What's Your Name?

This year, I've been trying really hard to remember my student's names. I'd estimate at the time of this writing that I teach over 300 students at a normal enough interval that I feel learning their names is a serious priority, so I'm not including some of the 1st-4th graders at the elementary schools that I only teach occasionally in this number. Obviously the first great hurdle for me is the sheer number of students I have. This is exacerbated by the fact that many of my classes are quite erratic in terms of when I visit them. Sadly, in the grand scheme of things, English is seen as something easily dismissed. There are many weeks when I'm not given the opportunity to teach at one school or another and thus miss precious face time with the children.

Another difficulty is the names themselves. Obviously, Japanese and American names share little, if anything, in common (though I have remembered a few like Sarina by thinking of the name Selina). Japanese, being a syllabary language, has a far greater tendency to have names that are very close, or identical in spelling. For instance, I have three Sayakas and two Moes in the same grade. Identical names actually make things easy, it's the names that are close but not quite identical that really give me problems. I have Miku and Mika, Natsumi and Natsuki, Mai and Mei, and Ruri and Riru. And don't even get me started on the class that has Kana and Kanna. This doesn't really pose a problem to native speakers, because they're familiar with the subtle differences between sounds in the language and can differentiate identical sounding names based on the kanji that they're composed of, which is often completely different.

An astute reader may have noticed by now that all the names mentioned up to this point have been girls' names. While this may be indicative of my tendency to be more comfortable around girls, probably a result of being raised by my three older sisters and my mom, there seems to be some truth to the notion that boys' names are just plain harder, as Amanda would no doubt attest. Male names tend to be longer, usually comprised of three kanji as opposed to two for most girls names. They also seem to be more varied. Many girls names have the kanji 美 (mi) and 子 (ko) meaning beautiful and child respectively. Many times names are reflections of traits the parents hope the child has, and who doesn't want a beautiful child? Also the kanji 沙 (sa) is really popular in my area. I have no idea what it means because it's not part of the Joyo kanji list, the 1945 kanji taught in schools that I am trying to learn. Anyway, my point is boys tend to have a wider variety of kanji. I suppose ultimately the traits sought by parents are more varied in males, given that Japan still is predominately a male dominated culture and thus more is likely expected from them. And don't misunderstand, I do know a few of my boys names, but they tend to be the shorter ones like Daiki, Yuki, Kaito, and Akio. When last I tried to comprise a list of junior high students' names off the top of my head, however, I came up with 66 girls and 3 boys.

I am making considerable progress though. When I first wrote this entry in my journal, I could name about forty students. The list I made a few weeks ago consisted of 69 junior high students and about 100 students overall. Now, I imagine those numbers are hovering around 85 and 130. As I mentioned in a previous post, the downside to all of this is the knowledge that some, if not all, of the connections I'm making by learning about my students will be ending next year. I intend on giving my students my email as a graduating/parting gift from me and I hope they'll keep in touch, but I also realize many of them won't. Reflecting on this has also made me realize howlittle I've tried to keep in touch with those teachers who touched my life, and inspired me to try and rectify that.