Remembering reading for names in Japanese media

[matan1]

I recently started playing through the Ace Attorney game in Japanese, and I’ve wondered about how Japanese people remember how the names in Japanese media are pronounced.

In this game, similar to other Japanese media I’ve read, the first time a name is written, its reading is provided (via Hiragana/Katakana). Later on in the game, only the Kanji for the name is provided. However, many of these names are (I think) not a standard reading. As an example, the prosecutor in the first case of the game is called 亜内, and this is pronounced あうち. While this is a possible reading for these 2 kanji, I don’t think it’s standard (and for example, Google translate thinks these should be read あない).

What I wonder - especially as someone with very bad memory who often has a problem keeping track of all the different characters even when reading in English/Hebrew - do Japanese native people usually have an easy time remembering how to read the names of all the characters? Do they sometimes just give up and remember the characters by their Kanji and just forget how to read them (or make up their own reading that makes sense)?

There’s something a bit similar going on in Hebrew by the way. Vowels in Hebrew (Nikud which is the little dots and marks around the letters) are optional and are often missing in non-children books. When a non-obvious name is written for the first time, it will sometimes have Nikud to show you how to pronounce it, but the Nikud will then be missing for the rest of the book. This would often lead me to completely mispronounce character names in stories, e.g. as a kid I thought Haplo from Death Gate Cycle books was called “Appolo”.

[IcyIceBear]

Enjoy the Ace attorney play through! I know I did personally, I made a point to remember the reading of their names when the characters are introduced. Learned that lesson after the first murder victim, who I never learned her name cuz I didn’t properly read it the first time… So I just focused on her kanji and gave her a madeup name that could fit for every time I had to read her name. Same for a couple side characters like lotta heart or an officer in the last story I just could not remember. Ever.

The main characters I cared more about and it’s was easier because their names appear often enough for reinforcement. But I did have to google some of their JP names a couple of times after the introduction, if I wasn’t sure. I will say Ace Attorney does love it’s play on words and puns with names, even in Japanese. 亜内 for example, I could easily remember his reading of あうち because I’ve played through the English version, in which his name is Paine. Pain, ouchie. I tried to connect to the names, because they were funny or clever and it made it loads easier.

Just have fun with it

[EbonyMidget]

@matan1

do Japanese native people usually have an easy time remembering how to read the names of all the characters?

It’s not at all uncommon to see video game streamers have to ask chat how to read a name. It’s even become a running joke on a youtube channel I watch, that one of the two people playing reliably misreads names. Recently they read 東 徹 (Higashi Tōru) as とうてつ for example.

[simias]

Yeah names are a mess even for natives. 亜内 is not too hard however, it’s just the onyomi of 亜 and the kunyomi of 内. It’s not always that simple however, sometimes it’s truly hard to guess and to make matters worse there are often multiple possible readings for the same kanji name.

After a while you’ll start to notice some patterns and very rough rules as to how a certain character is likely to be read in a given name, but you can never be entirely sure if you’re never explicitly told what the name is supposed to be.

What I end up doing when reading books with a lot of hard-to-remember kanji names is just that I create a cheat-sheet with the names and their readings that I use as a bookmark.

[hali_g]

@simias

What I end up doing when reading books with a lot of hard-to-remember kanji names is just that I create a cheat-sheet with the names and their readings that I use as a bookmark.

Same thing, but digitally. In general (not just in Japanese) I have a harder time associating the names with the characters, especially with long-running series. So I have a “Characters” folder in my note-taking app. E.g. my トニカクカワイイ note looks like this:

有栖川 要 ありすがわ かなめ： 中学の後輩
綾 あや： 要のお姉さん

鍵ノ寺 千歳 かぎのじちとせ： 司の妹
時子 ときこ： おばさん

Name, reading, and a quick reminder who they are.

[matan1]

@simias

Yeah names are a mess even for natives. 亜内 is not too hard however, it’s just the onyomi of 亜 and the kunyomi of 内. It’s not always that simple however, sometimes it’s truly hard to guess and to make matters worse there are often multiple possible readings for the same kanji name.

Thank you! I already played through the first few games in English 17 years ago They are actually the reason I originally started to learn Japanese. I just found this old adventuregamers forum thread where I asked people for recommendations for more games like Ace Attorney. One poster from Japan suggested that I can try to learn Japanese to play more games from Japan and that’s what started my Japanese adventure

I’m super excited that I’m finally at the level where I can play these somewhat smoothly in Japanese

[matan1]

@EbonyMidget

It’s not at all uncommon to see video game streamers have to ask chat how to read a name. It’s even become a running joke on a youtube channel I watch, that one of the two people playing reliably misreads names. Recently they read 東 徹 (Higashi Tōru) as とうてつ for example.

That’s really interesting! It’s really cool when you get glimpses of these things in Japanese media. It’s cool to know that some things I struggle with are also a problem for native speakers

[matan1]

And thank you to everyone who suggested keeping a note for all the character names. I just started a spreadsheet for the Ace Attorney characters I run into based on your suggestion

[stephane]

it is a common issue for natives alike indeed.
For the same reason you’d most commonly see people write their name in katakana on waiting lists outside of restaurants rather than Kanji. the waiter wouldn’t be able to tell for example 中島 is ナカシマ or ナカジマ otherwise when calling the name

[simias]

@matan1

I’m super excited that I’m finally at the level where I can play these somewhat smoothly in Japanese

That’s a great feeling, isn’t it?

I actually tried replaying through Ace Attorney in Japanese a little while ago but was immediately frustrated because I still read very slowly and there’s some dialogue that’s on a timer and automatically moves to the next text box after a few seconds have elapsed…

[matan1]

@simias

I actually tried replaying through Ace Attorney in Japanese a little while ago but was immediately frustrated because I still read very slowly and there’s some dialogue that’s on a timer and automatically moves to the next text box after a few seconds have elapsed…

Yeah, those are really annoying! I hope they don’t happen a lot. So far for the few that happened I looked them up in a playthrough on youtube (some of them I just skipped if I thought they didn’t seem important).

Before Ace Attorney I played “Another Code: Recollection” and that was a much easier experience, both because the game mostly has furigana and voice over, but also because you have a text log that let’s you re-read (and re-listen to) all previous dialog. It really helped in the few sections in that game that had timed dialog.

[Beghaus]

One thing of note is that Gyakuten Saiban names are mostly puns or ateji to make a joke about the appearance, job or personality of a character which makes them memorable and easy to remember.

[Fuga]

As a native, I can confirm that not being able to remember the reading of a name is very common even for natives as many other people have suggested!

It’s especially hard to remember when the kanji and the name is so unusual!