July 27. My Name is Park Chulwoo!

I go by Charles. Because I like this name. I did not quite remember when I started using this English name; I possibly chose this name for the English class when I was an elementary school kid. My Enlgish teacher with blond hair and blue eye from Canada or the U.S. might not pronounce my name Chulwoo well, so I picked up the name Charles to make them remember and pronounce my name perfectly.

Before coming to the U.S., I had never imagined I might have had poor pronunciation. I simply thought that there is also English pronunciation for English, so my Korean Kimchi-pronunciation would not be the problem. However, (still!), I have a terrible tongue that has been already too rigid to roll my tongue for saying “R.” I could not even pronounce my English name “Cha-R-les” well, so Americans did not get what my name was.

“Hi! My name is Chaz! [Charles]!”

“Cha-z??”

“No, Chal-zz [Charles]!”

“Oh, Cha-rrr-les!!”

I always had to introduce my English name to Americans at least twice, and they always had to double-check whether they heard was right. “R” pronunciation was getting way worse if I become tense, tired, or have no confidence to tell big audience.

“th” (번데기) pronunciation is also so hard to me. I am not really used to protrude tongue between upper and lower teeth to pronounce this; in other word, I am greatly embarrassed to show my tip of tongue to people, so my tongue cannot go further from the inner wall of upper teeth. The problem is that my major is Public Health; I have to pronounce nicely what my major is, but there is always frustrated moment.

“What are you studying?”

“Public Heal-z [Health]!”

“Public… what?”

“Public Heal-sss [Health]!”

“Public… Account?”

“No, public… HEAL-SSS [Health]!”

“Oh, Public HEAL-TTTHHH!”

Pronouncing my name and my major are the most basic as well as important first step to start conversation with new people. However, I always have bitter experience of saying my name and my major like that.

Anyway, the name Charles Park is widely used for school, friends, church, World Vision, and every other people. I do not even hear Charles in Family Kingdom Hotel; all employees call me Pa-ka. They always give me a warm reception, “Hey! Pa-ka!” and give me a new bottle of water. The authentic name Chulwoo is only used for official statement; on the passport, school enrollment, bank, airplane ticket, and identification card. Since I have lived in the U.S. (+ Africa) for 4 years, I have been mostly told my name as Charles. I feel like my real name Chulwoo is almost forgotten, even by me as well.

I had been waiting for the airplane ticket for Tanzania from this morning. World Vision Sierra Leone would support the ticket for me, so I did not have to book it by myself. It might also be the first time that somebody books my flight. Magnus forwarded ticket copy email to me at night, and I checked departs and arrives time: Freetown to Nairobi, Kenya (stopping at Accra, Ghana), Nairobi to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and Dar Es Salaam to the final destination, Arusha, northern Tanzania. I will board an airplaine at 17:40pm in Freetown on July 29, and arrive in Arusha next day, at 12:35pm on July 30. It must be a long trip with 1 stop and 2 transferring, about 16-hour flight. 

But wait! What is it? Passenger(s): PARK/CHULWOOCHARLES…?

E-ticket also says my name is PARK/CHULWOOCHARLES. The name “Charles” might have been added into middle name section. I was panicking.

E-ticket said that “Always give the names as per the passport, as name changes are not allowed once a booking has been confirmed.”

It might be the first time I really hated my name “Charles.” Why haven’t I simply used my authentic name, and I make some issues like that? Even if Ebola epidemic is out of my control, I feel so bad that World Vision International, Ireland, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania have been doing extra precaution for my safety. Before pointing out this issue to Magnus, I wanted to check it out whether middle name makes some problem to board an airplane. Using my modem to the empty credit, I spent 3 hours for searching “airplane ticket middle name issues,” until 2am.

Wow, you would never imagine that there were many people on Google website that had the similar symptoms as I have. They were also panicked and worried so much about the possibility that they might not get in an airplane. But, most cases on the website were “wrong/missing middle name in the airplane ticket.” Americans have first, middle, and last name on the passport, and they usually forgot filling in their middle names or just wrote initial middle name on the ticket. In that case, I realized that it should be perfectly fine. But that was not my case. I do not have middle name on the passport, but have middle name on the ticket!

I searched all possible combinations of words to describe my situation on the Google searching space. “middle name on ticket, but not on passport,” “no middle name on passport,” “middle name issues…” There were two postings that had the similar situation as me, and the answer was “It should be OK,” because generally, airline system only recognizes first and last name. But I was still nonreassuring because my airplane would be Kenya Airways and Precisionair that operates in Africa. Even if it might be fine for America/Canada, airlines in Africa might not accept this name difference between passport and ticket.

My passport: I am South Korean! 

To make it perfectly sure, I had to get this straight and asked for help to Magnus and World Vision Sierra Leone. Since there would be other official documents, MoU and invitation letter, my full name needed to be written as my first and last name without middle name on those documents as well. Even during this holiday, administration staff Cassandra kindly fixed this problem and amended my name to PARK/CHULWOO. Whew! I was relaxed. Now, I have a full confidence that I can show this ticket with my passport to airport staff.

I thought to myself that how many times have I spoken with assurance that “My name is Chulwoo Park!” United Secretary-General, Ki-moon Ban, marks his name publicly as Ban Ki-moon, the original Korean way of name order. In this case, how many people recognize that his first name is Ki-moon? Yes, my original-original name, including the authenticity and sequence of name, is Park Chulwoo. I am saying out loud, “My name is Park Chulwoo!”