|
Hello again seeker of foreign knowledge. I am glad to see you are interested in this months
topic; "How to use Japanese suffix". Most of us know -san, -sama and -chan. But are those the only
3 used by Japanese? While they are the most popular there are 2 more -dono and -kun that should not be
forgotten.
Now lets take a look at all of them in detail shall we...
San The one everyone knows about, or at least the one everyone knows best. Most people
think of it as Mr but that is only somewhat true. San is much more friendly then saying
Mr. It is even recommended to say san sometimes in business when addressing costumers to
make the atmosphere more friendly and less serious. Two more thing on san, first you may
never ever use it on yourself. If you do you`ll be branded a foul, a simple minded person who doesn`t
know the first thing about socializing. Second, san is not only usable when saying someone`s
name but it is also usable when talking about a company! I`m sure the Yasuki, being the most
frendliest merchant of Rukugan, would use san a lot when talking about you or your company.
Chan, the very friendly name suffix. Chan is almost only use on small children but
may also be used to address young women too. That being said, I would not recommend you using it
when talking to a young woman unless you know her very well! And I don`t think I have to remind
you that you may never use chan in a business meeting, this cute suffix has nothing to do with
business!
A few notes on chan. You may hear small kids say their name + chan or
boku*+chan. This is a kid only way of talking about them self and may never be used
by adults and even teenagers(unless they wanna sound like they are little kids). An other very
important point to remember is that when using chan you almost always cut the person`s
FIRST name you are talking too.
Ex. Yasuko would not be address as Yasuko-chan but as Ya-chan.
*See "how to say I in Japanese" for more information on boku.
Sama, an other somewhat well known name suffix. The very polite and formal version
of san is used in almost all the same way as san but creates a more serious
atmosphere. Sama is important to use when talking to costumers, showing professionalism
to them and also sama is basically the only to address costumers in letters. Again
I remind you that like san, sama is often used when addressing a company.
In a normal conversation one would never use sama unless they were in the presence
of royalty (and in modern days, in the presence of certain celebrities). Something else to pay
attention to is that sama is never with someone`s first name! You cannot under any
circumstances say "Naseru-sama".
Kun is a bit more difficult to use then other suffix. It is polite and formal at the same
time it is also friendly. It all depends on who is saying it. It is very friendly and common
for classmates to call their friends -kun, obeying the same rule as chan that the
first name of the person is usually cut but not as important(I`d say 50% of the time you just add kun
and 50% of the time you cut the name too). Two other things about kun and it`s friendly side.
One, it is almost only used by boys and two, it is not as friendly as just saying you`re classmate`s
family name.
You`d think that such a word was comparable to chan for boys, well you`d be half right.
kun is often used by parents when scolding their kid as kun is more serious then
chan. Also, which I think is very interesting, politician address each other with
kun. Yes even when address then prime minister(president)!
Dono, the least known and least useful suffix. Dono is somewhat hard to use as it is
more polite then san but not as polite as sama. It has mainly 3 uses.
First in
formal document when address someone of lower rank. Documents are always more polite then
conversations, using san would not be polite enough and using sama would sound like
the boss is lowering himself to the same level as the employee!
Second, it is used in the military when rewarding an officer. This is more a tradition then anything
else.
Third, it is used to give bad news about someone because dono has a more frank sound to it.
Maybe because, unlike sama, it isn`t used much and that makes it stand out more.
There are probably more situations where dono would be used but they are too unimportant
or rare situations.
|