[JustWrite] 12. My Name Is

I : My name is Ahhyeon Lee.

He/She : Ehmmmmm Sorry, Ah… what?

I: Ah hyeon, like Hyun in Hyundai.

He/She : Oh!! Hyundai! So your name is Ah… I’m so sorry.

After several moments like this, I decided to come up with my nickname, an easy name that doesn’t make people say “What?” or “Ehm….” or “Sorry…”. A name that sounded similar to my Korean name so it wouldn’t feel too different.

Lee + Ah = Lia! That’s it! Simple, easy and no one has to double-check the pronunciation. Koreans put last name first and first name follows. So my name is Lee Ahhyeon in Korean way. I decided to use my last name and the first syllable of the first name.

Mostly Korean last names are one syllable such as Lee(이), Park(박), Kim(김), So(소), Seo(서, looks like two syllables but it actually sounds more like Saw). And first names are usually two syllables. So most of Korean names are three syllables and three chunk of letters like 이(Lee) 아(Ah) 현(Hyeon).

I didn’t want to torture people coming up with the right sound to call my name correctly because it is challenging. I felt the same way when I tried to say names that are not familiar to me. I met people from all around the world in Pasadena, and whenever I tried to pronounce Dutch name and Indian names, I mostly had trouble and needed much more practice than other names. No offense but it was just the fact that I was not used to those letter combination and I totally understand how people would be puzzled, facing my name.

I don’t feel bad about using my nick name ‘Lia’ at all. Ahhyeon is me and Lia as well. It’s just a helpful way to make friends because it’s easy to remember.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash