Every now and then, I start to wonder about the silliest things. Today, while on the phone with a customer service rep, I was asked, "How do you spell that, please?" with regard to my name. It made me wonder: how do Japanese people "spell" their names when they are in audio-only environments?

I assume surnames are easier, since they seem to be fairly standardized, but what about given names?

They generally just say which kanji it is. If it's a very unusual kanji, they refer to it by the names of the radicals, like きへん for the tree radical in 検.

Yeah, when I explain my name in kanji I say 世界の「セ」、水が澄んでるの「ス」for 世澄

Tobberoth Wrote:They generally just say which kanji it is. If it's a very unusual kanji, they refer to it by the names of the radicals, like きへん for the tree radical in 検.

I don't have any real life experience, but from watching TV shows, this is what I've seen. Almost every highschool show with a new student has them in front of the class giving their name and describing which kanji make it.

Right, they just use words that use that kanji to explain. My name is 弓矢の矢と田んぼの田　for 矢田/Yada.

Ah, that makes sense. It's similar to the way, in English, we might say "F, like in Frank" because 1) we know that, over the phone, "F" might sound like "S" and 2) it's highly likely that the listener can spell "Frank" because it's a common name and doesn't have lot of variations.

Of course, there's probably some wiseguy out there named "Phranque", but he'll have to spell it for us. "P, like in Paul...".

Thanks, all! One more wonderling, put to rest.

I actually "quit" RTK1 last month due to loss of motivation.

I still use it a lot though. What happened was that it was really beginning to bug me that the book didn't have any readings, so I've started to concentrate more on reading and writing, and I actually use my RTK book as my central repository for compounds and readings that I've learned. I pencil them in next to the kanji I feel is the most relevant.

I'll probably start up again in the future, but when I do, I don't think I'd actually start over from frame 1.