Japanese Culture and Comm 4: Honorifics

Trip Start Jul 26, 2008

110

Trip End Aug 06, 2009

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Japan Tome, Tohoku, Japan
Thursday, November 27, 2008

A rather amusing thing happened in the staff room yesterday. I know I shouldn't make fun of a student's blunder, but all the other teachers were laughing. As I mentioned before, there's a specific protocol students must follow upon entering the staff room. They have to state their name, class, and purpose before they can go beyond the entrance, and the teachers will give the quiet ones a lot of crap sometimes. Anyway, there was a flood of students who came in today to put their math notebooks on the teacher's desk. The subject of our amusement followed her friend in stating her business. She only managed to get out "Tokarin no tsu--" before there were a bunch of Oooh's and Eeee?!'s. Do you know the mistake she made? I'll give you a hint: she meant to say she was going to put her notebook on "Tokarin no tsukue"-or Mr. Tokarin's desk. (Japanese sentences are backwards, which is why she didn't even get 3 words out.)

Figured it out yet? The poor student should have said she was going to put her notebook on "Tokarin-sensei no tsukue". Not only is it disrespectful to not call your teacher "sensei", but having no honorific implies that you are extremely close to the person. Hence, the merciless teasing about the possibilities of a student-teacher romance. While we foreigners get away with calling somebody by their name only, Japanese people will hardly ever do that with each other. Take Miyuki and Chiho for example. The rest of us ALTs just call them by their names, but they call each other Miyuki-chan and Chiho-chan. This brings me to explaining the different honorifics.

-san - Despite being kind of the default honorific, it's pretty formal...basically the equivalent of Mr./Ms. You don't use it with family members or yourself. In addition to names, you can also tag this onto job titles, like Postman-san (sorry, don't know the Japanese for postman).

-kun - This is mainly used to address male subordinates/students. Sometimes office workers will address female co-workers in this manner. It's more informal, but you don't use it for family or close friends. In Rookies, Touko calls her childhood friend Kei-chan (full name Aniya Keiichi) when they're alone; at school, he's Aniya-kun. You'll find out another reason why he doesn't like to be known by his pet name.

-chan - In some cases, this is the female equivalent of -kun. However, you also use it to address little kids, female family members, close friends, and even animals (like Usa-chan for the stuffed bunny in Ouran). Most guys don't like to be called -chan though there are exceptions. The weirdest one I've come across is Shuwa-chan for Arnold Schwarzenegger.

-sama - If you want to be uber-formal, this is the way to go. You use this for people of much higher rank (like a CEO), deities, and customers. Fangirls will use this to address the object of their admiration, like Mana-sama for very popular Malice Mizer/Moi dix Mois guitarist. Atobe from Prince of Tennis refers to himself as "Ore-sama", but I wouldn't recommend doing that unless you want to be ridiculously egotistical.

-sensei - Contrary to popular belief, this is not the Japanese word for teacher though we use it so much that way. This honorific is also used for doctors, lawyers, manga artists, and anybody else who has mastered an art form/skill. I guess the English equivalent is "Doctor" or "Professor" but I am neither of those. You can use Sensei on its own, like "Professor."

-senpai - This is a respectful term for your higher-ups. Students often use it for upperclassmen, but it applies to a business setting too. This can be also used on its own, e.g. when I call the older ALTs my senpais. (By the way, it's pronounced "sempai" which is why you'll see that spelling too.)

You refer to some individuals by their title/role. For example, my principal is called kouchou-sensei, which means "principal". The president of the company would be shachou, and the captain of a sports team would be buchou (the latter you can tack onto a name, like Tezuka-buchou).

Family members have their own names: Okaasan (Mother), Otousan (Father), Oniisan (Older Brother), and Oneesan (Older Sister). These are the most formal terms. Also, younger siblings go by their name. Less formal derivatives of Oniisan and Oneesan can be used for older friends and tacked onto their names. Saki from my taiko group was often called Saki-neechan by the younger kids and the adults when address the kids.

There's a whole bunch of other terms that pop up in anime and Japanese pop culture, like aniki, -dono, and -tan. These are the basics though; Wikipedia has the rest. Remember, don't use an honorific for yourself unless you want to refer to yourself in third person, like Miu in SuperGals!, in which then you would use -chan. It's supposed to be a cutesy girl thing, but I just find it odd. Also, only a narcissist like Atobe can get away with calling himself "Ore-sama"; he's got a song that goes "Get drunk in my magnificence" after all. ^^;; Oh, anime.