Chieri Uegaki: Hi, my name is Chieri Uegaki. My name is of Japanese origin and in Japanese, every vowel is pronounced separately. To help, here is how we say vowels in Japanese: A, is pronounced ah. E, is pronounced eh. I, is pronounced ee. O, is pronounced oh and U, is pronounced oo. If you were to break up my name into syllables and say each syllable slowly, it would sound like this: chee-a-dee-oo-eh-gah-kee. Then, if you run it all together, it becomes Chieri Uegaki and that is the official pronunciation of my name.

However, I know that my name is a bit tricky for non Japanese speakers to pronounce and because growing up, pretty much every Japanese Canadian kid I knew, had an english name like, Grace or Mary or Ken, I decided that my english name would be Sherry. Everyone who know me from school or university or my young adulthood, calls me Sherry, including my best friend, my sisters and my husband.

Then, I have other friends and people I know, who want to use the Japanese version and who try really hard to say Chieri but can't quite get it, so they call my Cherry, like the fruit, which oddly enough was my nickname in 7th grade because I was short and had a baggy red pair of overalls. You may call me Chieri, or Sherry or Cherry and I will happily answer to any of those names. Unfortunately, I can offer you no easy way to get around Uegaki, but I do appreciate and thank you for trying.