If time allows, when I travel to another country, I make an effort to learn some basic phrases in the native language. In preparation for a trip to Asia, I had someone help me with Chinese pronunciation and, although I have forgotten everything I learned in those sessions, I managed to leave with a Chinese name: Frueh became ‘Fu’ and Christian became ‘Xian’ and I became Fu-Xian (富贤).
Since the trip, the name stuck and today many of my friends and long time business partners simply address me as ‘Xian’ and to save a couple of keystrokes, I sign off my emails and blog posts the same.
– Xian
