How do I translate people’s names to Japanese without an online translator?
September 29, 2009 - 7:14 pm
Okay,
now my friends always ask me for their name in Japanese because I’m studying the language now…
But,
I don’t want to have to look it up on the web all the time! Even my classmates want to know their name, but I don’t have enough time to search all their names!
How do I find out someone’s name in Katakana Japanese without an online translator?!
I found this in Yahoo! Japan… I hope it helps.
http://www.excite.co.jp/dictionary/english_japanese/?search=Samantha&match=beginswith&dictionary=NEW_EJJE&block=42191&offset=1976&title=Samantha
Just type in a name and click the 検索 next to the box, then pick which number best matches, and it’ll show you the katakana… It doesn’t work for everybody…
September 30th, 2009 at 12:28 am
What does their name sound like?
Katakana is actually pretty easy if you don’t let it intimidate you. Once you know all the characters, you shouldn’t have much difficulty writing out their names on your own. Just think of exactly how it is pronounced and the Japanacize it! For instance, anything that ends in a consonant probably needs to be turned into a -u in katakana. Don’t forget about boru (ー) and chisaii tsu (ッ). Katakana is only really hard when the Japanese truncate an English word when they put it into everyday-use katakana.
For instance
バルピ brad pitt
ボーロペン ball point pen
ジルバ jitterbug
So, just give your best guess! It’s good practice and, if you’re wrong, it’s not like they’ll ever know, right?
References :
September 30th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Aside from N, every consonant in Japanese has to have a vowel.
If you remember this rule, it’s really easy to have a good idea on how to write a name. Don’t focus on how the name looks written in English. Just focus on how it’s said.
So, for a name like Alex, it’s said like "A le ks," don’t you think?
But the Japanese consonant rule says you have to have a vowel. So "A le ku su"
And does Japanese have "le"? No. It has the next closest thing: re.
Now say "arekusu". It sounds pretty close but not totally, right? The "Ku" sounds a bit different in "Alex". Why? Because there’s a stop in the middle. So you have to do that in Japanese. In Japanese that stop is represented by ッ and written in romaji as a doubled consonant.
Which gives you arekkusu アレックス
Here’s a longer name: Katrina
Break it down into what it sounds like. Ka tree na
Remember the vowel rule: ka to ri na
And notice that the "i" sound in Katrina is long and not short. So you write ー which makes any sound longer. In romaji you can write it either as two vowels or -. It’s up to you.
Katoriina / katori-na カトリーナ
References :
Japanese major in 5th year of study
September 30th, 2009 at 1:32 am
I found this in Yahoo! Japan… I hope it helps.
http://www.excite.co.jp/dictionary/english_japanese/?search=Samantha&match=beginswith&dictionary=NEW_EJJE&block=42191&offset=1976&title=Samantha
Just type in a name and click the 検索 next to the box, then pick which number best matches, and it’ll show you the katakana… It doesn’t work for everybody…
References :