Asian students with weternised names...

[ZachCharge]

Again, my Japanese seminar.

Teacher (reading out the roll):
chinese name
chinese name
chinese name
jack
chinese name
chinese name
chinese name
mike
etc

More like;

Teacher: Time for roll, correct me if I pronounced your name wrong. (Chinese name)
Kid: No its (chinese name correct)
Teacher: Sorry...okay (Chinese name)?
Kid: No its (chinese name correct)
Teacher: Zacurry?
Me: I'm Zach...

(partly true story.....I fail)

[drageur]

   someone i knew from Hong Kong called himself Blackie 

[appianway]

I know people that have western names on their birth certificates, but have opted to be known by an asian name. Perhaps it's because they simply hated the name that their parents had initially chosen...

[wombifat]

Again, my Japanese seminar.

Teacher (reading out the roll):
chinese name
chinese name
chinese name
jack
chinese name
chinese name
chinese name
mike
etc

More like;

Teacher: Time for roll, correct me if I pronounced your name wrong. (Chinese name)
Kid: No its (chinese name correct)
Teacher: Sorry...okay (Chinese name)?
Kid: No its (chinese name correct)
Teacher: Zacurry?
Me: I'm Zach...

(partly true story.....I fail)

that happens at my school SO much

teacher: upunga?
student: upugna
teacher: upunga
student: upugna

etc.

its very funny:P

and yeah I have friends who just go by nicknames because nobody can pronounce their name properly

[kryptonate]

Can't they choose simply Chinese/Asian names like Lee, Chen, Wao, Juan, Lian etc etc etc?

[shinny]

...Juan

Isn't that like...Spanish or something? LOL

But like others have said, it's for convenience purposes and even often to avoid discrimination.

[BiG DaN]

Yeah, I really don't understand why Asians do that. It's as if they are ashamed of their culture. At uni they ask me to call the names like Fred, Gabriel, John etc :/

If I introduced myself to you as Maoyuan Liu, what would your reaction be?

"Whhaaaaa?"

And then consider my reaction when I hear your attempt of 'May-ou-eww-an Lee-eww' (which is completely wrong btw).

But luckily, most people can pronounce 'Mao' due to my infamous alternate ego, otherwise I would have been 'Chris' or 'Peter'.

lol is it
M A O (Mayo)
or
Mow (like cow)

[ZachCharge]

Mow like cow? For a second there, I thought you meant a nice healthy "moooooooo" like a cow mooing.

[Fyrefly]

Again, my Japanese seminar.

Teacher (reading out the roll):
chinese name
chinese name
chinese name
jack
chinese name
chinese name
chinese name
mike
etc

Same, same.
There are about 5 ppl with the surname 'Chen' in my Jap tute alone.

And to answer the original Q... there's rarely a correlation.

Some names in use:

Christine
Luke
Mark
Vivian
Susan
Matt
Venus
Angel
Simon
John
Erica (easy 4 her Jap parents 2 say)
Joanna

Simon was a guy who assured us his name was Simon, bcoz none of us could pronounce his Chinese name.

When I g2 Japan, I'll probably pick a Japanese name for myself - my name is littered with sounds that aren't found in Japanese.
My middle name is close enuf 2 being pronounceable, but it isn't really a name I'd like to go by.
I'd like to choose carefully though and have a think about it, not jst pick some random name.

[kryptonate]

lol seems like everyone is choosing there own names, I wonder what ever happened to sticking with name your parents gave you.

[cobby]

I know a lot of cultural Indian names are made more westernised..
Jassminda - Jasmine

There are a lot more i just cant think of them atm

[ryley]

There's a chinese girl who's been in my maths class for 4 years, I only found out the other day that she goes by an preferred name(her birth name is, in total, 4 letters!). I asked jokingly if I could call her by her birth/home name because its shorter, she said no, but to be fair, I could choose a preferred name of my own, even though both me and my name are very anglo, and I gotta say, funkhouser is pretty tempting...