If you're traveling to Japan, it'll be convenient to know what the Japanese version of your name might be. Sure, Japanese study English in school, but they might have difficulty understanding the pronunciation of your name and being able to repeat it. That's because some English sounds aren't represented in the Japanese language. In Japanese, the sounds for “f,” “l,” and “v” simply do not exist. The consonant blend “th” is also absent. Vowel-consonant blends such as the “ci” in “circle,” “di” in “did,” and “ddy” in “daddy” are also difficult for Japanese to pronounce. Recognizing the difference between a soft g and z can also pose problems for Japanese when trying to understand spoken English.

To compensate for the difficulty in correctly pronouncing certain sounds in the English language, the Japanese opt for convenience over precision. “F” becomes a whispery h sound, making the word “foot” into hoot. Likewise, “th” is substituted with the sound of s or z so that “the” becomes za. As the English language is introduced to Japanese children at younger and younger ages, the ability to pronounce sounds outside of their mother tongue will most likely increase. Until that time, though, the Japanese must make due with their katakana versions of challenging English sounds.

A Useful Technique

Now that you are becoming familiar with the availability of sounds in Japanese, you can begin to determine how to translate your name into something people can pronounce. First, write your name on a piece of paper. Now, say it out loud to yourself, and see if you can break it up into syllables. Then, see which of the syllables don't exist in Japanese (you can use the tables in this chapter to check yourself). For each foreign syllable, substitute a Japanese syllable that is closest in sound. Note that if your name ends in a consonant, an “o” sound is usually added to the end. For example, “David” would be Dabido.