No matter what my name …
Have you been watching women’s figure skating in the Winter Olympics?
A Korean figure skater had won the gold medal. Her name is Kim Yu-Na.
Today I wanted to share with you a little about Korean names.
First off, I want to clarify that Kim Yu-na’s name is actually supposed to be pronounced like Yun(the ‘un’ pronounced like the ‘un’ in sun)-ah, not You-Na. Perhaps she purposely had it spelled Yu-Na to make it easier for westerners to pronounce.
Also, Kim is her surname or family name and Yun-ah is her given name or personal name.
Most Korean surnames are single syllable and given names two syllables. However, there some rare exceptions to this rule, where surnames are two syllables and given names are single or three syllables.
Each syllable in Korean names, has a special meaning. For example, in Kim Yun-ah’s name, ‘Yun’ means ‘beautiful’ and ‘ah’ means ‘child’. So ‘Yun-ah’ actually means ‘beautiful child’.
Interestingly enough, her surname ‘Kim’ means ‘gold’. So her full name means, ‘child as beautiful as gold’.
All Korean names have special meanings. When Korean mothers and fathers name their children, they hope that their children become what their names suggest. They give their children names that mean that the child will live a long life, make a lot of money, live happily, become a great person and the like.
Of course, not all Korean children actually fulfill the meaning of their names. No matter how special someone’s name is, it does not directly affect how that person will turn out.
I’ve read a newspaper article on Kim Yun-ah. The article said that when her peers practiced skating 10 times, she would practice 60 times. She worked hard to become a ‘child as beautiful as gold’.
Success in life is not determined by the meaning of a person’s name, rather it’s the amount of effort that a person puts forth that actually affects the quality of that person’s life.
Like Kim Yun-ah worked so hard to be able to win gold in the Olympics, I want to work just as hard to satisfy your garment cleaning needs. No matter what my name means.
Here is a video of Kim Yun-ah’s perfomance.
