What’s in a Name?

I’ve lost my superpower - is language to blame?

Reflections…on names | LNBolin

I had a superpower once. It was remembering names - super handy if you’re a teacher!

I remember the first time it was really ‘on show’. I was in the second year of my teaching qualification - a part-timer and mature-age student. I’d arrived early at the first tutorial for English pedagogy (I was probably glad to have a few hours to myself, away from my adorable kids aged 1 and 5). As each student came in, the tutor greeted them and asked their name. As I was early, I listened and watched as they introduced themselves. People-watching has always been a favourite pastime.

After about 35 people arrived and sat down in a big circle, our tutor introduced himself and explained how important it is to remember people’s names. He then asked if anyone would like to try to recall other class members. I put up my hand.

It was then I began to recite everyone’s names. By the time I was halfway around the group I could see people with their mouths open! There were two people whose names I hadn’t heard because the person sitting next to me had spoken to me as they’d sat down. But all the others I’d remembered. To be honest, it was like I’d channeled some memory savant that day - and it certainly stuck in people’s minds because all that year, other students would come up to me and say “you’re the one who remembers names!”

I’d found a superpower! During my teaching career in Australia, it worked really well. Every time I had a new class I’d make sure I’d remember their names by the end. There are lots of tricks and tips you can use to do it - clothing, hair colour, face shape - connecting it to the name, repeating it. That sort of thing. Students were usually quite impressed, even if they didn’t let on (in that way teens have!).

Sadly, since moving here, I seem to have lost my superpower!

Has my superpower simply disappeared? If so, where did it go? Or is there something else going on?

As a relief teacher, it’s really helpful to learn names quickly. There’s power in knowing names. It means being seen - perhaps when you don’t want to be seen passing notes to your friend in the back row!

So why has my name recollection ability abandoned me?

I think it has very much to do with the fact that I’m operating in another language. My brain is often preoccupied with understanding everything else that’s going on - new environments and ways of doing things - very different from what I’m used to. Communication in your native language comes easily - you don’t really have to think about it (and when you do think, it’s in that language!). Communicating in a language I’ve learned later in life is perhaps more challenging for my brain so my useful superpower lies dormant, waiting for me to become more masterful. (One can hope!)

What’s your name again?

One thing I’ve found living here that perhaps makes it harder for my name-recollection superpower is that many of the names are so very similar - and different. What do I mean? Well, the names are different from names in Australia and they’re also very similar. Here’s an example:

Algot, Albin, Alvin, Ainor, Alva, Elgot, Elbin, Elmer, Vilja, Vilgot, Vilmot, Vidar, Wilma, Wille.

For me, they’re not names I’ve really come across in Australia. We have a wide range of names there, from all different cultures, but I’ve never had any students with these names. The pronunciation is different too - ‘w’ is the same as ‘v’, and ‘j’ is soft and more like a ‘y’ in English. My superpower just short circuits when I come across these names.

Then there are variations on the same name, for example;

Ann, Anna, Anne (with the ‘e’ pronounced), Ann-Louise, Ann-Katrin, Anna-Karin, Anna-Lena.

These are colleagues’ names at one school! It’s taken me four years to wrap my head around which name belongs to which person (granted, I don’t work at the school full-time, moving to other schools with an equally long list of similar and different names).

Adding surnames doesn’t help much. The most popular surnames here are Karlsson, Eriksson, and Johansson. Then there are similar-sounding names like Wiklund, Wiklöf, and Wikström. Sure, they look different but when I hear them spoken my brain just finds it hard to make them stick.

Luckily I’m also good at remembering faces so I can often apologise to students for not remembering their names, hoping that it’ll stick.

Patience

Time is often what’s needed for things that we’ve lost to return. Patience. In a busy world, we can sometimes forget that there is often an ebb and flow in life that we don’t always have control over. Moving country, culture, and language has challenged me in ways I never expected, so the loss of something small, like my name-recollection ability, is something I’ve just had to come to terms with. If I wait, maybe it will return… I’m already seeing small signs after five years of living here.

Until then, I’ll keep drinking in the names, swirling them around in my mouth, pronouncing them in my mind, testing them out when they leap into my head after seeing a face I know. Maybe, with time, I can reclaim my superpower.

Stay well,

Lisa x

---

I’m reading

Fiction: The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell. A gothic novel, entirely appropriate to read during Halloween and the approaching winter.

Non-Fiction: A Swedish book called Skifta Skinn: Främlingskap, Kultur, Rasism (Changing Skin: Alienation, Culture and Racism) by Thomas Petersson. He asks many questions of Swedish society, including ‘how open-minded can we become?’ One of his adoptive sons from Madagascar tells his parents of an intense year of bullying, racism, and hate in the same week George Floyd is killed in America. This book not only tells his family’s story but challenges the reader to ask just how open-minded and accepting Swedish society can be.

I’m writing

I’ve been taking photos and writing a kind of photo diary in a publication on Medium. Here’s a friend link to my latest: Autumn Wandering and Blue Skies

I’m participating in my first National Novel Writing Month - a terrifying yet (apparently) highly satisfying month where people crazy enough to join, write a novel. Wish me luck!