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 the surname
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 phonetic as well. But oddly enough,
while I don't believe in horoscopes and all that rubbish, people tell me I'm an
earth elemental or someting like that, so, I guess it's fitting? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm also well known to be an incredibly patient person, so "peace" + "earth"
describes my personality very well. And castles are literally built on the
ground.
Finally, 城 means "Castle", literally. I put it at the end because it's
pronounced "jou" which is just "jō" (long vowel).
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 old 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?
There is a fact that I hold as truth. I believe that languages are alive. At least
real languages that have developed over a very long amount of 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
learning is because they lack the motivation to do so. There are many factors that affect
language learning (or any learning whatsoever), and motivation is incredibly important.
Now, I named the website after my japanese name 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 real life 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 of the word. So, no
thanks.
I used to call myself "CorbeauGris" because a highschool friend used to call me "crow"
(something to do with a character from a Patrick Rothfuss' book) and my favourite colour.
It's in french because I was learning french at the moment and I don't need to explain
that part again now, do I?. But there was a french artisan with a business that was
already using the name, so anyways. I might change my current username later some day,
once I've gained a new more interesting an less lame name.
For the time being, I'm just 和地城乃 Daniel
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