waterloo: names

I admit I am not good with names.

During my practicum in the Philippines and during my one year teaching stint in China, I didn’t bother remembering the names of all my pupils. Having 50 children in a class and having at least four classes a day made it almost impossible to remember everybody. I believe it is but normal for a teacher who is in similar situation not to remember each pupil in her/his class.

Back in the Philippines, I was able to remember some names and usually they belong to the best and the worst pupils. I don’t play favorites or undesirables but those who stand out in the class i.e.; those who are probably too weird, too smart, too slow, etc. for my taste, usually find a way to my long term memory.

In China, it was simply IMPOSSIBLE. First and foremost, they have Chinese names that are too difficult to pronounce and remember. And if they decided to adopt English names (solely for the English teacher’s benefit or it could also be because they can’t have their Chinese names mispronounced over and over again), be prepared to have five Marys, about seven Johns, nine Adams, and 15 Lucys in the class. Also, I don’t know it if just me or it’s a common phenomena to all foreign teachers in China, but it’s like all Chinese children look alike. Imagine going in a classroom and doubting whether you already had this class or not because you look at their faces and they just look like those who were in your previous class but you are definitely in a different classroom. Get it? This happened to me a lot of times in China.

Here in Austria, not remembering ALL of your pupils’ names is a CRIME. Having a minimal number of pupils in a class, teachers here are sort of expected to remember each pupil—not for life but at least for the whole school year.

The biggest class I have is the one with nine pupils and although I know based from experience—not just with pupils but also with acquaintances— that I am bad with names, I haven’t yet failed to remember my pupils’ names. This could be because of their minimal number but I think the biggest factor there is the fact that kids here look so different from each other. Some have blond hair, some have green eyes, etc. The diversity is just so wide. And also, some names are quite striking for me—Birgit, Chonger, Hani, Karin, Jens (Yens), Walter (Val-ter), Georg (Gay-org). Names like those are not too easy to forget.