animeartistjo | Shortening Japanese names! (Reply)

Argh! Argh! Why do ignorant fanfic writers persist in shortening the names of Japanese characters? Do they now know that names like Sakura and Haruka are romanji of kanji? You pick the one of the kanji, not chop off syllables wherever your westernized ear thinks sounds "cute"! For the informed, it is TORTURE. You are murdering a beautiful and symbolic language and there should be guides for this. Examples? Byakuya from Bleach becoming "'Kuya". Worst? He's a noble character and of a senior rank. The one calling him that atrocity is his underling, and lower class and not even that familiar with him! The most prevalent one, however, is Kakashi. Would someone of Iruka's character start calling a genius, eccentric jounin "Kashi" or, dear God, "Kaka"? And it just sounds WRONG!

If anyone's Japanese that reads this, from what I know of Japanese culture, only parents might call their children, close-close friends, siblings, and children would ever use shortened names like this. True, or false? My impression that formality, etiquette, and respect is much more important than "cutesy" and when they do, it's just the first name with a -chan suffix.

Hey,

darkestnight12, you're taking Japanese right now--what of it? Did I totally get this all wrong?

-------------------------- Another note
Nevermind the Merlin prompt.