Why Kazuchijou.com?
You might be wondering, why did I decide to name this website kazuchijou?
Well, that's because 'Kazuchijou' is the way I write my surname in japanese.
In fact, it is 'KazuchijouNo'.
I know that it sounds lame, and I might be judged for being a massive weeb or
what not, but the reason I don't care is because it's really cool and it actually
makes a lot of sense. Let me explain:
My name is of Spanish origin, so it's 'Del Castillo', which translated to english literally means "From the castle". Now, the way I write this in japanese is '和地城の'. Let's break it down:
和 means "peace", and I chose it for its phonetic value, I was originally
going to use '滓' (kasu), which literally means "dregs"; but while I found it
hilarious in that "self-deprecating" humour kind of way (and my favourite japanese
band is "Mass of the fermented dregs"), my japanese teacher strongly advised me
against it. Because if I ever wished to do business with japanese people It'd be
better not to associate myself with "dregs".
(I also don't appreciate online bullying.)
地 means earth. I chose that one for the phonetics as well. But if you could indulge me
a little bit: castles are built on solid ground, an the ground is made of very firm earth. Besides,
while I don't believe in horoscopes and all that rubbish; people have told me that I'm an
earth elemental or someting like that, so, I guess it's fitting? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm also told that I'm a bit of an obstinate person and that I tend to hold my ground very often.
So yeah, it makes sense, so don't question it, for I won't change my opinion.
Finally, 城 means "Castle", literally. I put it at the end because it's pronounced "jou" which is just "jō" (long vowel). In spanish, the double 'L' sound is pronounced 'jo'. So it's 'Dehl Kas-tee-jo'.
As you might have noticed, all of this words, when pronounced together sound just like my surname in spanish, 'Kazuchijou' -> 'Castillo'. Sometimes the 'u' doesn't make a sound in jappanese when it comes after a consonant (it does sound here but I have decided to ignore that fact).
- But wait!, didn't you say it was "Del Castillo"?? what happened to the "Del"? what does it even mean?
Very well! "Del" means "from" in spanish, and the direct translation to japanese is the particle 'の'. I usually style my name with the kanji version '乃', so that it looks cooler and people think I'm better at japanese than I actually am.
Ok, but why really?
Why did I even bother with all these phonetics and kanjis and stuff?
I believe that languages are alive. At least real languages that have developed over
a very long time, with speakers that use them for everyday life, religion, love, war,
traditions, etc. So when learning a language you must understand not only the grammar
and spelling, but also the culture, the people, the jokes, the art, their angst.
So I want to inmerse myself in every language I learn as much as possible. The way I
did it was with my name (amongst many other things).
It's also easier for japanese people to pronounce it, and I could make a good
impression and people might remember me better.
Besides, this has helped a lot with motivation. One of the reasons people struggle with
(any kind of) learning is because they lack the motivation to do so.
Now, I named the website like that because I'm not really good at coming
up with cool usernames. I've tried many, but none of them really resonate with me.
For example, my co-workers call me 'Ninja' in the office because I'm apparently an
"excel ninja", but using that as my internet handle would be a bit pathetic no? Besides,
there's already a bunch of "ninjas" online everywhere with variants on the name. So, no
thanks.
I used to call myself "CorbeauGris" because I like the colour gray (did you notice?) and because
I had a highschool friend who used to call me "crow" (something to do with a Patrick Rothfuss' book character).
It's in french because I was learning french at that time and I don't need to explain
that part again, do I?. But there was a french artisan with an online business that was
already using the name, and I think he's very talented and a lot more deserving of the name than I am,
so anyways. I might change my current username later some day,
once I've gained a new more interesting and less lame name.
For the time being, I'm just 和地城乃 Daniel
