How would I explain the kanji for...

How would I explain the kanji for my internet alias in Japanese?

Hi, I'm Hush. I was making an introduction on a site and decided that I wanted to do it in Japanese.

I got as far as saying "Hello, my name is Hush" but I put Hush in brackets like this:「ハッシュ」. From the way I understand it this is kinda like quotation marks of a sort. Anyhow, I want to explain this into kanji form.

The kanji that I'd like for "Hush" is 「小康」or "Shōkō" in romaji. How would I explain that my name "Hush" is represented by "Shōkō" but still said as "Hasshu" in Japanese?

I know there are times when Japanese people are telling someone how to spell their name and they need to explain the kanji for it.

Thank you in advance for any answers and if any of this is wrong please tell me. I have been trying to learn Japanese for years now on my own and I still can only speak like a baby. I learn from actually speaking it but no one ever wants to speak with me in Japanese. If you'd like to help my Skype is Hush564. I enjoy Japanese language and culture so much and I love making new friends and learning new things. I hope this is not too hard of a question and the aformentioned invention not too forward.

Hope you have a good day.
良い一日をお過ごしください。

Hush

小康 as shoko....
You actually or originally use this kanji as your name Hush? I think majority of Japanese natives read this kanji as "ko-yasu".

I don't quite get what you are trying to do. When people ask for "Japanese name" for their western names, there are two things we can do:

(1) -a. write the name as it sounds phonetically (in katakana writing, normally used to write non-Japanese, non-kanji words and names), so you have

(1) -b. furthermore, for some names, we could find kanji that have similar or same sounds to the original name (thus to the katakana writing) and choose a kanji combination that has pleasant meaning. In this case, the selection of kanji is completely arbitrary and up to the person who chooses the kanji, as there can be many different kanji that have the same sound.

or

(2) take the original "meaning" of your name in your language, and find a Japanese name/word that is closest in "meaning" to your name. In this case, the sound can be completely different from the original name.

So you've done (1)-a, and you have ハッシュ.
But at the same time you've opted to do (2), and got 小康, but you want people to see 小康 and pronounce it as "Hasshu"?

If you want people to "say" your name as Hasshu, I'd say it makes more sense to pursue (1)-b, meaning, selecting kanji that has similar/same sounds to Hush.


BTW, if you want to know an easy way to explain the writing 小康, that would be 小 (shou - the kanji for "chiisai") and 康 (kou - the kanji "yasu" in the name Ieyasu Tokugawa, the Edo shogunate, or "kou" as in the word for health, 健康).

By the way, 小康(shoukou) in Japanese means "a temporary respite/remission/relief from pain", often used when someone fall into a critical condition, not so good meaning.

OP, maybe you misunderstood something or someone gave you wrong information?

I got as far as saying "Hello, my name is Hush" but I put Hush in brackets like this:「ハッシュ」. From the way I understand it this is kinda like quotation marks of a sort. Anyhow, I want to explain this into kanji form.

You do not have to write your name in katakana with brackets. You can simply put it ハッシュ.

The kanji that I'd like for "Hush" is 「小康」or "Shōkō" in romaji. How would I explain that my name "Hush" is represented by "Shōkō" but still said as "Hasshu" in Japanese?

Possible pronunciation for 小康 is either shoukou or koyasu. Unless you are talking about your health conditions, one would read 小康 as koyasu for a name.
But it is never pronounced "hush", there's even no resemblance in pronunciation of each kanji.

What you are trying to do is called ateji 「当て字」.

Ateji can be either using kanji for their sounds regardless of meaning (commonly seen in the kanji used for the names of Western countries, for example), or forcing a reading onto kanji (which is what you want to do).

In normal printed material, this would be indicated by using furigana (rubi) above the kanji, but this is not possible for online posting (or at least, I don't know how you would do it; maybe there is a special plug-in or something that would let you do it).

So the only suggestion I have is to write your kanji followed by your desired reading in brackets.

Also, like someone pointed out, your kanji do not mean what you think they mean.

I was told it means a lull or separately small peace, like quiet I would assume. Which would go with my name. (Links below)

I like the way the kanji look, I also like what they mean and would like that to represent my name Hush because "Hasshu" spelled in romaji or katakana are just...ugly. Hush is a pretty sounding name. It's meaning is pretty. Shōkō is pretty, it's kanji are pretty. Not to mention Hasshu can be translated to "Hash". Hash is nasty...


