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Question about Japanese Language - Fiel - 2009-08-14

Okay, frequently in Japanese I hear people say things after a person's name: "sama", "san", "shi", "sensei". I get the "sensei" one because it's more known to english speakers, but the other ones have me lost. What do they mean?

Question about Japanese Language - Russt - 2009-08-14

Let me Google that for you, Fiel-chan~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_honorifics

Question about Japanese Language - Rob - 2009-08-14

They denote speaker's closeness to another person. Like If I called you Paul-chan or Paul-kun, it'd mean I'm very close to you, like a best friend or something.

Question about Japanese Language - Fiel - 2009-08-14

d'oh. I deserved that. Thanks. Frown

Question about Japanese Language - Corn - 2009-08-14

RobMdza Wrote:They denote speaker's closeness to another person. Like If I called you Paul-chan or Paul-kun, it'd mean I'm very close to you, like a best friend or something.

Uh....you just called him something very....insulting ish? You're supposed to say that to your little brother/sister or something Eek.

Question about Japanese Language - Rob - 2009-08-14

ClawofBeta Wrote:Uh....you just called him something very....insulting ish? You're supposed to say that to your little brother/sister or something Eek.

No. If I were very close with Paul, I could call him Paul-kun and he would be like ''oh okay''.

Question about Japanese Language - GMSInfighter - 2009-08-14

Honorifics mang, they are very strict about them over there.

Question about Japanese Language - 'Lexy - 2009-08-14

Cool people use -tan.

Question about Japanese Language - Link - 2009-08-14

'Lexy Wrote:Cool people use -tan.

Huh? Dialect or false? lol I know that '-han' is kansai dialect, but I've never heard of '-tan.'

Question about Japanese Language - 'Lexy - 2009-08-14

ShiKage Wrote:Huh? Dialect or false? lol I know that '-han' is kansai dialect, but I've never heard of '-tan.'

-tan is just for moe purposes. You usually see it in anime as referring to cute or young characters, and it's sometimes used IRL for mascots and such.

I think there's a section on -tan, -chama, etc. in that Wikipedia article linked above.

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_honorifics#Baby_talk_variations

Question about Japanese Language - Link - 2009-08-14

Lexy]-tan is just for moe purposes. You usually see it in anime as referring to cute or young characters, and its sometimes used IRL for mascots and such.

I think there's a section on -tan, -chama, etc. in that Wikipedia article linked above.

EDIT: [url Wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_honorifics#Baby_talk_variations[/url]

Heh... That would explain it. I've never been around otakus. I've always stayed as far away as I could from Anime and all that crap. lol