Deciphering Chinese name

[Joaz Banbeck]

I have an opportunity to do business with a customer from Taiwan named 'Wei Keng Ho'. That is all the information that I have. Is the name male or female? And is it likely to be Chinese name ordering or Anglicized ordering? Is my best guess to start the letter with 'Dear Mr. Wei' or 'Dear Mr Ho' ? Or is there some ambiguous but polite way of writing the salutation?

I really need to do this today, so a quick answer would be much appreciated.

[jts]

I have an opportunity to do business with a customer from Taiwan named 'Wei Keng Ho'. That is all the information that I have. Is the name male or female? And is it likely to be Chinese name ordering or Anglicized ordering? Is my best guess to start the letter with 'Dear Mr. Wei' or 'Dear Mr Ho' ? Or is there some ambiguous but polite way of writing the salutation?

I really need to do this today, so a quick answer would be much appreciated.

My guess is Mr. Ho. Don't feel too hung up about this, I am sure he is aware of this sort of confusion and will not be offended if you mess it up - any more than you would be if you got "Mr. or Mrs. Banbeck".

[Fedya]

any more than you would be if you got "Mr. or Mrs. Banbeck".

My dad once got a letter from one of his German relatives addressed to "Mister and Misses [his name]".

At least it wasn't "Mister and Mistress".

[TheBigH]

Would it be rude to begin with "Dear Wei Keng Ho"?

[jts]

any more than you would be if you got "Mr. or Mrs. Banbeck".

My dad once got a letter from one of his German relatives addressed to "Mister and Misses [his name]".

At least it wasn't "Mister and Mistress".

This is how I was taught to address letters. The man is Mr. John Smith, his wife is Mrs. John Smith, and the couple is Mr. & Mrs. John Smith. (Or are we laughing at the spelling of "Mrs."?)

[hyperpape]

Really? I thought it was more dated than that. I'm 29 and growing up, my mom always remarked on how much she hated receiving those letters. I had assumed that the form was already in decline.

[DrStraw]

I'm guessing, because I am not that familiar with Chinese names. But I typed this name into the StartPage search engine and it came up with references to Wei Keng several times under circumstances which seemed to indicate that it was a male personal name. Which would make Ho the family name.

[Joaz Banbeck]

Would it be rude to begin with "Dear Wei Keng Ho"?

I hope not, because that is exactly what I did.

[Fedya]

(Or are we laughing at the spelling of "Mrs."?)

This. There's a difference between "Mrs." (there's a word "Missus" for a wife) and "Misses" which makes it sound like Dad's cavorting with multiple unmarried women.

[jts]

(Or are we laughing at the spelling of "Mrs."?)

This. There's a difference between "Mrs." (there's a word "Missus" for a wife) and "Misses" which makes it sound like Dad's cavorting with multiple unmarried women.

According to WP:

It is rare for Mrs. to be written in a non-abbreviated form, and the word lacks a standard unabbreviated spelling. In literature it may appear as missus or missis in dialogue. A variant in the works of Thomas Hardy and others is "Mis'ess", reflecting its etymology. Misses has been used but is ambiguous as this is a commonly used plural for Miss.

[EdLee]

from Taiwan named Wei Keng Ho

Difficult case. I don't see anything wrong with asking him/her exactly what you're asking here.

[clemi]

I'm a little bit late to reply to Joaz Banbeck but chinese names are usually expressed [lastname (one character) - firstname (one or two character(s))].

[Bantari]

I'm a little bit late to reply to Joaz Banbeck but chinese names are usually expressed [lastname (one character) - firstname (one or two character(s))].

Also late in here. But my thoughts are:
Do just like with any other names. If somebody signs with 'Joaz Banbeck' it cannot be wrong to address the letter to him 'Dear Joaz Banbeck' and I would certainly not take offense at anything like that. Same with 'Wei Keng Ho' or whatever. I mean - there might be cultural differences, sure, and there might be better ways of addressing - for example 'Dear Mr.Banbeck' might be slightly more polished than 'Dear Joaz Banbeck' - but both are acceptable, in my opinion, and certainly neither should cause offense. I am pretty sure the addressee should also be aware of all such issues, and be more lenient - especially when reaching accross cultural and linguistic boundaries.

PS>
By the way - I assume somebody here is Chinese or speaks Chinese. Out of curiosity - is it always hard to tell what is the first and what the last name of in that language? In all the other languages I have ever tried, in pretty much 100% of the cases it is quite obvious what is the first and what the last name. Take 'Joaz Banbeck' for example...

[EdLee]

Out of curiosity - is it always hard to tell what is the first and what the last name of in that language?

If the name is written in Chinese, then in most cases it is pretty clear.
The problem here is that it was written in English, and the name ordering
is different between English (Given name first, then Family name)
versus Chinese (Family name first, then Given name).
('Family name' and 'given name' are less ambiguous than 'first name' and 'last name'.)

Same problem in Japanese. For example, the cover of The 21st Century Dictionary of Basic Joseki
says "by Takao Shinji 9-dan", but the first page inside says "by Shinji Takao".
So someone not familiar with Japanese would not be able to tell based on these two pages which is which.

Another issue here is the Taiwanese anglicized convention is different from pinyin.

Joaz, it's been almost 2 weeks -- have you found out the actual name (in Chinese) yet ?

[Bantari]

Out of curiosity - is it always hard to tell what is the first and what the last name of in that language?

If the name is written in Chinese, then in most cases it is pretty clear.
The problem here is that it was written in English, and the name ordering
is different between English (Given name first, then Family name)
versus Chinese (Family name first, then Given name).
('Family name' and 'given name' are less ambiguous than 'first name' and 'last name'.)

Same problem in Japanese. For example, the cover of The 21st Century Dictionary of Basic Joseki
says "by Takao Shinji 9-dan", but the first page inside says "by Shinji Takao".
So someone not familiar with Japanese would not be able to tell based on these two pages which is which.

Another issue here is the Taiwanese anglicized convention is different from pinyin.

Joaz, it's been almost 2 weeks -- have you found out the actual name (in Chinese) yet ?

Oh, I understand. The translation adds to the problem.

However, what I wondered about was more if there are any other ways to tell first names from last names.
Like, to give you an example, the english first name Peter. If I say somebody is Peter Fink, or if I say somebody is Fink Peter, people would usually guess that Peter is the first name while Fink is the last name. Addressing this person as 'Mr.Fink' would be appropriate. In other words - you have a pool of first names, and most people have a first name from that pool...

Of course, with names like Peter John, or John Peter - you still cannot tell... but in vast majority of the cases, in the languages I know, it is pretty easy to tell first name from last name regardless which order they are written or if there is a semicolon between or not.

How does it work for Asian languages?
Are first names as random and personalized as last names - so you really cannot tell unless you follow specific conventions?

From what I know, looking at names of some Japanese pros, it is often also easy. For example: Kato Masao... since I know of a few 'Kato's I assume Kato is the first name. Same with Toshiro Kageyama, and so on. With many names I have no clue, but I always assumed this is because I am unfamiliar with the language, and for somebody speaking Japanese if would be immediately apparent which part of 'Otake Hideo' is the first name and which is the last name, regardless of which order it was written.

I really find that interesting.