[Nexxxeh]

>First, not all western names are "English", come on.

Indeed. But the thing that raised by hackles was:

>“Using an English name even though you are not American is a little bit strange. Your name is from your own mother and father.”

America is not where English comes from. I mean I understand that America's influence on South Korea probably can't be overstated.

But that sentence just pushed a button I wasn't aware I had, not least because while I'm British, I'm not English.

[dba7dba]

>I mean I understand that America's influence on South Korea probably can't be overstated.

I would like to point out that every Korean person's name also has Chinese character behind it.

The new president of S Korea is Moon Jae-in Here are his names that were given by his parents, and used in legal documents.

Korean: 문 재인

Hanja: 文 在寅

[ddoolin]

Not every. Actually it's kind of a trend now to give your kids "pure Korean" names with no Chinese character backing. Both of my children are half Korean and live in Korea and their first names bear no Chinese origin. Similarly there's a trend of giving your children a single syllable given name rather than two syllables.

To clarify, the mother of my children and her family are staunchly Korean with one half from 경상도 and the other 전라남도...not particularly raised with extraordinary exposure to foreigners so I was quite surprised when she agreed with the names.

[dba7dba]

Thanks for pointing it out. Like 2 decades ago I knew a guy with 1 syllable name (like Hoon, Yi) which was quite unique. It had been done for a long time but not as common. I guess it is less rare.

Lol 2 families from 경상도 and 전라남도 joined by marriage...

[Waterluvian]

Apologies but I'm trying to learn the hierarchy so I stop insulting my British colleagues.

Being British but not English would make you... Welsh or Irish?

Edit: no! Welsh or Scottish. Ireland is part of the British Isles but but Great Britain.

[signal11]

> Being British but not English would make you...

Or an ethnic minority, for example Mo Farah or Archie Panjabi. As far as I can make out, minorities preferred "British-x" (e.g. British-Asian) as a label rather than English even if they were born in England, although there have been calls for that to change [1].

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jun/23/englis...

[Waterluvian]

Interesting​. I never even considered those as ethnicities. Just places you live and what your demonym is.

[Nexxxeh]

Right, and calling someone English when they're Welsh or Scottish may rather annoy them.

There's an animosity towards the English from the Welsh. I believe the Scottish generally feel the same way towards them. England are like family that we love, but we don't really like very much.

Northern Ireland is a bit of a tricky one because people from Northern Ireland generally consider themselves "Northern Irish", "British" or "Irish".

I don't know if anyone would take offence at "Northern Irish", but you don't want to incorrectly guess either of the others!

[Waterluvian]

Thanks. I imagine it would be like confusing an Australian and a New Zealander. Or a Canadian and an American. We're just so darn similar that it's so important to us to be considered distinct.

Also makes me think about Quebec. Canada would not be Canada without Quebec. But there's always been some sibling rivalry with the province.

Finally, while this isn't Reddit and I have to learn to be more metered about my silliness, I just can't help but include this, as it's quite relevant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2q0T7QXETs