Maaku-san!

Nice to be able to chat with you on a message board. Yukkuri・ゆっくり is what you are looking for! Yukkuri o-negai shimasu. Keep the comments coming.

Hi Peter,

Yes, this is fun! Maybe you should have a page for people to introduce themselves so that we can all know who the other listeners are?

I’m just beginning to work my way through these courses (thanks for this archive). I have barely begun to study Japanese, but I know enough to suspect that my name may be difficult for some native Japanese speakers to pronounce. I know that “Michael” is pronounced something like “ma-ee-ka-ru” in Japanese. I’m just guessing then that “Paul” would be rendered as “Paru” or “Paaru”. Is that close?

This site is excellent. I’ve been trying to study japanese as a hobbiy for some time now and i just came across this site. I makes it very clear how to pronounce things and how words should sound in actual sentences. You explained to Paul to pronounce his name in Japanese and I was wondering if you could the same for me. My name is Jessica. I don’t even know where to start with that one. And I was also wondering if you knew of any site to figure out name pronouciations.

Hi,
I´ve never thought I could learn anything in Japanese.
But this site contains amazing stuff.
I was wondering If you could help me with the pronunciation of my name in Japanese. Watashi wa Jan desu. How would you pronounce that? Jan-des? Thanks a lot for your reply.

Jan, I’m just guessing, but I think your name would be pronounced the same way in Japanese that it would be in English. Whether you pronounce it “Jan” or “Yan,” both should carry over just fine to Japanese.

The reason names like “Paul” are hard to transfer directly is because they contain sounds that don’t occur in Japanese. For example, Japanese contains no “L” sound. In fact that sound is hard for native Japanese speakers to even hear, literally! Also, very few Japanese words end in consonants, and there is no direct equivalent in that language of the “aw” sound in “Paul”. So my name is surprisingly difficult to speak or write in Japanese, even though it’s a very simple name in English. It has to be approximated as “Pooru.”

You’re luckier than I am in that regard. As it happens both “ja” and “ya” are standard syllables in Japanese, and N is one of the few consonants that can end a word all by itself. The short “a” sound (as in “hat” and “Jan”) doesn’t occur in Japanese, but the “ah” sound does. So “Jan” would be pronounced something like “jahn,” but with the “a” sound very clipped or shortened, as short vowels always are in Japanese.

I hope that made sense, and that I’m at least close to right. I’m certainly no expert.

wooow….

i really like all this…
and so far i’ve managed to get the introduction right + some more…

All i have left now is how to write all this…
By the way… these lessons are twice as hard for me (and for everyone else outside england and usa) since i have to translate it twice since i’m Norwegian
But no hard feelings… i learn suprisingly fast with these lessons.

Last note :
How would my name sound ?
Cause i know in english it would be something like Erland (Erl = Earl and then it would end with an ‘’and'’)

This is indeed correct. The topic marker is pronounced “wa” but written with the は “ha” hiragana character. Similarly, the direct object marker pronounced “o” is written with hiragana を “wo”.

There are plenty of errors in the early pdf’s but this is not one of them!

Great stuff! I never knew learning japanese could be this fun

Erland, as a scandinavian myself with a bit of knowledge in converting western names, my guess would be エールランヅ. (E-rurandu). But be sure to look check it with a more experienced speaker or even better, a native japanese!

By the way, you wouldn’t happen to be # Erlend Caspersen?

Anyways, thanks Japanesepod101, keep up the good work!

how do you pronounce wo in hiragana?
is it like woh or woo?

Hey, I was hoping you could help me with my name, too? While listening to the podcast on itunes it said to come to the site for pronunciation, but I haven’t been able to find it anywhere else on the site. Seeing that people left comments for help, I thought I’d leave one too. My name is Cindy. Would it sound pretty much the same in Japanese? If anyone can help, that would be great! Arigato!

Hmm try GuEN or グエン．

Cindy, there is no Japanese “Ci” sound, so we’d use “shi” instead. “ShiNDiII” would be your Japanese name.

Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Karura desu. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu. Watachi wa Porutogaru jin desu and I am enjoying so much hearing and learning japanese with japanesepod101 lessons that I made a blog where you can read what is said in the lessons with the meaning in portuguese.

Anyone interested in Portuguese, visit the above site for a Portuguese translation of this lesson.
http://aprenderjapones.blogs.sapo.pt/2008/01/15/

Doomo Arigatoo

Jaa ne

Yes, the Japanese pronounciation would apply. It would be written as リー。

Hi,

I’ve just started this program and I have a question about the kanji used for “Kazunori.” In the Kanji Close-up, I see the kanji meaning “one” with the reading “kazu” and the kanji meaning “virtue, goodness” with the reading “nori.” Yet, when I look up these kanji, neither of them has the readings given in the lesson. What is going on here?

Thanks,
Susan

I was aware that there were special kanji for names, but I don’t have a kanji dictionary that is that comprehensive (yet). For those of us just starting to learn kanji, the discrepancies between the “normal” readings and the special readings for names are very confusing.

Thanks for your response.

Susan

Susan, and others…

Japanese names do appear to be somewhat complicated in nature, which may be why there are relatively few of them compared to many other languages. From what I’ve read in books, there are a couple of hundred that are considered common, and most Japanese don’t deviate far from that list unless a special case, such as ancestry, requires something more unique or antiquated. A book I read called “Neighborhood Tokyo” actually described how certain names are more common to certain prefectures or regions of Japan. The meanings of Kanji are something you acquire with time, I’m sure, and I’ve been told by native Japanese speakers that “mastering” kanji is generally beyond the scope of their own people’s abilities.

Sam-san,
Pronunciation of your name would be almost the same as in English. It’s written as サム in Japanese, and the sound of “m” and “ム” may be a little bit different.

karin-san

karin in Japanese written is カリン(this is Katakana version) desu!