Gender Ambiguous Names
By Megumi Imai
Hi ! I never think of writing so often. It is nice experience for me.
Darrell Clarke wrote:
> I thought I would mention in passing, that from my experience, "Megumi"
> is a lady's name in Japan.
In Japan recently "Megumi" is considered by many people as a lady's name. But it is not right. More than 50 years ago there were only little ladies named "Megumi", but some men named "Megumi". I know some men whose name is Megumi.
And I am not a lady.
I am a piano tuner. I have my small workshop. There I repair pianos. About 20 years ago, some one who lived in Kobe purchased 3 automatic pianos in Germany. But he found that they didn't work at all when they were brought into his house. He asked me to introduce someone to fix them. But I couldn't. I didn't know anyone to fix them.
It was the reason why I came to repair automatic pianos. I knew nothing of them. Automatic pianos were very rare in Japan. It was the first time that I had seen one. I didn't even know the fact that there were automatic pianos in the world !
I have no manual or material. It was hard work but it was pleasure.
Good bye for new.
(Please correct my English. I'm studying and writing this very hard.)
[ Editor's note:
[
[ I've made minor adjustments to the text above. However, Megumi
[ can be proud of how easy his writing is to understand.
[
[ Every letter we receive by a person who's native language
[ is not English makes me very self-conscious about poor my own
[ non-English language skills (French, Spanish) are. My thanks
[ to Megumi and others who take the trouble to write to
[ us coherently in a language other than their native one.
[
[ Jody
*****************************
Megumi Imai
cresc@alles.or.jp
http://www.alles.or.jp/~cresc
(I'm sorry but Japanese site only, now.)
Kobe, Japan
*****************************
[ Editor's Note:
[
[ There are a number of Digest subscribers with "gender ambiguous names".
[ Name usage changes with time. Jody was a popular nickname for a boy
[ in the deep south (U.S.). I figured that after President Jimmy Carter's
[ term in office, people would have figured that out. His male press
[ secretary's name was "Jody Powell". No such luck. Many people
[ still are confused. By current usage, some names are very confusing.
[ Consider male actor Carroll O'Connor. Two r's and two l's, but pronounced
[ the same as Carol.
[
[ Gender ambiguous names are surprisingly common. In college I dated 3
[ different women with gender ambiguous names (Gayle, Daryl, and Ev).
[ It was sometimes hilarious to observe the confusion at parties, when
[ introductions were being done. Which name went with which person ?
[ No one could ever remember...
[
[ Jody
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(Message sent Wed 2 Apr 1997, 20:40:50 GMT, from time zone GMT+0900.) |
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