Jona-san

Japanese people have a lot of trouble with the name Jonathan. It's the "th" that they find hard to pronounce, and, as a result, Jonathan usually comes out as Jonasan in Japanese.

But being called Jonasan in Japanese creates problems. "San" is the honorific that attaches to everyone's name in Japan -- usually translated as "Mr., Ms. or Mrs." in English -- and my name becomes Jonasan-san in polite situations. Oshikawa-san was the first to draw attention to how much trouble this caused for Japanese people. "Jonasan-san to iu no ha mendokusai yo!," he would say. "Jonasan-san-san-san -- kiri ga nai!" ("It's really annoying having to say Jonathan-san! Jonathan-san-san-san -- it never ends!")

Most people, like Oshikawa-san, adopted the solution of dropping the second "san" entirely in addressing me. Technically speaking, dropping the "san" is considered rude, except among family and close friends, and even between people who are close, it's still common to use a diminutive of "san," like "chan" or "kun," is used instead. (For example, we call our daughter "Emma-chan".) But, the minds of my friends, the san in Jonasan was honor enough for me.

Not being a particularly formal person, I didn't mind this so much. But, after a while, some people would forget that "san" was actually part of my name. Then, when they felt familiar enough to dispense with honorifics, they would call me "Jona." This I did mind.

Having the name Jonathan presented another problem. Even though it's common in the West to introduce oneself as Mr. or Dr. so-and-so, in Japan it's considered bad form to put "san" at the end of your own name. Foreigners introducing themselves as "Smith-san" is a commonly raised, "heartwarming" example of how non-Japanese can never really understand Japanese etiquette. When I introduced myself as Jonasan, people often thought I was introducing myself as "Mr. Jona," and I would get funny looks. After a while, I started introducing myself as "kamome no Jonasan no Jonasan" (Jonathan, as in Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a very famous book in Japan) or "resutoran no Jonasan no Jonasan" (Jonathan, as in "Jonathan's", a chain of "family" restaurants).

Even today, I still run into this problem.