Megan CP#3

Since we had talked so much about names in our previous lesson, it had me thinking in the days in between our first and next meeting. Upon reading an email from Professor Kim addressing the class, I realized that she and Soongyu had the same last name. I was curious about this, so when I arrived to our meeting I asked her about the similarity. She said that in South Korea it is very common for people to have the same family names, and many names are only one syllable. "How do you know who's related and who's not?' I wondered aloud. Soongyu explained that although it is common for people to share the same last names, these names come from different ancestral origins. I told her that in the United States it is common for the woman to take the man's family name in marriage and then have the name extended to all of the children. The difference in South Korea, she explained, was that the family name is followed by your given name. Unlike the United States, the families are more extended so the family names themselves become generational. Rather than the woman taking the man’s family name in marriage, only the children inherit it. I told her that I liked the idea of the woman being able to keep her last name. As a woman, I never wanted to lose my own family name. I wanted my children to have my name since there was no boy in my family to continue it. It made us begin to wonder what other ways we could organize family names.