BBC 6分钟英语学习 男人婚后拿走妻子的名字

From BBC, learning English. Hello, and welcome to Six Minute English.

I'm Dan, and joining me today is Neil Hi.

Neil Hi. Their dad. You're a married man.

Neal. When you were

wed, did your wife change her family name?

Yes, she did. Was that her choice?

Oh yes, yes. She didn't like her old name.

So for her, it was

a win win. How about you?

Well, my wife wanted to keep her surname, but was forced to adopt mine, because that was the law where we got married.

Would you have thought about taking her name?

That's what we're talking about in this six minute English A husband taking a wife's name after marriage, or that.

Six related words. And our quiz question.

Okay, let's have the question In Which country has it been forbidden since 1789 for a citizen to change their name legally, even after marriage?

Is it A Japan, B, france or C Turkey?

I'm going to go for B France, and we'll see if you're right later.

Now, traditionally, in the UK, when a man and a woman get married, the woman takes the man's family name, and this replaces her maiden A maiden name is the surname a woman had before she was married.

Now, this all dates back to the Norman invasion of England.

Back in 1066, they introduced the idea that when a woman married a man, she became his property.

Now, as a result of this, she took his name.

These days, many women elect to keep their maiden name upon marriage, or combine it with their new husbands in some way, sometimes by making the name Double Barrel.

A double barrel name is two names that are connected by a hyphen, such as Jones.

However, a growing number of couples in Western culture are doing it differently.

When they get married, the husband elects to take the wife's surname.

In a BBC article about surnames and marriage, roary dear Love, formerly Roary Cook, talks about why he decided to take his wife's surname.

He said that he wasn't really attached to his name anyway.

To him, it didn't make any difference.

Well, he's not alone. A recent study of 2000 UK adults by Opinion, a Strategic Insight agency, suggested that one in ten millennial men, currently between 18 and 34 years old, fall into this category.

Charlie Shaw, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation instructor who took his wife's name when they were married last year, said that it was an opportunity to acknowledge the unseen patriarchal bias and sexism in our society.

Patriarchal means controlled by men, and a bias is the unfair support or opposition to a person thing or idea.

Many traditional societies were patriarchal. That modern UK society is less like that.

Everyone is meant to be equal.

Ah, yes, but that's the unseen part.

And there's the social view of things too.

Rachel rob Nett, a researcher at the University of Nevada, surveyed a number of people in the US and UK, and found that the husbands of women who keep their maiden names are viewed as feminine, while the women are believed to wear the trousers.

If you wear the trousers in a relationship, it means you have the control and make the decisions for both people.

I wondered about that, so I went out into London and asked people what they thought about a man who took his wife's name when they got married.

He is what they said, um, I don't think it's a bad idea.

Oh, my dad's 55, and he took my mother's surname.

If people want to do it, then all the power to them.

I must think it's each to their own.

Really. It doesn't hurt anybody, and it's no different from a one taking a man's time.

The only reason I think that anybody should take someone else's surname is just for, like, the creation of a family unit.

But if it's just out of principle to don't agree.

It seems that the people I talk to are comfortable with the idea.

Yes. Most said that people are free to do what they want.

One woman even mention the creation of a family unit.

A unit is a group of people living or working together.

A typical family unit would be two paren'ts and some children.

Well, that answers that question. People don't seem to mind who takes whose name.

Speaking of questions, how about our quiz question?

I ask you, in which country it has been forbidden since 1789 for a citizen to change their name legally, even after marriage?

A Japan, B, france, or C Turkey?

And I said, B france. And you were spot on, as usual.

Let's take a look at the vocabulary, shall we?

1st we had maiden name. This is a woman's family name before she is married.

My mother refused to give up her maiden name to my father when she got married.

Then we had double barreld. A double barrel name is two names that'd joined by a hyphen.

Can you think of any famous examples?

Well, there's the Duchess of Cornwall, camilla Parker Bowls.

For one. She's married to Prince Charles.

Next in line to the English Throne.

Then we had patriarchal. If something is patriarchal,

it is controlled by men. The feminine equivalent is matriarchal, controlled by women.

Then we had bias. A bias is

unfair support or opposition to a person thing or idea.

Many fans are biased in favor of their football team.

Then we had aware the trousers.

If you wear the trousers, you have the control and make the decisions for both people.

Do you wear the trousers in your marriage?

New, we both wear the trousers in my marriage.

Thank you, dan. Then we had Unit.

A unit is a group of people living or working together, like the BBC learning English team, or unit.

And that's the end of this six minute English.

Don't forget to check out our Facebook, twitter, instagram and youtube pages, and we'll see you next time.

Bye bye.

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