Not the honorifics relating to other people not present.įor example, if you are talking with your girlfriend, your best friend or your dog, feel free to drop that honorific. The only honorific you can drop is the one referring to the person you are talking to. Honorifics can be dropped with a person very close to you You can refer to your sister without using – chan (more on the individual honorifics in the next part) or to your father even as something cheeky like 親父 (おやじ – old man) if you are talking among good friends.ģ. When talking about a member of your family you may choose to drop the honorific. Honorifics are usually dropped when referring to family If you are not sure about which suffix to use, use this polite form as a buffer in case you get switched-around.Ģ. Most notably with the first form we all learned: the – masu form. Honorifics are generally tied to all the other forms of polite speech in Japanese. Often use honorifics with the – masu form of verbs Here are some extra things you should know about the use of honorifics.ġ. The proper use of honorifics is quite tricky and difficult to judge, but there are some basic guidelines we’re going to analyze in the second part. You need to understand their proper use before making any such potentially awkward slip-ups. In order to fully master the system, you need to have spent a lot of time in an authentic Japanese environment and have experienced a multitude of real life situations with different people.Ĭonsider this: The younger generation of Japanese, mainly those born after 1980, often prefer to hear their names without the honorifics, giving a casual air even among people they don’t know that well.īut as a student of Japanese, you really don’t want to assume this is the case. It is useful for learning vocabulary, expressions and everyday idioms. Now don’t get me wrong, most of the time it is good to copy the native speakers. Failing to do so might result in appearing arrogant. When referring to someone else (or even to your company), be sure to use the appropriate honorific as needed. Don’t drop an honorific when it is needed It is considered cocky and a sign of bad manners.Ģ.
Never use an honorific to refer to yourself. Well, the title is so self-explanatory, I’m not sure I need to clarify it any further. Don’t use an honorific to refer to yourself If you want to master Japanese honorifics, and thus master appropriate Japanese speech, you need to follow these rules:ġ. But before going into the honorifics themselves, we need to clarify the when and the how of their usage. There are as many honorifics as there are levels of courtesy in Japanese society. Adams), in Japanese it is always expressed with a suffix. While in English we would use these expressions in front of a last name (Mr. Especially in regards to the Japanese sense of formality, politeness and accepted behavior.Īn honorific is used to refer to the person we are talking to and/or talking about if that person is not around. Knowing what they are is very important to understanding Japanese culture. Honorifics are not a grammatical matter, so you won’t find any solid chapter on them in a Japanese grammar book.
#Sensei vs senpai pdf#
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy. It’s time to decipher that san in “Daniel- san.” Japanese honorifics are a very complex system of addressing other people, much like the “Mr.” and “Ms.” or the “Sir” and “Madame” we use, with the added complexity of having more than thirty different forms. You’ve just encountered a Japanese honorific! Is it completely random or is there a hidden meaning behind the enigmatic suffix?Īctually, there is a meaning, but it is by no means hidden. San? Why san? What does that san mean? Is it slang? Is it a pronoun? Maybe a number? Miyagi referring to Daniel as “Daniel-s an.“ I’m sure you already know who Daniel- san and Miyagi sensei are.Īnd if that’s the case, I’m quite certain you were as puzzled as I was the first time you heard Mr. What was the first film you saw about Japan?įor me it was “The Karate Kid”-one of the most influential films of the 80s. “Karate is in the heart, Daniel -san.” – Miyagi-sensei FebruHonoring Japanese Honorifics: Sama, Kun, San, Sensei and Everything Else
0 kommentar(er)
