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My name is too difficult to pronounce 2020/5/23 05:30
Hello. Ifm Portuguese and planning to move to Japan some time soon.
My name is Constança. Sometimes people of my own country canft pronounce my name correctly, I wonder what I should do when I get to Japan.
How will people pronounce my name? Should I come up with a nickname? I donft have any ideas...
I know this may be stupid but Ifm worried and would appreciate help.
Thank you
by Not so anonymous (guest)  

Re: My name is too difficult to pronounce 2020/5/23 12:47
I don't find your name particularly difficult to pronounce (native speaker of Japanese here). I would not worry about it at all.
by AK rate this post as useful

Re: My name is too difficult to pronounce 2020/5/23 14:22
We wouldn't know how difficult it is to pronounce your name until we actually hear the pronunciation you think is ideal. But there are many things you can do about it.

For example, I remember there was a frequent poster on this forum who spelled her name something like "kyarin". I suppose her real name was "Karen", but in Japan, the name Karen is typically not pronounced in the way it is in North America. So, when posting, she changed the spelling so that it would suit the way a typical Japanese would pronounce it. I'm sure she kept her passport and ID in the correct spelling.

Similarly, I know a lot of Japanese people who change the "R" in their name to "L" while living in English-speaking countries, so that people would pronounce it more accurately. In Japan, I suppose you can do something similar by making sure you use the right kana when writing your name to have it pronounced right.

As for myself, people who don't speak my mother tongue which is Japanese NEVER pronounce my first name nor my last name the way my family would. So I naturally assumed it is the translated version of my name. And most Japanese people can't read my maiden name correctly. So I took at as an advantage to ignore them when they want to call me for something I'm reluctant about ;) Yet it was often frustrating, until I finally lost that maiden name. You don't know what you're missing until you really lose it.
by Uco rate this post as useful

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