I have long wondered how Asian people that learn English acquire an English name to identify themselves with westerners. Was this name something they were given from birth by their parents? Was it picked randomly by the individual Asian person? Was it the handiwork of an English teacher that did not want to spend significant time learning to say “Kim Eun Suk” and learning to call the student “Eun Suk”? The answer, as I witnessed firsthand on day one of the kindergarten term at my school, is yes.
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