The Japanese pronunciation of my name is rather ungainly. It's downright offensive, even. "Maruta." It's just a Japanese accent "katakanizing" a Western name, and it happens to us all. James becomes "Jai-muzu." White becomes "Howaito." Chris becomes "Kurisu." You get the idea.
But at my first school, I was greeted with some awkward glances when I introduced myself, "Marta." Towards the middle of the day, one teacher told me in short it means "log." The history is ugly and it was actually a codename for a project for human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Experiments were performed in a secret facility under the guise of a lumber mill, so the human subjects (prisoners of war) were referred to as "logs." Authorities would inquire about progress by asking "How many logs" had fallen that day.
Yeah. It's the ugly side of history. Fortunately, nobody brings it up. Most students and teachers call me "Ma-ta" and some of the more advanced kids can actually manage the tricky "r" and call me "Marta sensei." Still, my ugly name nagged at me. In Japan, parents name their children based on their features or the qualities they hope their children will have. Names like that are written with kanji where each character has a meaning...
See, kanji is like if math and Pictionary had a kid. Each character has a meaning. You add that to other characters and you get a new meaning which relates to the characters involved. Watch this:
a character for person + yama (mountain) = 仙 hermit / wizard
alcohol + demon = 醜い ugly
tiger + sword + pig = 劇 drama
The character for "horse" ( 馬 ) is actually in "gallop" : 駈ける Can you see it!? How cool is that?
Well anyway, last week at わが中学校, I was having a free talk time with one of the third year class so they could practice asking questions. I won't be returning to this school, sadly, for the next school year, so I think as an act of kindness, the English teacher asked the students to write my kanji name! I was really touched: it's another step into their world. They spent some time thinking and writing, then handed in what they came up with. I spent my next free period translating them.
Maru Ta 丸田 Round rice field
Ma Ru Ta 真流多 True flow many or Many flowing truths
Ma(i) Ru Ta 舞ルタ Dance "ru ta"
Ma Ru Ta 魔ルタ Devil "ru ta"
Other translations were a bit loose including 麻ル田 Read as "Maruta" it uses the character "asa" for "ma" and translates (kind of) to "Hemp Field."
I'm going to miss these kids.
I suppose I am lucky with my name as Sarah isn't too hard. Although, I've gotten used to the spelling of Sara now as its easier for them to write. However, on Wednesday a student wrote my name in a very interesting way. She wrote Sala, which I guess I could understand as the Japanese do mix up their R's and L's. But she has written my name correctly before.
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