"Oh, Lan Wangji started sneaking me decent food from somewhere after I'd had one meal of what they normally eat. If I can't choke down at least six thousand calories of whatever's in front of me I'm not very useful, not yet. I don't eat more than three bowls in a sitting, though, I just have a really big one -" She gestures.

"That's amazing! Lan Zhan, I had no idea you were capable of such a thing!"

"Mn."

"I have been here for three years and still do not get how this culture deals with names, I can't tell if you're being rude and he's letting it slide or if this is one of those times it's okay."

"Oh, I've been calling him that since we were teenagers together, he calls me Wei Ying, it's fine." 

"Not just letting it slide." 

"I will probably eventually have the hang of it but I just use everyone's courtesy names and let people mangle mine however seems appropriate to them because I certainly don't know."

"Women don't always have courtesy names. They almost never do if they aren't cultivators."

"I don't either, I was named Isabella Swan when I was born. If I'm really nervous I abuse my psychic powers by trying various names in precog and seeing if people wince slightly or not."

"That's fair. I meant that people would know what to do with you not having one." 

"When I say mangle it I mean relative to my expectations, not theirs."

"Oh. How are they mangling it?"

"In my culture - I didn't even actually realize before I showed up here just how many norms we have about this, but where I'm from you almost never address people by personal name and surname at the same time! You refer to people who aren't there that way, if it wouldn't be clear from context to just use one of the two, and then - unless the specific rhythm and sound of a famous person's name is part of how they're known, sometimes - you cut it down to one or the other, depending on formality level. So in, say, writing about me and my adventures in this here other universe, it's like, 'Isabella Swan' the first time in a given article and then 'Swan' if it's formal writing and 'Isabella' if it's my little brother. Also, a lot more people share specific names. We have only twenty-six characters to write with, and they represent sounds, not meanings, so names can sound and be spelled the same - sometimes on purpose. That means since my name is pretty common most people have met an Isabella before even if they're hearing about me for the first time, and they know the standard possible transformations of Isabella into a diminuitive, and might ask if they can call me one, and will know if they hear my brother calling me by one who he means. Also even if you aren't friendly enough with someone to use their first name, people don't just call me 'Swan' to my face, they'd say 'Ms. Swan', Ms. being a generic title."

"Huh. That's interesting. 'Isabella Suan,' not 'Suan Isabella'?"

"Right, though that part I expected, since it's surname first in our China too."

"I've never really thought about how names could be different before."

"It's interesting! But I think mine is easier to navigate, even if I try to account for being accustomed."

"Maybe. The writing system seems like it would be harder to communicate across dialects, though, even if it would be easier to learn to read." 

"Yeah, you're right on both counts. Though all the words have standard spellings that apply at least across accents even when people pronounce things differently."

"That must complicate the correspondence between characters and sounds."

"Enormously. It's not an especially good correspondence. Just better than you've got."

"Well, that's not what ours are trying to do."

"Oh, I understand."

"Does the eidetic memory help more with the dialects thing or the learning to read thing?"

"More with learning to read. Pronunciation and listening are still hard even when I can remember everything."