Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue. - Vol. 1 Ch. 2 - Calling You [Subaru Edition]

[MangaDex]

 

[Fox-Hidden]

Mission cleared : Kitty has been founded.

 

[Dreecko]

!

 

[Kaarme]

So, you can pronounce Sun's kanji as "Haru", but if someone just hears you say "Haru", they can't connect it to Sun (because Sun in Japanese is pronounced differently (Taiyou)), unless they figure out it's a name and as a name it might use the kanji for Sun with a less common pronunciation (which doesn't mean Sun, that is). More likely they would connect it to Spring (the season, not your car's suspension). And the folks using this kind of writing system called the Europeans barbarians because Europeans didn't use such a confusing writing system.

 

[SupremeDoc]

Thanks for the translation

 

[R3nAknyght]

@Kaarme

Confusing? Wait... you think European languages aren't ridiculously confusing to write too? I think you take advantage of the fact that you know English so well that you don't realize how utterly confusing it can be.

Here is a list of words. Without context try and figure out the exact meaning I ascribed to them as I wrote them:

Light
Sound
Lean
Lie

 

[Kaarme]

@R3nAknyght At least when you see it written, you will know what it is how and how it's pronounced (assuming you know English pronunciation, which indeed often is knowing, less deducing or guessing). When you hear someone say an English word, there indeed can sometimes be a two or maybe even three possibilities, though you'd be able to make educated guesses based on the context and such. I'm sure if you are intimately familiar with Japanese and the Japanese culture, you might also know that some name would have 3/4 chance of being written one way, the remaining 1/4 being the more rare alternative (if the parents were chuuni).

That being said, it's a well-known fact that pronunciation ambiguity is the English language's one and only weakness. Otherwise it's surely among the simplest languages of mankind. It even sticks to the basic A-Z alphabet with no extras or modications whatsoever (unless you are a snob and want to write loan words with diacritics).

Ironically enough my native language has extremely simple pronunciation but nearly everything else is very difficult. When you think about it like that, the English languages' strengths and weaknesses are partially wasted on me and my countrymen. So, if you say I know English well, I'm pleased to thank you for the compliment!