Japanese name pronunciations

[CoyoteChris]

I am pretty hurt that you guys have been fibbing when it comes to the real Japanese skater name pronunciations....
http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd385/CoyoteChris303/skating/scoresthree_zpsdcae861d.jpg

 

[jkun]

I am pretty hurt that you guys have been fibbing when it comes to the real Japanese skater name pronunciations....
http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd385/CoyoteChris303/skating/scoresthree_zpsdcae861d.jpg

oh google translate you..Or you could just watch British Eurosport try to pronounce the Japanese names..

 

[Caustica]

I'm Chinese and Japanese names are all written using Chinese characters, and my family always gets amused by Japanese skaters' names, because reading them out in Chinese sounds kind of ludicrous Especially Tatsuki being 'tree' and Mura being 'no good'... it is so hard to talk about them seriously in Chinese! My mum really likes Hanyu's name though; she likes the meaning.

 

[cruzceleste]

I'm Chinese and Japanese names are all written using Chinese characters, and my family always gets amused by Japanese skaters' names, because reading them out in Chinese sounds kind of ludicrous Especially Tatsuki being 'tree' and Mura being 'no good'... it is so hard to talk about them seriously in Chinese! My mum really likes Hanyu's name though; she likes the meaning.

What does it mean?

 

[leolion11]

I'm Chinese and Japanese names are all written using Chinese characters, and my family always gets amused by Japanese skaters' names, because reading them out in Chinese sounds kind of ludicrous Especially Tatsuki being 'tree' and Mura being 'no good'... it is so hard to talk about them seriously in Chinese!

Same here! My family was just laughing over Kanako's name the other day

My mum really likes Hanyu's name though; she likes the meaning.

Weirdly, my parents dislike his name. Not the meaning, but more of the way it sounds in Chinese.

 

[cruzceleste]

Weirdly, my parents dislike his name. Not the meaning, but more of the way it sounds in Chinese.

Can you romanaized the pronunciation?

 

[CarneAsada]

Can you romanaized the pronunciation?

Yu3 Sheng1 Jie2(maybe 1?) Xian2
IPA: Y˩ ʂɤŋ˥ tɕjɛ˧˥ (or is it ˥?) ɕjɛn˧˥

 

[cruzceleste]

Yu3 Sheng1 Jie2(maybe 1?) Xian2
IPA: Y˩ ʂɤŋ˥ tɕjɛ˧˥ (or is it ˥?) ɕjɛn˧˥

Thank you, doesn´t sound weird to me

 

[Perdita]

What does it mean?

I don't know about Chinese but in Japanese his name means like this:

羽=wing
生=birth, life
結=tie
弦=string, bowstrings

His father said somewhere that he named him Yuzuru(結弦) because he wanted him to become a dignified man like tied bowstings. (I don't know this metaphor works in other language but tied bowstrings are very tense like a dignified, graceful person) It's not a classic Japanese name but I think it's very beautiful.

And, Tanaka criminal is hilarious
Keiji means detective, so his name is a bit awkward in Japanse also as it looks like 'detective Tanaka', but 'Tanaka criminal' is way too funny. lol

 

[leolion11]

Thank you, doesn´t sound weird to me

Haha I guess it's just the sound that my family isn't used too. Some names just sound nice and some don't, so I guess his name just doesn't sound nice to my family. OTOH, the meaning of his name is just YMMV, though.

 

[cruzceleste]

I don't know about Chinese but in Japanese his name means like this:

羽=wing
生=birth, life
結=tie
弦=string, bowstrings

His father said somewhere that he named him Yuzuru(結弦) because he wanted him to become a dignified man like tied bowstings. (I don't know this metaphor works in other language but tied bowstrings are very tense like a dignified, graceful person) It's not a classic Japanese name but I think it's very beautiful.

Thank you, the meaning is really preatty

 

[yhmafan]

I always think his name(結弦) is really beautiful.

I don't know about Chinese but in Japanese his name means like this:

羽=wing
生=birth, life
結=tie
弦=string, bowstrings

His father said somewhere that he named him Yuzuru(結弦) because he wanted him to become a dignified man like tied bowstings. (I don't know this metaphor works in other language but tied bowstrings are very tense like a dignified, graceful person) It's not a classic Japanese name but I think it's very beautiful.

he was born to do skate.

 

[Globetrotter]

Same here! My family was just laughing over Kanako's name the other day

Oh dear. Because Murakami (村上) means something like upper village and kanako (佳菜子) in chinese translates roughly to being good mini vegetables? I thought the meaning actually does mean pretty good from a cultural sense considering the agrarian background of old Chinese and Japanese society.

 

[TMC]

I can't believe this - I lay up for about an hour last night wondering how you pronounce Machida, as in which syllable/s do you stress.

This morning I come here and the very first thread in "New Posts" is this one

 

[CarneAsada]

I can't believe this - I lay up for about an hour last night wondering how you pronounce Machida, as in which syllable/s do you stress.

Japanese relies mostly on pitch accent as opposed to stress accent, so... don't stress any syllables? And I see no macrons, so all three syllables would be the same length. No idea about the pitch, though, as I don't speak Japanese.

 

[TMC]

Japanese relies mostly on pitch accent as opposed to stress accent, so... don't stress any syllables? And I see no macrons, so all three syllables would be the same length. No idea about the pitch, though, as I don't speak Japanese.

Oh okay thanks! I've heard Mach-i-dah and Ma-chi-dah but obviously both may be wrong...

 

[starlight97]

This is a complete other world to me that I know nothing about, but I'd just like to say that languages like Japanese, Chinese or Korean are simply fascinating.
For 'western' people like me it seems almost impossible how people can be able to speak them and especially write them!
It's also such a different feeling to the language, meaning of words etc.
I grew up bilingual and then learned English and French also but I think all these 4 roman languages together would still be easier to learn than say Japanese.
Just very interesting and I have a lot of respect for you guys who speak Chinese or Japanese as mother tongues and are so proficient in English :shocked:

 

[Violetti]

Some Japanese names mean something in Finnish like Kanako "is it hen?" or simply "hen?", Mura "mud", Sota "war" Sato "harvest" or "crop". But I am used to that and nothing against these beautiful skaters.

 

[xabia]

I always thought Daisuke was pronounced Dye Soo ki . However after listening to the Japanese announcers I now know it's pronounced Dye-Ski with the emphasis on Dye.

 

[Perdita]

I always thought Daisuke was pronounced Dye Soo ki . However after listening to the Japanese announcers I now know it's pronounced Dye-Ski with the emphasis on Dye.

Yes, that's right to put emphasis on Dye, but, this is something I always wanted to say, Daisuke is pronounced like Dye-ské not Dye-ski.
British ESP commentators have been calling him 'Dye-ski Takahashi' and if pronounced like that, it sounds as if they are saying 'I love Takahashi' in Japanese (Dye-ski means 'I love') Well, they loved him a lot so maybe there wasn't a problem...