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What Is The Term San Mean In Japanese?

West

By West,
in Japan

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funkymonkey Grand Master

funkymonkey

Posted
Posted

he's making sexual advances towards you. unless you swing that way i'd tell him a heterosexual story of one of your escapades to reinforce your sexuality.

j/k "san" is a suffix for male names, "kun" is for females. its not quite "dear" its more like "mate". kinda like if you were to call a guy named Barry "Bazza". It shows familiarity.

rtune Experienced

rtune

Posted
Posted
he's making sexual advances towards you. unless you swing that way i'd tell him a heterosexual story of one of your escapades to reinforce your sexuality.

j/k "san" is a suffix for male names, "kun" is for females. its not quite "dear" its more like "mate". kinda like if you were to call a guy named Barry "Bazza". It shows familiarity.

not quite, san is an honorific. So basically, Mr. (or Mrs, or Miss).

-Kun is mainly for male kids, but can also be used by bosses to refer to juniors in the office, to remind them they are pond scum.

-Chan is kind of like -Kun but mainly used by or towards females, or between friends/lovers etc.

It is all quite complicated, there are more as well, and you could have used google:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_titles

but basically if you deal with Japanese over commerce, all you're gonna hear is -san unless you've upset them or go drinking with them (more than once).

andylaurel Community Regular

andylaurel

Posted
Posted
he's making sexual advances towards you. unless you swing that way i'd tell him a heterosexual story of one of your escapades to reinforce your sexuality.

j/k "san" is a suffix for male names, "kun" is for females. its not quite "dear" its more like "mate". kinda like if you were to call a guy named Barry "Bazza". It shows familiarity.

lol

If I were to call my girlfriend Rie Kun, I would get the silent treatment for weeks.

Beer Baron Grand Master

Beer Baron

Posted
Posted

lol, yes as people have now corrected funky. san is an honorific used with SURNAMES.

like you meet yukiko kosaka. you call her kosaka-san. her father is also kosaka-san. if you start dating and get her into bed then she becomes yuki-chan. -chan is used with first names and used in place of darling etc (though it doesn't literally mean that). guys will most often shorten their girlfriends first name and add the chan suffix. girlfriends will call their boyfriends kun. so tomonori yamada's girlfriend will call him tomo-kun. other male friends will also sometimes call their younger male friends -kun too. it's a term of endearment. but never used for someone with higher standing that you. only equal and most usually lower standing. it's kind of cutesy too. really many blokes would not call each other tomo-kun or riki-kun etc. know you know where domo-kun comes from... though why he walks around yelling domo domo domo I still don't quite know.

basically you will call everybody surname-san. and they will call you surname-san unless they get confused and call you first name-san. unless you get them into bed in which case go nuts and shorten her first name and add chan. or if you're gay you might use kun. I'm not sure, never done any dudes in japan..... :blink:

andylaurel Community Regular

andylaurel

Posted
Posted

Kun is a term of endearment added to the end of peoples names. These people must be MALE and UNDER you in social standing.

Using Kun is tricky, because it can come across sounding patronizing.

Beer Baron Grand Master

Beer Baron

Posted
Posted

exactly like I said above. :P you use kun for like little brothers etc. but girlfriends also call their boyfriends -kun. sometimes even with a nickname-kun. but I do know guys (japanese guys) who call each other firstname-kun who are of equal standing. but you would never call someone higher than you anything other than surname-san unless you were really close friends which would changes things a bit. although as foreigners you tend to get away with mistakes anyway without causing any real offence.

although just to confuse you some guys nicknames do have chan. like a mate of mine tomonori akai (excellent drifter and now competing in MSC pro class). some of the guys call him tomo or tomo-kun. but he has a nick name. papa-chan. and he even has stickers made with his likeness in cartoon form and papa-chan underneath in katakana. :P but admittedly that is not common. and a special case as it's a nickname/joke.

so for the tomo example.

people who don't know him or just met him. akai-san

friends tomo

close friends (equal or higher) tomo-kun

really close friends papa-chan

1 man, many names. lol.

just like here cutesy nicknames between couples is common. like if my girlfriend was japanese and called Yumiko Makoto I would call her yumi or yumi-chan. and she would call me riki-kun or richado-kun. as andy pointed out even though i've heard some blokes given nicknames with -chan kind of as a joke I've never heard of a chick being called anything-kun. I don't think they'd see the funny side... :dry:

but again, anyone you meet you will be calling them surname-san. especially people who are older than you.

like everything in japanese it seems overly complex but is not really if you understand how things work.

there is just one word you really need to know. for when you fk it all up.... ごめんなさい gomenasai (sorry) (^_^)

Beer Baron Grand Master

Beer Baron

Posted
Posted
Wow, bloody complicate :dry:!

Ok,

San = Friend

Chan = Lets go to bed

Kun = No, not me F**k off Cu*t

not quite.

san = everyone. people you just met, people below you people above you. it's just good manners. and it's ALWAYS surname-san.

chan = girlfriends, daughters, little sisters that's about it used with first name or shortened first name/nickname

kun = boyfriends, little brothers, male friends (sometimes, especially used by teenagers etc). never women. also used with first name and/or shortened first names and nicknames

akeenan Grand Master

akeenan

Posted
Posted

sometimes you can use first name with san. but japanese to japanese in a business environment(depending on how friendly they are) it is always surname and san

girlfriends will more often than not give their boytfriends a nickname and then add chan.

if a girl doesnt know you very well she will use san, of if she wants to still bbe polite but not as uptight use kun.

and there are also two others that havent been mentioned yet. and that is tan and chin

these 2 are used for shortened girls names eg: makotan , makochin

these are often used in teenage girl magazines, but are used by a lot of girls under 30. (in the tokyo area anyway)

  • 4 weeks later...
13Beast Enthusiast

13Beast

Posted
Posted

basically you will call everybody surname-san. and they will call you surname-san unless they get confused and call you first name-san. unless you get them into bed in which case go nuts and shorten her first name and add chan. or if you're gay you might use kun. I'm not sure, never done any dudes in japan..... :P

Classic! ROFL! You should write Japanese travel/language guides! Best explanation I have heard yet of honorifics.

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