3-2. One of the sources of confusion： usage of Chinese characters
Many of the names in Sakhalin and Kuril Islands regions originate from the Ainu language. Then, according to its pronunciation, they tried to write it by using Chinese letters. There are several styles on how to use Chinese letters to simulate the Ainu languages： if you confine your attention in a special area or province, there appears that some standard rule was applied. Afterward, sometimes, the original pronunciation was forgotten, and people pronounced the names by following the assessed Chinese letters.
4. Principle to convert Russian names into English names, which is adopted in this report
Geographic names on contemporary Russian charts of the area were given mostly by Russian explorers of XVII-XIX centuries. They include both original Russian names and the names originated from native northern languages spelled in Russian. There are also a few names introduced to Russian from Western European charts and originally written in Roman languages. However, these names are not saved in modern English literature and charts in their initial form. The most common way is a transliteration back from Russian.
By this time several standard recommendations on transferring Russian names have been produced by English map-makers or by several organizations. However, by examining charts and literature, we found that there is no exact standard recommended to write Russian names in English. The charts in English issued by different publishers reveal different ways of writing which causes some confusion and initiated the preparation of this nomenclature.
The following problems are needed to be solved before Russian names are transferred into English ones：
