Tuesday, May 17, 2005

PANDA NAMES

Lilian, who has the extraordinary power to make my stomach growl many a time with her Penang Faces photos, was a bit-bit surprised that I was using my real name and not a pen name.

My dad was never formally schooled.

Me thinks, he just mumbled my Chinese name to the clerk at the other side of the counter.

Am now suffering from the consequences...

That spell checker never fail to prompt if I am 'Long', 'Prong' or 'Wrong'.

Duh!!!

I have a good friend from primary school whose name is 'Torng'.

Try beating that...

Then, there were five sisters at my village.

Four of them share the same name... 'Hong Ah Moi'.

The clerk purportedly asked their father each time he came to report a birth; 'Ah Moi? Ah Moi?', intending to inquire if the child was a girl.

And the father nodded and nodded...

And, ever wonder why pandas are usually labeled with double sounding names?

Ming Ming... Bong Bong... or Toing Toing...

While not a panda, I recall reading about a certain Dr. George George in Malaysia.

And, surely, a certain Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the foreign minister of the interim Afghan government.

Many Myanmarese have double sounding names too...

Maung Maung... Lwin Lwin... and so on...

I once knew a cool Myanmarese guy by the name of Tun Tun.

I told him to migrate to Malaysia.

He'd instantly be almost royalty...

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous5/17/2005

    hahaha, funny but hv character. i hv a fren whose name has an S at its back, cool huh? Tan Ching Thens

    ktix

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  2. Your name actually looks like a mispelling for Lorong!

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  3. Say what you like, It's a unique name.Lrong. Mmmmm and nobody has it.Cheers!!!

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  4. Hahaha, you are so farneee Wrong, Long, Lrong! I heard of Dr Georgex2 too, I think one of those Highland Towers residence.

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  5. so how actually to pronounce your name ? lrong ? rong ?

    well. i have a double sounding nickname 'pat pat'

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  6. Anonymous5/17/2005

    dude, 1 thing for sure, i find it xtremely french as that's what hits me. u know, first intuition is often genuine?
    lrong = laurent, believe me, in my previous office, laurent is pronouced exactly like lrong.

    ktix

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  7. ktix... what to do with such an 's' ah? Did he drop it?
    Yeap, actually, I used to have a French friend called 'Laurent'. That luckheee sanabagaan married one of the prettiest Indonesian girls I have ever seen...

    Colin... actually many of my school teachers in college (mis)pronounced my name that way...

    thquah... thank you, man... so far, haven't met any donkey with that name yet...

    5xmom... I sometimes ponder why the pen-name, '5xmom'... Could it be that...???

    Pat Pat... pronounced as 'Wrong', the opposite of 'Right'... some Japanese like to call me 'Long-san' and I always reply 'not really, only six inches'...

    Cherry... a guy by the name of Teoh loves fishing but usually catch no fish... so, a friend of his said he should name his next son, 'Teoh Boh Hoo' ('Catch No Fish', in Hokkien)

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  8. mudskipper... sounds rather vulgar in Hokkien, but maybe sounds better in Cantonese?

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  9. Anonymous5/18/2005

    In primary school, we used to call each other by surname, Tan, Ng, Lim, Lee etc.
    So, I had a introductory coversation in Cantonese with a newfound classmate. He said in Cantonese, "Ngo Hai Ngo" (I am me), I thought he was pulling my leg. Turned out his surname is Ngo.

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  10. "Not really, only six-inches"

    Muahahahahahhahah!!!!!

    So how did the Japanese replied you then? :P

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  11. Lisa... in my funny dialect which is a cross between hakka and cantonese, I think, my missus noted that we use a lot of 'ng' sounds... would like to give some examples, but don't know how alphabetize them leh...

    fish fish... most don't get the meaning... but one challenged me to prove it... too shy lah, so escaped quietly with my tail tucked in between my legs loh...

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