72053
I moved to a different country and joined a new karate club. Sensei speaks
only Japanese and I'm ok with the commands he gives, but the ridiculous
situation is that he can't pronounce my name (Povilas).

It became a comic problem when he names everyone - Tom, Ann, Patrick, etc.,
but I'm left alone and he just points at me and asks - "What's your name
again?".

How would "Povilas" sound in Japanese? Maybe there's a similar sounding word
or combination of two words?

Help is very much appreciated - I just want him to know who I am.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T09:04:23.653
72048
2019-11-12T03:11:05.693
35462
question
translation
What's my name in Japanese - Sensei can't pronounce it
I have found one famous person has the same name as you in Japanese Wikipedia.

"Povilas Vanagas", a Lithuanian ice dancer, is translated as
[「ポヴィラス・ヴァナガス」](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9D%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BB%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A1%E3%83%8A%E3%82%AC%E3%82%B9)
.

Japanese don't distinguish [l] and [r] , [b] and [v]. It might be difficult
for your karate sensei to catch and distinguish the sounds of your name by
their ear at first time.

If you accept _Povilas_ as「ポヴィラス」to be spelt in Japanese, I assume one of the
explanation to pronounce it like:

" ** _Po_** " as "Pokémon" : 「 **ポ** ケモン」

" ** _vi_** " as "Venus" : 「 **ヴィ** ーナス」

" ** _las_** " as "Last" : 「 **ラス** ト」or "Las Vegas" 「 **ラス** べガス」.

Use the bold part and concatenate altogether to pronounce your name. I hope it
works.

I remember it was very difficult for me to pronounce "Woolworths",
supermarkets in Australia. I pronounced "Wool" + "Worths" very slowly and
tried to pronounce them at once. I recommend you ask him to pronounce your
name very slowly at first.

There are questions discussed about the difficulties for Japanese to
distinguish those sounds:

[Do Japanese actually pronounce the "v"
sound?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/24498/do-japanese-
actually-pronounce-the-v-sound)

[Why do Japanese speakers have difficulty pronouncing
"L"?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/8324/why-do-japanese-
speakers-have-difficulty-pronouncing-l/9327#9327)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T11:37:43.723
72053
2019-09-24T11:37:43.723
34735
72048
answer