Although I’m not a Chinese, I have a Chinese name given by my late Chinese teacher.
It is 乐明(Trad: 樂~)(le4 ming2)
樂 for Joyful
明 for Bright
The question is:
“How would a ‘normal’ Japanese read my name if they happen to see it at first sight?”
(Of course, I can easily look them up in a Japanese dictionary to know the readings of the characters but I wanna get a Japanese pov on this. Thanks in advance!)
2 comments
I’m not a Japanese, but the answer is obvious, they would read it with standard on-yomi readings, i.e. Raku Mei. Notice though that most Japanese people don’t understand simplified Chinese characters and won’t be able to read 乐 at all, only 樂.
Normally you would be called “Rakumei”-san. But these days, the original pronunciation is often respected. (Since it is obvious that it is not a Japanese name, the first thing they will ask you “How is your name pronounced?”)
Also, Japanese people usually cannot read the character “乐”.
It would be conveyed by writing it as “楽”.