you always have to correct everyone, it’s worth representing my culture.


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