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asphy

Hi! I'm a bit curious about how a Chinese name would be converted to Japanese because there's an opening for the Japan branch of my office and I'm interested in taking it but I'm also apprehensive about it because I'm not sure how different the lifestyle there is, plus there's the language barrier and all that. (I mean, even if we say that all the employees there are fluent in English like me, I can't stay in the office forever if ever I do apply for the position and get chosen, right? But the promotion's benefits are really good so...) Also, I know that the Japanese use Chinese characters and I think that it will help a lot in the greater scheme of things but there's a lot of different ways of reading the characters so even if I do know the meaning of the symbol, I wouldn't know how to read it in Japanese.

...er, sorry for babbling.

I appreciate any and all help. Thank you so much!

Oh, and my name's 楊(yang2)佳(jia1)玲(ling2) in Chinese.

roro

http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E6%A5%8A&eng=&dict=enamdic
For your surname, I would suggest Yanai or Yanagi in Japanese - not just because these look the closest to your name in Chinese, but also because I think they are probably the most common.

http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E4%BD%B3%E7%8E%B2&eng=&dict=enamdic

I hope these help.

Richard

In the past your family name would have been pronounced 'Yo', as that's how the kanji 楊 is pronounced in Japanese. However, nowadays it's common to approximate the Chinese pronunciation and I think your colleagues will probably call you Yan. I don't know if you can read kana yet, but if you can read katakana you can see the pronunciation of this Taiwanese singer (born in 1984) is given as Yan.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A5%8A%E4%B8%9E%E7%90%B3

I should think your colleagues will call you by your surname because you're Asian, but your full name can be approximated to Yan Ja Rin.

Japanese lifestyle varies a lot depending where you live and so on. If it sounds interesting and fun though, give it a try. Knowing kanji will help you learn Japanese more quickly.

roro

Posted By: Richard
[p]nowadays it's common to approximate the Chinese pronunciation and I think your colleagues will probably call you Yan.[/p]

I knew this was true for people from most other countries (whether Asian, European...), but I didn't know this was the case for non-Japanese names that are written with Chinese characters. I did have a Chinese friend in Japan who chose to use a Japanese reading of her name which was quite different to the Chinese original, but maybe she just did this because she thought it was cool.

Tobberoth

I think a person with a sinogram name can choose themselves how to go about doing it, but using an approximation is probably the most common. My korean girlfriends lastname is 林 and while it happens that japanese people read it "hayashi" (because they mistake her for a japanese person), her name is actually "Im" and it's pronounced イム, not りん as would be a japanese on'yomi reading of the actual kanji.

Richard

Posted By: roro
I did have a Chinese friend in Japan who chose to use a Japanese reading of her name which was quite different to the Chinese original, but maybe she just did this because she thought it was cool.

I think it's in enough of a transitional phase that you can do that, but it would be more natural to use an approximation. At least that's what they use on the news and in newspapers.

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