What they are trying to explain to you is that Japanese has no "r"'s, and instead uses "l". So Elaine would sound ERAIN, a bit like "electronically enhanced rain". Also all syllables end with a vowel; all except the sound "n".
I wrote a calligraphy for my friend's baby (half British half Japanese), and her name is Elena. I used E - RE(i)- NA sounding characters, as follows:
恵怜奈
Although they chose the character for her name.
