My (Chinese) name in Japanese?
 

I'm not sure if this is the right section... or if anyone could help me.

My Chinese name is 曹以峰. Does anyone know how to make it a Japanese name? or is it just like that?

How would you pronounce it?

Thanks in advance! ;D!

It will stay the same in its written form.

It will be read ソウ・イホウ. If you prefer a reading that's closer to its original pronunciation, you will have to tell people. However, that will have to be within the bounfaries of the Japanese sound system for obvious reasons.

Oh! Thank you! ;D My Katakana sorta sucks right now though... but I'll figure it out soon enough. Thanks again. Meh, I don't really care if they pronounce it the original way. (I don't actually speak Mandarin... I speak Cantonese so it's really no point because Cantonese is a dialect.)

OK. If you are familiar with hiragana, it's そう いほう.

Hehe, Just figured it out... it should be read so u . i ho u? I'm pretty bad at Japanese ATM. Thanks for the help though! I really helps!

Alright. I don't mean to confuse you but although it's written そう　いほう, it's pronounced そー　いほー. The そ and ほ are both elongated. In other words, you don't make the "Oh" sound in those places. There is no おう sound combo in Japanese; It's always read as an elongated おー.

Likewise, ありがとう is pronounced ありがとー and さようなら, さよーなら.

If this sounds too confusing, just disregard it for now. You will learn these things soon anyway in the course of your Japanese studies.

I get the gist of what you just said... but I don't know enough Japanese to make use of it yet. I know Japanese doesn't have certain sounds or sound combos so I guess these are one of them?

Thank you! I hope to understand this more in the future.

If you just started learning Japanese, you'll learn what Sashimister is talking about within two days. It's literally one of the very first things you learn. My first day of Japanese class we went over very simple stock phrases (hello, goodbye).

On day two, we learned hiragana for the vowels. We also learned about what SM said.

So, yeah, it really is one of the first things you learn.

Oh! Yeah, my friend started learning it... but they said it was hard because of the Hiragana and Katakana... hehe... basically been learning words online... but no grammar or Hiragana or Katakana yet :S.

Learning hiragana is more important than learning anything else about Japanese except maybe for phrases like "hello" and "goodbye."

This is why I am a fan of formal study, and not online self study. Kyle raises a good point. If you want to study as a hobby and pick of a few phrases, more power to you. But if you are planning on going to Japan for any length of time and want to understand and be understood, nothing beats the power of formal training.

I am not trying to embarrass Justin, but saying "my katakana sorta sucks" or "I am bad ATM" are just thin shields when you should say "I can't read Japanese". It's OK not to be able to read... just be honest with yourself.

Sorry haha, and I agree with you. I really should take formal study... and not some half assed study that I'm doing right now. To be honest, I can't read Japanese, that's the truth.

I think I'm going to find some classes now! ;D.

A side question I forgot to ask on this thread... does my Chinese name in Japanese sound like a funny name when read in Japanese? Like... does it just shout out that I'm Chinese? Because if so... then I don't really see a point in using my Chinese name as my Japanese name.

Your name in Chinese sounds exactly like a Chinese name in Japanese. If you are worried about it, then go with Justin.

:S I sorta wanted a name that would be different from my other names, like... Justin is different from my Chinese name. Oh well haha, I'll worry about names later, but thanks guys! Now I know ;P.