Showing posts with label Japanese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japanese. Show all posts

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Names

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Partly because I don't think many people know about my blog and partly because I kind of forgot I had a Blogger account. Ooopss...

I have a predicament though, and so I figured this was a good place to mull it over.

I'm considering changing the Japanese kanji of my name.At the moment, the symbols I'm using for Rachel are 莉知絵琉 which read as れい(rei) + (chi) + (e) + る(ru). My problem, however, is that both and are very rarely used, and to make matters more complicated, I'm using their least known readings. Usually is read as("ri") not れい("rei") and usually is read as りゅう("ryuu") not ("ru").
Western names in Japanese can be tricky. Some are downright impossible.
For instance, the closest you could hope to get to the name "Kathy" would be カシー(kashii) and Sylvia would be translated as something like シルビア(shirubia). And those are just with the Japanese alphabet
Finding a Western name in Kanji is very challenging. I'm lucky that Rachel is so easily written.

Anyway, I've narrowed the options I have down to a few (okay, really several)combinations.


For the first character, れい(rei) can be either:

 which means Jasmine and is the character I am using now for my name. However, it’s rare.

which means Dark or Black. This one looks okay, but it doesn’t appeal to me as much as the other two choises.

which means Sound of Jewels (weirdly random and specific meaning right? I mean, sound of jewels banging together or what?) This one is my first choice, but one of the readings is れ(re) and one isれい(rei) so I don’t want people misreading my name too much.


For the second character, which is (chi) I have narrowed it down to two choices the they both have the same meaning and the same reading: means Wisdom
means Wisdom and is the character I am currently using in my name.

The third character is for (e)
means Blessing/Favor/Grace

means Picture or Drawing and it is the character I am currently using for my name.


The fourth, and final, character is for (ru) and they both mean lapis lazuli
which is the character I am using right now

which is more common that the other.
 So right now I am using 莉知絵琉
I can either keep my name like that (which is hard to read) or change it.
I like either 玲智恵瑠 or 黎智恵瑠 best, I just need to see if they’re readable.
Only reason I haven’t changed it yet is because I already have written all over things, I have a handmade hanko with and I’d have to thoroughly go through and change all of those things if I ever change my name.


Oh well… I guess if I do it though I better do it sooner rather than later.

If I’m having this much trouble deciding the kanji for my name then naming kids in Japan, China, and wherever else they use Kanji for names must be a pain…

Sunday, January 11, 2009

日本語の仕事 - Jobs in Japanese

専攻や、副専攻や、日本語の仕事の機会
Majors, Minors, and Japanese language job opportunities

今の私は、大学生ですよ!!短大に入りました。 大学に転学したいのです。心理学か、社会学か、語学かを専攻したいし、日本語を副専攻したいです。大学の日本語の教師を連絡しました。 教師によると、私は上級の日本語の授業を受ければいい。

I'm a college student now!! I got into a junior college and I want to transfer to a university. I'd like to major in psychology, sociology, or linguistics and I want to minor in Japanese language. I've contacted the Japanese professor at the university I want to go to and according to them, my Japanese is good enough for their higher level classes!

日本語の副専攻は、どんな仕事が出来ますか?? 答えが簡単ですわねぇ!! 色々な日本語の仕事があります。 本当に、選択が多い!

So what kind of jobs are possible with a minor in Japanese?? The answer is easy!! There are a lot of jobs for Japanese. Really, there are a ton of options.

一番明らかな仕事は翻訳者だね。日本語を翻訳できるアメリカ人が本当に珍しいでしょ! だから、観光客のため、会社のため、外交のため、何でものための翻訳者の仕事ができますね!

The most obvious job is a translator. Americans who can translate Japanese are probably pretty unique! So someone could be a translator for tourists, a company, diplomacy, or anything!

でも、もし翻訳者になりたくないならば、教えることもできます。先生とか、教師になることができます。英語と日本語を教えることが少し難しそうですが、楽しくて面白い仕事みたい。

But, if someone doesn't really want to be a translator, they could also teach. They could become a teacher or professor. Teaching English as a foreign language or Japanese as a foreign languages seems pretty difficult, but it also sounds like a fun and interesting job!

もっと珍しい仕事が欲しいならば、外国人に文化を教えることができますね! つまり、アメリカ人に、日本の文化と礼儀を教えれます。日本人に、アメリカの文化と礼儀を教えれます。そんな仕事が本当に珍しくて楽しいでしょ!

If someone is looking for an even more unique job, they could teach culture to foreigners. In other words, they could teach Japanese culture and manners to Americans, and American culture and manners to Japanese. A job like that would really be fun and different!

だから、日本語は珍しい副専攻だけど、楽しい仕事の機会が多いだと思います。

So, Japanese is a unique minor, but I think there are a lot of fun job opportunities that come with it!

その上で、日本の文化は、とても静かで興味深い文化と思います。 日本の文化は私の日本語の勉強の原因です。 日本の芸術とか、音楽とか、まぶしいお寺やお城がとてもすてきだと思います。

On top of all that, I think that Japanese culture is very peaceful and it's really interesting. Japanese culture is actually the reason I study Japanese. I think that Japanese art, music, magnificent temples, and castles, are all so wonderful!

それでは! 日本語を勉強しましょうねぇ! 笑

(みんなさんへ、私のブログが分かりにくくて読めないならば、教えてください。 正しい日本語を説明してください。 ありがとうございます!よろしくお願いします!)

So! Shall we go study Japanese?? lol

(Ok everyone, if my Japanese blog was hard to understand or if it was unreadable, please let be know! Please explain proper Japanese. Thank you!)