How Ryan Became Stony

I'm never myself in Korea.

Ryan becomes "La-ee-eon" in Korean (because Korean's generally can't pronounce my name). La-ee-eon becomes "lion" with my kids because they know enough English to make jokes. And then, lion get's translated into Korean and I become "Sa-ja" (lion in Korean).

I used to fight it. I used to stop and make them pronounce my name correctly, but now I just don't care. Sometimes I even introduce myself as Saja. That's just life.

But Saja isn't exactly a Korean name. It's a Korean animal, but no one would be called that. Generally, when I ask my young kids what their Korean names are, they'll ask me what my Korean name is. I've been "Moon Tae Bawm." I've been "Lee Soo Yeong." I've been a lot of made up Korean names. But I don't really have a Korean name.

When I shaved off my beard and cut my hair short, a lot of my students didn't really believe that I was me. I got a lot of kids asking me who I was. So of course, I lied.

I told my kids that my name was Tony and that I was Ryan's brother from the United States sent to fill in because Ryan was so busy. Some believed me, most just called me a liar and then second guessed me all class as I continued to pretend that I was someone else.

But a few kids got really into it. They still erase my name from the board during breaks and write Tony instead. But they aren't good spellers, so it wasn't long before Tony became "Toney" and they "Stony." I'm not sure how.

But now I have a whole class that calls me Stony. These things happen.

R