Japanese Names in Chinese Languages
In Chinese speaking communities, Japanese names are considered in the form of Chinese characters, but not pronunciation. When referring to a Japanese person, the characters in his name will be spoken as in the Chinese language used. For example, in a Mandarin speech, 山田 太郎 (Yamada Tarō) will become "Shāntián Tàiláng", while 鳩山 由紀夫 (Hatoyama Yukio) will become "Jiūshān Yóujìfū". As a result, a Japanese person without adequate knowledge of Chinese would not understand their name when it is spoken in Chinese.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Name
Famous quotes containing the words japanese, names, chinese and/or languages:
“No human being can tell what the Russians are going to do next, and I think the Japanese actions will depend much on what Russia decides to do both in Europe and the Far East—especially in Europe.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“At present our only true names are nicknames.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Elsa Bannister: The Chinese say “It is difficult for love to last long; therefore one who loves passionately is cured of love, in the end.”
Michael O’Hara: That’s a hard way of thinking.
Elsa: There’s more to the proverb: “Human nature is eternal; therefore one who follows his nature keeps his original nature, in the end.””
—Orson Welles (1915–1985)
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)