Let's Talk About Names

As you probably know, Japan is a pretty formal society. One of the formalities that different from the US is that people are called by their last names a lot. To most people this is super weird and it does take some getting used to, but to be honest it isn't that hard. When I was on a competitive gymnastics team as a middle schooler the coaches called us by our last names sometimes to get us used to it in case they ever addressed us that way in a competition. Never needed it, but after that I would always respond to someone calling me by my last name.

Enter Japanese class, where the teacher addresses you by your last name and if you write your first name on homework you hand in she won't know who it belongs to. We were all given little name cards so we could know each others names, which were written last name first. While people have learned each others first names at this point, we are supposed to address each other by our last names. One of my classmates even does this outside of class.

So I'm used to being called by my last name that's cool and all but here's the problem: my last name is downright impossible to say in Japanese. My first name is easy, ju ジュ and no ノ, but my last name, the one I will be called by more often, is a nightmare. It has both v and l in it, neither of which exist in the Japanese alphabets. To make it even better, I have an r in there too, which is what l's become. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to write my last name in Japanese and how I may change it to make it actually pronounceable. My aunt has always been able to say it just fine, so obviously it is possible, just have to figure out how to write it.

How about your name? How easy or hard is it to write in Japanese? Are you used to being called by your last name? Give it some thought and comment below how you are going to go about this :D