As the school term winds down here and a flurry of final papers that need to be graded descends upon me, I've noticed that the most creative bit of writing that I'll ever see from my students doesn't really occur in the essay proper. Instead, it's tucked away, in the top left-hand corner of every paper, right after the heading "Instructor: ..."
I've been named a good many things in these past two years. The obvious mispellings still occur even after I've been with a class for the entire semester. The most common are the relatively basic additions or changes that remind the teacher that he's got his own name spelt wrongly and that there is a better way to spell it. To these students, I'm either "Gari Lim" or "Garry Lim", depending on their dislike for "y"s or penchant for "r"s. Then, there are the students who refuse to believe that my name is indeed a two-syllable word and insist on transforming it into a comment on my personality or outlook on life. To them, I'm "Gray Lim". Others decide that I'm really quite a jolly chap. Either that or they insist taking our class discussions about sexual identity one step further by calling my declared heterosexuality into question and labelling me "Gay Lim". Just last week, one student insisted that "Gary" was much too common for her tastes and opted for a version that put me right in the middle of the 18th century, parasols and a Jane Austen novel: "Garrick Lim".
My last name has come under assault as well. Some students, probably after a nasty case of food poisoning in Chinatown or an unpleasant run-in with Canal street touts, rather not have a Chinese teacher teach them English. To them, I'm Korean and "Gary Kim". The most subtle substitution so far has been a powerful indictment of the meaningless and arbitrary conventions with which we phoneticize Mandarin names with the latin alphabet: "Gary Lym".
And today, I received a paper that just took the cake. I haven't really worked out what this student was thinking, but hey, I'm open to suggestions:
1 comment:
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