Identity

You aren’t just “Someone”

/ edebock / 2 Comments

For the past while, almost everyone who has left a comment on my blog has been identified as either “Someone” or “Anonymous”. This bothered me because each and every one of you is important to me. I want to know who you are and I want to be able to address you by name when I reply.

It took me longer than it should have to figure out what the problem was, but I think (I hope) that it’s now been resolved. It appears that something in my settings had been inadvertently changed and commenters were no longer being asked to identify themselves by name and email address. Without that information, WordPress simply calls you “Someone” or “Anonymous”.

There are several valid reasons for asking commenters to identify themselves and leave their email addresses. The biggest concern is that requiring less information makes it extremely easy for spam bots to leave comments and almost impossible to filter them out. This can become a nightmare for a blogger.

I know that some of you might be hesitant about leaving your email addresses and given the number of cyber security issues that one hears about these days, I can hardly blame you. I want to assure you, however, that your email address will not be shared with anyone other than myself and that you will not receive any unsolicited emails. If you’re uncomfortable giving your full name, please feel free to use your first name only or even a nickname if you prefer.

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Happy Birthday, Canada!

/ edebock / 7 Comments

Can150intro

As Canada celebrates it’s 150th birthday today, I can’t help but reflect how blessed I am to have been born in such a country.

Canada is a country of amazing diversity. We have oceans (3 of them!), mountains, forests, and wide open prairies. We have an abundance of natural resources and unlike much of the world, we have pure, clean drinking water.

With the exception of our First Nations and Inuit people, we are all descendants of newcomers to this land; people who came dreaming of a better life and who were willing to work hard to achieve it. We still see that in our recent waves of immigrants and refugees. We are truly an international country. In fact, one in five Canadians is foreign born! Learning to live together in spite of our differences isn’t always easy and many people have mixed feelings about topics like immigration and integration, but we pull together when times are tough, we help one another, and we do it with pride because that’s what being Canadian is all about. We are known for our kindness and generosity, our open mindedness, and our optimism.

According to the 2016 Global Peace Index, Canada ranks among the ten safest countries in the world. Though I don’t think too highly of the man-child that we elected as our present Prime Minister or the policies put forth by his government, I don’t have to look very far beyond our borders to see so much worse.

For me, especially in recent years, one of the greatest benefits of being Canadian is our publicly funded health care. I have absolutely no idea how much my care has cost since I was diagnosed with first one cancer and then another, but I have no doubt that by now I’m a million dollar girl! Amazingly, it hasn’t cost me a cent! Even the money we spend on gas, meals and parking for our many trips to the city for tests, appointments and treatments is tax deductible.

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Our taxes are high. In fact, most Canadians pay close to 50% of their incomes in taxes of one kind or another, but in addition to world class health care, we get a lot for our tax dollars. We tend to take the twelve years of free public education available to every Canadian for granted, not to mention other social programs such as unemployment insurance and old age pensions.

Sure, we do have long, cold winters, but I try not to think about that at this time of year!

Happy Birthday, Canada!

 

Linda, Kate and Cheryl

/ edebock / 5 Comments

The first thing a student does when they enrol in one of our English courses is adopt an English name. I’m not completely comfortable with the idea of asking them to give up such an integral part of their identity as their real name but it certainly does make life easier for us. Many of their Chinese names are virtually impossible for us to pronounce. I’m going to have a hard enough time remembering everyone’s English names let alone trying to learn those!

Though most of the students choose fairly traditional names, there are some unusual ones as well. I have a Dragon in one of my classes and Richard teaches a girl who calls herself Memory.

We came on staff at the beginning of the second semester so most of our students already had English names but a few new ones have enrolled this term. At the beginning of last night’s class, one of the office staff showed up at the classroom door with two new recruits. Please help them choose English names, she asked.

Richard and I always had trouble choosing girls’ names. We could have named several sons without any difficulty but, in both cases, it took us the better part of nine months to choose names for our daughters. I didn’t have nine months last night! Twenty-five other students were waiting expectantly for class to begin and I had two beautiful young girls to name!

I looked at their Chinese names, hoping to come up with something remotely similar. Written in Pinyin (the system used to write Chinese words using the Roman alphabet), the first girl was called Liiiao. I suggested Lee, Leah, Lynn or Linda. She chose my sister’s name, Linda. Yuqing was more difficult. Off the top of my head, I couldn’t think of a single English name that was anywhere close to that so I started reciting the first names that came to mind that weren’t already on the class list. She chose Kate. At some point, perhaps I’ll have the opportunity to explain to her that Kate is the name of a popular English princess. I think she’d like that.

Today, while Richard and I were in the office prepping for upcoming classes another new student arrived on the scene. Since she’ll be in one of Richard’s classes, he was given the honour of naming her. Having been privy to some of the names he suggested for our daughters in bygone years, I jumped in to help! Fortunately, there’s also a book in the office that includes a list of English names. Again, I suggested that we look for one that was somewhat similar to her Chinese name, Shuying. Richard suggested Cheryl which she quickly agreed to. I think she was beyond nervous and simply wanted to get the enrolment process over with! I hope she actually likes her name.

Perhaps before we leave here, I should turn the tables and ask my students to give me a Chinese name. I wonder what they’d choose?