Yesterday, one of the international students asked me to write his name in Japanese (katakana and hiragana).

"What?"

I thought it.

I thought that if I were a foreigner, I would be allowed to write my name in a foreign language.

Besides, I think that forcing people to write in katakana and hiragana is a bit rude to people from other countries.

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However, Japanese law requires Japanese notation -- for example, "Patent Law".

For example, the inventors of JP Shou 55-043192 was

Mr. "Rehm Gesellschaft Mitut Beschurenkutter Haftung".

I think this name sounds somewhat "German," and German is easy to pronounce in Japanese, but--

People in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia (excluding Japan) cannot guess the pronunciation from the letters because they are not written in the Roman alphabet.

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And I gave up reading the letters and converting them to Japanese, and said

"Would you try to pronounce you name as slowly as you can ?"

I wrote down the sound in katakana as it is.

'You know what, if you need me to fill out the paperwork, I'll write it right here, right now'

I offered to do it, but he said he would do it himself because it would help him learn Japanese.

I think it is an admirable mindset.

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After that, I felt like I was his godparent in Japan.