A few years back, I went to a Japanese exhibit in campus. The organizers invited Japanese housewives to serve as hosts to the guests. There were several booths installed--showcasing Japanese arts, crafts and culture among others. There's also one booth where you can request the ladies to have your name written in Kanji. I readily queued for that one. Eversince, that Kanji for my name has been posted in my room.
I am aware that characters in Kanji have meanings to go with it. I would stare at it for long moments making myself familiar with the image but not really attempting to copy it. When I took Japanese lessons recently, one of the characters we learned was found in my Kanji-name, the character for "gold". I tried searching through my Kanji dictionary and the first character seemed close to the Kanji for "love". That spiked my interest to decipher the meaning of my name in Kanji. So, to make the long story short, I took a picture of the image and sent it to my Sensei. This is what she said:
Transliterally, the Kanji reads:
Ai = Love;
Lin = bells
So,
Love +
Bells. How do you make sense of it? I'd like to take the liberty to translate my own name.
I would like to think that Love + bells can mean any of the following:
1) Love bells (literal);
2) A bell of love;
3) A ring of love;
4) A sound of love; and
5) A music of love (quite stretched meaning).
That was really fun trying to make sense of the characters. Anyway, it's my name afterall. It's good to think it has a positive meaning. Plus, the mere presence of the characters for "love" and "gold" in it, well, what a powerful name! Hahaha!
