Moi, le Kou (was: verbs = nouns?)

From: "John Cowan"

> Douglas wrote:
>
>  >> "Wo3 Kou1 Dao4guang1."
>
> Your name is Kou1?  Strange.  I know it is really a borrowing of
> "Koller", but is this a legitimate Han name at all?
A BORROWING?!!!! Pshaw. I don't believe it makes the top-100 cut in the
official "Book of 100 Family Names", but it is included in the addendum.
Most dictionaries list it as a legit surname, though it's long since been
out of use. I use it for two reasons: 1) it's unique; most foreigners with a
last name in "K" get stuck with "Ke1" as in "Ke1da2" (Kodak) -- boooring.
(and besides, "Kou1" is phonetically more accurate). 2) after being
bludgeoned over the head incessantly by the natives that foreigners couldn't
*possibly* learn to speak Chinese, let alone read it, it was nice to have a
monicker that the Chinese would regularly mangle and have to be instructed
by the lowly foreigner how to read (after 13 years, color me petty). Okay,
three reasons: 3) it's a totally kewl character ("bow" radical plus "qu1"
(district) as the phonetic), and after fifteen years of having it
inextricably attached by both natives and expats to my persona, I'm not
going to change now.


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