My Nickname

My nickname is "Blue" or "Blueman". But I also have another Korean nickname "Pakebi". You can see the domain of this site of make out of the nickname. Let me talk something of it.

My nickname is "Pakebi" in Korean, which means "blue goblin". This nickname came from the fact that I'm always in blue color (as you can see in this site, too). I like this nickname so that I say this whenever I introduce myself. Of course, there are some exceptions. But in most cases, particularly when I met a foreigner at first, who is not good at Korean, I introduce my nickname "Blue". Then they could understand why I'm called such and remember me with more ease. Thus I have two nickname ; pakebi and blue. I think it is required to explain why I'm called pakebi more than why I'm called blue.

Pakebi was made my collegues in the philosophy department. At first when we were all freshmen they called me just "blue" owing to that I was always in blue clothes at that time, too. It was not a bad nickname, but I wished we don't mix English terms in calling nicknames of collegues as I felt somewhat uneasy to hear talkings mixed with Korean and English terms. I was not used to it at that time. So they suggested a new nickname of mine; pakebi. "Pa" came from "Parang" which means blue color and "kebi" came from "dokebi" which means "goblin". Since "Paran dokebi" was too long to be called often, so my friends shortened them into "pakebi".

The nickname was known to many people at firs on a newspaper when I was a junior. One day a reporter wanted to meet me to write an article on her newspaper. I had no idea about the significance of interview with a reporter and I met her with some curiosity. She wanted to take a picture of me too, and I came across the picture on a newspaper a few days later. It took me more than a few days to understand the significance. Some friends advised me it is not only good to be known to many people on such a newspaper without clear and valuable issues and some other friends asked me to introduce themselves or our friendships next chance. Anyway, some more reporters wanted to meet me owing to that nickname and its story. I decided to avoid them at last.

There were also some other who loved the nickname. One of them was my first love. She said she preferred "pakebi" to "blue" when she heard it first. So she called me "pakebi" with "Ssi", a respecting term of Korean. I still come to think of her whenever I hear "pakebi ssi". Another who loved the nickname "pakebi" was my younger sisters, who are usually high school students or mere a freshman(woman) in a college. They call me "pakebi oppa". Summing up, almost everyone who had favors at me has called me "pakebi" and those who had no favor have had disposition to call me "blue" among Koreans. Therefore, I also came to favor those who call me "pakebi" even without distinct reason. Also except for foreingers, who cannot understand its meaning easily.

Now my nickname "pakebi" has 10-year history. Many people love this nickname and love me because of this nickname sometimes. Thus I also come to love it more.