Introduction
WhenitcomestowritingJapanesenamesinEnglish,itcanbeachallengeformanypeople.ThereasonforthisisthattheJapaneselanguageusesacompletelydifferentwritingsystemthanEnglish,andthatleadstoalotofconfusionanderrorswhenwritingJapanesenamesinEnglish.Inthisarticle,we'llexplainhowtowriteJapanesenamesinEnglish,andprovidesomeexamplesandtipstohelpyougetitright.
WritingaJapaneseNameinEnglish
First,let'stalkaboutthedifferentwritingsystemsusedinJapanese.TherearethreemainscriptsusedinJapanesewriting:kanji,hiragana,andkatakana.KanjiisacollectionofChinesecharactersthatareusedinJapanesewriting,whilehiraganaandkatakanaaresyllabicscriptsthatareusedtowriteJapanesewords.WhenwritingaJapanesenameinEnglish,it'simportanttounderstandwhichsystemisbeingused,asthiscanhaveabigimpactonhowthenameisspelledinEnglish.
Example:
TakeshiNakamura
Inthisexample,\"Takeshi\"iswrittenusingkanji,while\"Nakamura\"iswrittenusinghiragana.WhenwritingthisnameinEnglish,youwouldtypicallyusethespelling\"TakeshiNakamura,\"asthisreflectsthepronunciationofthenameinJapanese.
StyleConsiderations
WhenwritingaJapanesenameinEnglish,therearesomeadditionalstyleconsiderationstokeepinmind.Ingeneral,it'sbesttousethefamilyname(orsurname)first,followedbythegivenname(orfirstname).ThisistheoppositeofhownamesaretypicallywritteninEnglish,wherethegivennameusuallycomesfirst.Forexample:
NakamuraTakeshi-Familynamefirst,givennamesecond
JohnSmith-Givennamefirst,familynamesecond
Anotherstyleconsiderationiswhethertoincludeanhonorific(suchas\"san\"or\"sama\")whenwritingaJapanesenameinEnglish.Thisisamatterofpersonalpreferenceandshouldbedecidedbasedonthecontextofthesituation.Forexample,inaformalbusinesssetting,itmaybeappropriatetouseanhonorific,whileinacasualsetting,itmaynotbenecessary.
Conclusion
WritingaJapanesenameinEnglishcanbeachallenge,butwithalittlebitofknowledgeandsomepractice,itcanbedonecorrectly.Remembertoconsiderthewritingsystembeingused,styleconsiderations,andanyhonorificsthatmaybeappropriate.Byfollowingthesetips,you'llbeabletowriteJapanesenamesinEnglishwithconfidence.
下一篇:返回列表