My Chinese Name

I was given my Chinese name and it's so cool!


This year I went to China for the third time and since I'm taking Chinese classes I could actually talk to people this time round. One of my pet peeves is people saying my name wrong- silly I know. So, introducing me as Marina proved a bit of a pain in the ass. Malina, Malia, MARIA?? Noooo!!! 

Luckily a teacher at my summer school was so kind to give me my Chinese name. When she suggested to do so I was jumpin' 'n fist pumpin' in my head. No more annoyances and I get a name in characters! How cool is that- not that cool? Ok I'm a nerd I know. AND I THINK IT'S COOL!! Whoohoo!

So... -imagine a drum roll now- ... here it is:

玛瑞娜

(Ma Rui Na)

The top part is my name in characters and below you can see how it should be written in the phonetic Pinyin. It sounds about the same as Marina as pronounced in English. The meaning is something like the following.

玛: Ma = Royal horse
瑞: Rui = Lucky
娜: Na = That woman

Being called horse didn't seem very appealing at first, but I did dressage for ten years of my life and the sound fits, so what the h*ll.

Next time I say: "Nihao! Wo jiao Maruina. Hen gao xing renshi ni.". They'll get it- I hope.