The use of "san"

You probably have heard a Japanese name mentioned followed by "san". "san" is an address showing a sign of respect. You might say it’s like Mr. Mrs. and Ms. San, however, can be used both after family names or given names. There’s a very important thing to remember, though. Never put "san" after your own name.

San can be added after almost anything. Waiter-san, grandfather-san, Canada man-san (Canadajin). Gaijin is a way of saying foreigner. It is actually kind of a bad word, kind of like gringo is in spanish, or kind of like cracker to a white guy in english. It's not a very good thing to say, but most Japanese people (Nihonjin) don't understand that if they say Gaijin-san, even though san is polite, it doesn't make gaijin polite. It's kind of like calling someone a jerk, if you say Mr. Jerk, it doesn't really make it any more polite or and less rude. But, they don't realize that. I just thought it was interesting.

Thanks for this post, I'm sure many on the forum will find this very interesting :D

Uhmmmm.... In my experience, it's best not to be overly concerned about this... I understand this may be frustrating if you've had negative experiences with Japanese people displaying hostility towards foreigners, but an interesting thing about Japanese culture is the more you ignore an offensive term being used against you the more respect you'll earn from everyone who isn't being disrespectful towards you. If it's a single person who's saying it wrong, most Japanese people I've met know it's frustrating so... yeah... don't worry about it they'll face karma later on...