A New Identity: I Have Two Names.

Many international students at OCU have English names, and it seems that they have them for different reasons: for native speakers who ‘can not’ pronunciate their native names and for creating a new identity when they speak a new language. However, some language learners say it is funny to have another name. It depends on the person.

As a matter of fact, a new name means a new identity, speaking a new language. If you have ever tried to learn a foreign language, you might understand how difficult it is to learn a different language. As a Korean who grew up only speaking my native language, it was not easy to learn English, which has a totally different character and sound system. Now, as an English learner who keeps making an effort to be a good English speaker, I would like to say that I call myself Hyejung and Ellie. I have two names: Hyejung, my Korean name and Ellie, my English name.

When I had my very first English conversation class about ten years ago, the native English teacher asked the students to think about an English name. Since I had not thought about an English name- a NEW name - I did not know what I should name myself. Many of my friends had an English name which started with the same consonant of their Korean name. Instead, I wanted to think about my character and who I am as a person. I got an idea when my friend told me I was just like Alice from Alice in Wonderland, who is full of curiosity. I agreed and I picked up the name, but I wanted to make it shorter and sound like two syllables because “Alice” pronounced in Korean is three syllables. I also changed Alice to Ellie because it was the name of my favorite cartoon character at that time.

Sometimes my friends would change their name after a while because they didn’t like it anymore; however, I thought it was strange to change the name because it was a ‘name’ not a ‘nickname’. The more people called me Ellie, the more I developed my new identity. I have been called solely Ellie for about ten years. Now, even many of my Korean friends call me Ellie. Do you also feel like it is YOU when you are called by the new name? Whether it is your ‘original’ name or your ‘new’ name, if you do feel it is you, it is you!

Ellie Kim
TESOL Graduate Student
MSA E-Newsletter Coordinator