I was more interested however in what phase or phrases you would say to someone when you have to explain the kanji of a name to someone. I have seen videos where people have been like (and this is just a made up example) "you're name is Ueda? it must be spelled with this kanji." and the other person says "no it's spelled with this one meaning this." something like that. or if someone was like (another made up example) "my name is Kai but it's spelled with the kanji umi."

I just want to know what the phrase(s) where you'd explain it in Japanese.


http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E5%B0%8F%E5%BA%B7&eng=&dict=edict

http://jisho.org/kanji/details/%E5%B0%8F%E5%BA%B7

Unfortunately the meaning and connotation of 小康 is not what you believe. It means a lull, yes, but always used with negative things such as illness or conflicts, wars, etc.

How you feel about the sound or looks of your own name or the word 小康 (ugly, pretty, etc.) is subjective, so you cannot expect others (especially Japanese people about the word 小康) to share your view or feelings beause kanji has meanings so when we see kanji used in a name, we react to its meaning rather than its sound.

The example you quoted makes sense, because the kanji in question is 海, which has two pronunciations, one is umi, and another is kai.

It is not the case with your name Hush and the word 小康. Even if you write it down and explain, Japanese people (including myself) have no clue what is the link between your name Hush and the word 小康 which is a lull from illness or conflict...

If you want to use a kanji that has close meaning to your name Hush, I would recommend to use 静 - when used for a name, it is pronounced either Shizuka or Sei. Since the pronunciation is totally different from your name "Hush", you cannot use the same phrase as the person named Kai, but 静 (Shizuka or Sei) does mean quietness and commonly used for a name.

Thank you for your information...but my main question is still not answered. Even if I choose to go by Sei or Shizuka, I still don't know how you would tell someone the kanji.

Look the name isn't really important I just need the phrase. Like...If someone spelled your name with the wrong kanji, what would you tell them in Japanese or how would you introduce yourself and explain your name or any name for that matter?

I'm not doing this for other people. I am doing this for me. Depending on when or if I can get this phrase correct, I'm just using it on an anime list site... One where no one talks to me, no one cares about me, no one wants to care.. sigh...

Maybe I do have an illness. Maybe I do have that lull before it goes to hell. It would be the story of my life...

What you are asking is really confusing. If you are asking about how to explain how your name is written on a website...you would just write it. There is no need to "explain" the kanji.

私の名前は「小康」です。「ハッシュ」とよみます。

But no one will understand why those characters would be read as "hasshu," even based on just the meaning. But, that's what you would write.

If you are talking about explaining the kanji verbally, AK answered your question in the second post of this thread, at the very end, after "BTW."

But even if you explain it verbally, you will get a lot of quizzical looks and the Japanese person will assume either that you are confused about what kanji you mean, or else they will decide that they can't understand what you are trying to say.

No one will listen to you say (in Japanese) "My name is 'Hush', and it is written with the characters for "small" and the 'yasu' in "Ieyasu'" without responding with the Japanese equivaent of "Huh?"

I'm not trying to discourage you. I am trying to *encourage* you to listen to what everyone is telling you. Taking kanji that don't mean what you think and giving them a quirky reading will not enhance your ability to communicate. Even if you perfectly memorized a Japanese sentence that says exactly what you want to say, the person listening to you will be confused.

When talking about one's name, people may ask "what kanji?" since there can be several variants for the same-sound names.
e.g. family name Kawamoto can be written 河本 or 川本. One may explain "sanzaui no kawa" for 河 (sanzui is the radical on the left part) or "sanbongawa no kawa" as 川 consists of three lines.
But it is limited to Japanese names as they are always written with kanji (except some given names written in kana.) Or names from a country where they use kanji (like China.)

But for foreign names there are no kanji, unless "ateji" as AK san mentioned. Otherwise there's no kanji for your name "Hush".

There's no similar sounding kanji for Hush, so you cannot write it in kanji.
If you choose kanji that has similar meaning to your original name, then you can tell your friends you can say "I want you to call me Sei/Shizuka, and use the kanji 静 for it, because it has similar meanings of my English name Hush".

Thank you, that had the answer I was looking for.

I'm sorry if this put you all through more trouble than it's worth. My boyfriend has trouble understanding me when I talk to him and this is having to be written down so it's probably even more hard. And while your encouragement is appreciated, it's pretty much in vain since I won't learn Japanese anytime soon if ever...since I don't have money for a speech person...or enough money to move to Japan...so yeah...It was nice talking to you while it lasted..