Since my ticket was set by the airline, we have been shopping discount airline sites for months to purchase Shelley's ticket, leg by leg to match mine so we can be on the same flights for the cheapest price. It has been an exhausting process of shopping on many websites in both English and East Asian. We had her very last leg to book, and tonight as I was going to sleep at 10:30, Shelley said, "check the airline website to see if the price is down." We did check the airline website and the price was down, so we moved quickly to book.
We booked off of a 3 out of 5 star website, which means that directions are not very clear, and we're not sure if Shelley will actually have a seat on the flight. When i went to type in Shelley's name, I was looking to figure out which order they wanted her first and last name. Here in East Asia, the family name is the first name. It can be confusing, and the websites all have different directions. Some want the family name first, some want the given name first. Some want all caps, some want no caps. Usually, they are nice enough to give an example to follow. For example, it looks something like this:
(In characters) Please type your name like this: (In English) Jordan/Michael.
Very clearly, I know to first type in the family name, then the given name. So on this particular website, they also gave such an example. It said:
(In characters) Please type your name like this: (In English) Ohui/Micoll.
Of course. Just like that. Now I know in what order to type my wife's name. Except I've never met anyone named or surnamed Ohui or Micoll. Upon closer inspection of the characters, it appears that Ohui is the family name, and Micoll is the given name. I googled Micoll Ohui to make sure that I wasn't the only one who didn't know this famous character. Google asked me "did you mean Nicoll Ohio? No Google, I meant none other than my friend and yours, Micoll Ohui. It makes me wonder who came up with that name as an example. Many times in East Asia, people give themselves strange English names. Here are examples of students who have chosen their own English names:
My English name is Try, because if I try my hardest, I can do anything.
My English name is Bacteria. Very strange, but very lovely.
My English name is Alarm. I think it is great and interesting.
Apparently, Micoll Ohui, or Ohui Micoll* is a very lovely name as well. Either that or someone just switched their input on the keyboard from characters to english and started clicking keys.
Here's to hoping that my wife, who will show up on their screen last name first, will be able to board the flight. I figure if Micoll can get a flight, Shelley should be able to as well.
*If you have a relative, a friend, or if you are yourself are named Micoll Ohui or Ohui Micoll, please do not take offense to this. Your name is very strange, but very lovely.
