The Name Game
Written in 2004 and kept as it was, so some of it will have aged.
A side effect of having a writing system where the same name can be written many ways is a complication in communication by phone. I was curious as to how the Japanese gave their name when the other person didn’t know which constituent kanji should be used, and didn’t have a written record of it. It turns out that they have to say a short sentence for each of the kanji in their name, so the other person can be sure they have the correct pronunciation and ideograph. The problem also occurs with little-known place and local town names. I guess it’s roughly similar to having a name mis-spelt in English, but a little more long-winded.