When addressing someone

Quote from ComicChik
Hi,

I noticed in the first lesson it states that when you address someone you use "san" after their name.When I watched Japanese films and animes I noticed that the characters have sometimes used other forms of addressing people such a "chan". What are the most common forms of addressing a person and in what situations do we use them? Are the different forms used to address a love one, a male or female, a senior, or manager?

Thank you.

Kerry

There are multiple words used to address someone varying in gender and formality. Here's a brief description of the ones I know/use on a regular basis:

-san Standard polite but gender indifferent word used with strangers

-sama Equivalent to calling someone "Master" in english, very respectful and polite. Used with superiors like bosses, managers, and if you're working in the service industry to customers.

-sensei Same deal as Sama, except more specific towards people who know more than you and use their knowledge to benefit you. Such as Doctors, Teachers, Professors and more.

-dono A lot less used in common Japanese scenarios if not ever used. However I've seen it plenty of times used in anime so I guess it helps to know it. It's more for use between superiors like a boss talks to another boss, they are both of a higher status but in relation to each other are equal. Which is what I think Dono means.

-kun is mostly used by females attached to male names. This is informal/friendly and used between friends of opposite genders and heavily used between couples (married or dating). However the use of this doesn't imply that you are dating or married it just means that the male friend and female friend know each other more so than a stranger. Also used when adults address children not in their family. If the child is in their family no word like this would be used really.

-chan is the same deal as kun except attached to female names and primarily used by males talking to females. See my explanation of -kun for more.

-senpai is attached to more experienced people in a work/school setting. A worker who is 22 and was hired yesterday would probably refer to the people who have been working for 2-3 years as senpai or their name with senpai attached.

-kouhai is the opposite of senpai, although not used as often.

I can't really think of any more addressing words and I don't know the fancy word for what these are called so "addressing words" will satisfy that for now xD.

I hope this helps!

-Derek

Derek-sensei!!

Excellent explanation desu ne.

-Sayaka

どういたしまして！