Sunday, September 20, 2009

你的英文名字 可以「更」台灣

拜讀日昨「自由廣場」〈你的英文名字 可以很台灣〉一文,深切感受到兩位作者抛磚引玉的用心,不才雖無玉可呈,也膽敢抱野人獻曝之誠,希望大家的英文名字,可以「更」台灣。


按兩位作者建議台灣人借鏡日本人的姓名譯寫風格,似乎沒注意到日本人的所謂「英文」名字,其實都是日本人自己的「母語」拼音,諸如Junichiro Koizumi(小泉純一郎)、Yukio Hatoyama(鳩山由紀夫)等,因此,不才呼籲台灣人也能學習用自己的「母語」(Holo語、客語,以及Pangcah、Puyuma、Cou等等原住民語)來拼寫自己的姓名,這不僅符合日本人的作法,其實也是東亞各國的普遍做法,是十分具有國際觀、又尊重己身文化傳承與族群認同的。


舉例來說:新加坡現任教育部長黃永宏,他的姓名拼音是福建話的Ng Eng Hen,新加坡現任衛生部長許文遠,也使用其母語福建話拼寫姓名為Khaw Boon Wan,天王劉德華的姓名拼音是廣東話發音的Lau Tak Wah、香港特首曾蔭權也用母語廣東話拼寫自己姓名為Tsang Yam-Kuen,韓國總統李明博這三個漢字,用的是他的母語韓文的發音Lee Myung Bak、師奶殺手男星裴勇俊的姓名拼音也是母語韓文的Bae Yong-jun,觀察東亞各國,不論日、韓、星、港、馬等地的人名,一樣的漢字姓名,卻是以自身的母語發音拼寫為潮流,這通例是再明白不過的了。


台灣的前任總統 陳水扁的母語是Holo話,如果順應國際上的做法,理應拼寫為Tan Tsui-pinn,而不是大家習見的Chen Shui-bian,而現任立法院長王金平的姓名拼音,也該是Ong Kim-ping,這麼做,才是最具國際觀的「英文姓名」。


台灣人如果放眼國際、釘根本土,相信台灣人的「英文姓名」,絕對可以「更」台灣,而不會只有僅僅在連字符的有無上,和中華人民共和國的姓名拼寫做出區隔而已,你,是否準備好了要讓自己的「英文」名字「更」台灣了呢?

4 comments:

Terry said...

Dear Seng-hian,

Thank you very much for your quick response to our article/Libertytimes 2009/9/20. Biko & I were actually planning to write what you posted today, but indeed, it is much better for somebody like you to post.

Our gratitude once again.

Terry & Biko
Writers of 你的英文名字可以很台灣

taiwan77 said...

Dear Seng-hian,

Thank you very much for your quick response to our article in the Liberty Times on 2009/9/20. Terry Huang and I were actually planning to write what you posted today, but indeed, it is much better for somebody like you to post.

Our gratitude once again.

Biko and Terry
Co-writers of ''你的英文名字可以很台灣''

XingyiReporter said...

Terry and Biko,

Thank you. Actually it's you who offered such a chance by your article for people in Taiwan to rethink the right of name.

Cheers,

Seng-hian

Terry said...

This graduate student uses phoenic system adopted by SherDa (my alma mater), which I don;t think is as exact as the Presbyterian church Holo phoenic system. For example,
President should be Tan Chui-bin (last n indicate nasal pronumciation of the preceeding letters)

My name in church was pronuunced, Ong Bi-cheng. Sadly, in mandarin became: Wang Mei-chen. Chen could be 陳, or many other words. Bad system.

Thanks for sharing, Terry. Hope you like my fruity head!
Chris