Friday, September 11, 2009

IDEA: Write names of Taiwanese people in English newspapers and name cards in Western style, First Name then Last Name, so ''Ying-Jeou Ma''...

Hi,

RE:

IDEA: Write names of Taiwanese people in English newspapers and name cards in Western style, First Name then Last Name, so ''Ying-Jeou Ma''...

For me, I always use the
Western style when I need to express my name.

After reading your email, I linked to Taipei Times and also BBC news.
Oh, they really use ``family name first'' style for Taiwanese, while
Western style is used for Japanese.

Yes, I support your opinion. Actually, I think Taiwan should learn
more things from Japan, especially how they've been ``westernized,''
to make our own a moderner nation. Also, if Taiwanese want to be more
internationalized, it's reasonable to follow the Western way to let
people who know English have no problem to identify our names.

I have no idea how many Taiwanese will support this idea, but I think
it's a nice one.


Hiankun

=========================

Dan,

Actually a lot of people here in Taiwan already write their names on
their business cards with the surname last, in Western style,.....

Many years ago, when Ma Ying-jeou was between government posts and
doing university teaching, I tried to contact him for an interview,
couldn't reach him, and left a message. The next day he called back
and said "This is Ying-jeou Ma." It took me a few seconds to figure
out who was on the line -- rather embarrassing.

XXXXX, an american businessman in Taipei, longtime expat

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