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All about name

Tadi di ruang kerja saya terjadi diskusi seru yang sama sekali tidak penting antara saya, Gede (rekan kerja saya yang sama2 anak Indonesia), Stephanie (Pittsburgher), dan Dai Hua.

Mereka mulai membahas nama-nama orang Indonesia yang menurut mereka aneh bin ajaib - panjang tidak karuan, hahaha. Mulailah dibahas satu-satu. Kalau dulu, saya lebih sering menyebut nama saya M.V. Asih Paramita. Begitu di Pittsburgh, karena bule-bule itu susah mengucapkan 'Asih' saya lebih suka mencomot first dan last word, jadilah nama beken saya Maria Paramita, huehehehe.

Orang-orang yang sering berinteraksi dengan saya tetap memanggil saya Mita, tapi sebagian orang yang cuma kenal sambil lalu memanggil saya Maria. Maka bingunglah Stephanie ketika Patty - pegawai administrasi di kantor kami - selalu menyebut Maria, Maria, and Maria. Who's Maria? Berkali-kali dia bertanya sebelum nyadar kalau Maria is Mita, huehehehe.

Lalu pembahasan beralih ke Gede. Well, sebelum Gede dan saya, ada seorang rekan lain dari Indonesia - tepatnya Bali yang juga kerja di tempat yang sama. So Stephanie sudah agak-agak mengerti dengan aturan nama-nama Bali yang berdasarkan urutan dalam keluarga. Tapi Dai Hua kebingungan, dan tambah bingung lagi dia ketika dia tahu nama lengkapnya Gede adalah I Gede Wira Yuda Pramana. How come you have such a long name? Dan ketika Gede menyebutkan nama bokap dan nyokapnya, yang cuma dua kata, lebih bingung lagi lah gadis Cina itu. Why did they give you a very long name?

Kebingungan mereka menjadi lengkap ketika mereka tahu kami biasa punya panggilan yang berbeda-beda di rumah, di kantor, etc, bahwa sebagian dari orang Indonesia tidak menggunakan family name, dan ada juga orang Indonesia yang namanya cuma satu kata saja.

Trus mulailah mereka dengan pertanyaaan-pertanyaan mulai dari yang standar sampai yang kreatif sekali :p Seperti - apakah semua nama itu tercantum di dokumen-dokumen resmi kami (ya jelaslah), apakah kami gak pegel kalo mbulet-mbuletin nama (kayak UMPTN misalnya), bagaimana caranya membedakan Paijo satu dengan Paijo yang lain kalo nggak punya nama keluarga, kenapa saya dipanggil Mita (nah lo, lah jelas itu bagian dari nama saya :p), dan apakah orang Indonesia bisa suka-suka memilih last name (hahahaha, nama kan dikasih sama orang tua, bukan beli di supermarket :p)

Kesimpulannya, mereka bingung aje dengan nama kami, hehehehe. Lalu saya bilang ke mereka, kalau suatu saat saya punya anak, saya bakalan kasih nama anak saya yang simple-simple aja. Cukup satu atau dua kata, trus ditambah nama bapaknya di belakang. Biar gak ribet di paspor, huehehehe. Oh ya, saya sih punya preferensi nama anak yang alfabetnya di depan-depan aja deh, biar kalo dipanggil urutan apa-apa either paling depan atau paling belakang sekalian, biar gampang diinget, hehehe. *Gak penting banget yeee :p*

Comments

Anonymous said…
I acan only say... HAHAHAHAHAH...

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