I occasionally talk to a couple of people in Japan via e-mail and asked one how to write my name in Kanji. Realizing that there are several ways to do so, I was curious which characters would be selected. I don't read Kanji yet, so this is pretty much just lovely squiggles to me. I used this Kanji dictionary to look up each individual character, and found them to be interesting choices. My friend speaks limited English and had difficulty explaining it to me. I was just told that it was a "difficult reading," which is appropriate since I can be a difficult person. :)
It would be super nice if anyone would like to leave a comment with a little more information on the reading. I'm still very clueless when it comes to Kanji. Arigatou gozaimasu!
It would be super nice if anyone would like to leave a comment with a little more information on the reading. I'm still very clueless when it comes to Kanji. Arigatou gozaimasu!
花素籐 華阿羅
(My apologies to anyone reading who doesn't have Japanese fonts enabled. I really did cut and paste Kanji above!)
6 comments:
Well, I'm no kanji expert at all, but the first kanji is 'hana' (flower) and I think the 4th kanji is also something to do with flowers.
Do you use Rikaichan? (http://rikaichan.mozdev.org/). It's a great way to have a go at reading difficult kanji!
Hi I followed a link her from Haikugirl's blog...
It's not uncommon for Japanese people to not know how to read or write a person's name (usually their given name rather than a family name). At a dry cleaners my wife wrote her mother's name in kana above the kanji when writing it for the shop assistant. I've seen business cards with this furigana as well for uncommon names. And when re-writing a list of family and friends recently my wife and nephew were continually commenting on how the kanji were difficult for them! They knew the names of course just not which kanji, or how some kanji were read.
As kanji can have more than one reading (especially for names) I can only begin to guess as to your name. (This is a bit like Rumplestiltskin)
But I can see a meaning (or potential meaning) in your choice of kanji.
flower-essence-cane かすとう？
flower-africa/flatter-gauze かあら？
I'd say 籐 is uncommon. It isn't taught in the school system for instance. I doubt it's used in names. 素 makes me think of atoms as it's used in the names of chemical elements.
I did find a Japanese name using your kanji for kara but without the long vowel. 華羅 [から] Kara (f) I think it's quite nice --, silken petals, or silken flowers,
But if you ever want a hanko, you might have difficulty. When I went to have one made, the maker didn't want to use my difficult kanji, and I ended up with something much more simple and commonplace but easier to carve. (呂馬人 instead of 驢馬跡)
@haikugirl: I installed Rikaichan a while back, but it wasn't working- or so I thought. As it turns out, I am simply impatient and didn't wait for it to load. So after you mentioned it, I tried again and *gasp!* It works! Thanks for the nudge; it will be very helpful!
@ロバート: Thank you for the great information! I had wondered about the extended vowel, but the way I pronounce Kara doesn't translate very well into Japanese (long A in the first syllable). While reading your analysis, I had lots of giggles as I considered new nicknames like Atomic Flower Cane. Maybe once I learn a respectable number of Kanji, I'll select my own for my name. I always wanted to rename myself, and that would be my chance.
I think if I ever get a hanko, maybe I'll go with the Kanji for "difficult."
And welcome to both of you! Thank you for your replies!
I can read it! Muahahhahahaha. But in the Chinese way. Let me give ya a breakdown of it in the Chinese sense. Its pretty similar to the Japanese Kanji.
-Plus, I have nothing better to do :D-
花 - flower
素 - an element
籐 - cane, stick
華 - Asian/Chinese
阿 - Ah sound
羅 - I don't know T.T
*thumps up* I'm being a complete loser. Ignore my weirdness :D
You are such a cheater! Thanks for the info, though. Kinda neat to see the correlations between the modern languages.
*ninja* I am a cheater, I read Japanese and can understand most of the kanji. The easy kanji anyways :D
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