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my name in japanese? 2020/12/7 22:36
my chinese name is 陈欣蔚, or 陳欣蔚. was wondering if there were any japanese surnames with the kanji 陳? and i saw somewhere that 陳 can also be read as you/yo other than chin but i don't see it anywhere else so i'm very very confused. and apparently there is only a kunyomi pronunciation of 欣 which is very long. thank you for your help!
by xin wei (guest)  

Re: can anyone help read my name in japanese? 2020/12/8 12:19
In Japan, Chinese names written in kanji are not pronounced according to their Japanese kunyomi or onyomi readings. They are instead pronounced like they would be in Chinese, or at least as close to the pronunciation as can be rendered in the set of sounds Japanese has (i.e. the syllables that can be written in hiragana/katakana).

For example, I had a Chinese coworker in Japan whose family name is written as 王. The Japanese pronunciation for this kanji would be Ou, but nobody called her Ou-san. We all called her Wan-san (Wan/ワン being the closest Japanese rendering of "Wang"). So how is your name pronounced in Chinese?
by . . . . (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: can anyone help read my name in japanese? 2020/12/8 12:22
For comparison, consider the name Jesus, which is written the same way in English and Spanish, but pronounced differently. I English, it's pronounced with a hard J and short U, like "Gee-suhs," but in Spanish it's pronounced with an H sound and a more drawn out U, like "Hey-soos."

However, if a Mexican person named Jesus moves to America, people won't call him "Gee-suhs," they'll still call him "Hey-soos."
by . . . . (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: can anyone help read my name in japanese? 2020/12/8 12:25
ah, my name is pronounced as chén xīn wèi
by xin wei (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: can anyone help read my name in japanese? 2020/12/8 12:27
「 i saw somewhere that 陳 can also be read as you/yo other than chin」

Ah, sorry, I didn't notice this. So does this mean that 陳 is pronounced Chin? If so, then in Japan people will also pronounce your name as "Chin" (チン).
by . . . . (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: can anyone help read my name in japanese? 2020/12/8 14:13
There are quite a few Japanese residents with Chinese ancestry, and 陳 is among the commonly known family names here in Japan. It is typically pronounced as "Chin". As an example, the 陳 建民 chef family is very famous.
by Uco rate this post as useful

Re: my name in japanese? 2020/12/9 16:30
@. . . .
There are 3 王さん in my company and they're all being called Ou-san by everyone ;-)
by MarSch27 rate this post as useful

Re: my name in japanese? 2020/12/9 22:54
To ....
You can’t generalize a particular case in your circumstance. In my place of work, there was a 王さん and I asked him in which way he wanted to be called. He answered he didn’t care, either Ou or Wang. I myself called him Ou-San, and the other collègues, too.
by ... (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: my name in japanese? 2020/12/10 00:43
There are 3 王さん in my company and they're all being called Ou-san by everyone ;-)

I think it all depends on how you introduce yourself when you first start in a company. If you say : I am O , then that’s how people will call you.

What I see in my company is
1) people who Stick with their Chinese name and use the best katakana pronounciation that there is for it.
2) people that take their chinese character but pronounce it in a totally Japanese way.
3) people that use an English first name and then are known eg as Vicky-san, and even will have an email as Vicky.Chen@...com
But in their passport that English name isn’t anywhere. But for all things inside the company they are Vicky-san.

So good news, you can really chose what you like best. But chose it early.
by LikeBike rate this post as useful

Re: my name in japanese? 2020/12/10 10:34
@....
Yes of course I didn't mean that you were wrong or anything!
I meant to say the same thing as LikeBike said in the previous message; to some extent foreigners can decide what they want to be called.
As for chinese names it seems that both readings can be used.
by MarSch27 rate this post as useful

Re: my name in japanese? 2020/12/10 12:17
「I meant to say...to some extent foreigners can decide what they want to be called. As for chinese names it seems that both readings can be used.」

Oh yeah definitely. People will pretty much call you whatever you introduce yourself as. I was just pointing out that names aren't like other vocabulary words in that they're automatically changed when you're speaking Japanese. Like, if you're Chinese and your name is written in kanji as 陳 and pronounced "Chin" in Chinese, people in Japan aren't going to say "Oh, but in Japan we pronounce that kanji as Tsuraneru, so when speaking Japanese that's what your name is."
by @ MarSch27 (guest) rate this post as useful

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