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The list of Japanese titles


Dmitry

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Hi everyone. Japanese titles are sort of suffixes that people from Japan use with a name of a person: san, kun and etc. But today I want to show lot more than just san(さん)and kun(くん). I will give you the list of all the titles in the modern Japanese languages and even slang ones.

先生 [sensei] - generally used for teachers, or someone who has otherwise been connected to teaching

ここだけの話だが戸田先生は健治には甘いすぎるよ。

[koko dake no hanashi toda sensei wa kenzi niwa amai sugiru yo]

Between you and me, Mr. (read 'teacher') Toda is too easy with Kenji.

さん [san] - equivalent of "Mister"; it maintains professional distance.

彼女はブラウンさんと婚約した。

[kanojo wa buraun san to konyaku sita]

She betrothed herself to Mr. Brown.

さま [sama] - equivalent of "Sir/Madam"; used only for highly polite situations

スミス様にお呼び出し申し上げます。フロントまでお越しくださいません。

[sumisu sama oyobidasi moosiagemasu. furonto made o kosikudasaimasen]

Paging Mr. Smith. Please come to the front desk.

先輩 [senpai] - means 'senior', 'superior'; you may use it refering to someone who is a senior collegue

彼女はリン先輩を追い越して昇進した。

[kanojo wa rin senpai o oikosite shooshin sita]

She was promoted over the head of her senior Lin.

後輩 [koohai] - refers to junior; normally they use kun instead

くん [kun] - an affectionate ending for a friend`s name; usually a male friend who is the same age or younger than you; they usually don`t translate it.

ちゃん [chan] - mostly used with girls (equivavelnt of kun), but also can be used with boys when it means that they`re being cute. they usually don`t translate it either; this title also can be used with the babies.

リカちゃんの公式情報サイトです。

[rika chan no kooshiki joohoo saito desu]

Licca`s site of formal information.

ちん [chin] - is the slang form of "chan"

たん [tan] - is even more slangier version of "chan"

ぽん [pon] - is a kind of a silly and fun ending of friend`s name

Ok, I think that it. These are the most commonly used titles. So, good luck with that! おやすみなさい。 グッドラック!

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I haven't encountered "-pon," but I had with "-tan." It was with the "Shakugan no Shana" parody, "Shakugan no Shana-tan."

As with "sensei," I had also read that it can also be used to address doctors. I had also encountered that in the drama "1 Liter of Tears," where the mother addressed the doctor as "Sensei."

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I have heard mainly of the titles -san, -kun, and -chan.  In fact, during our Elementary Nihongo 1 classes, we were introduced to the terms in the first chapter of our Japanese language textbook.  Since we focus more on the formal aspects of the language, we do not use the slang versions of these words.  We address our teachers as (first name)-sensei.  We haven't used sempai yet, but in future Japanese language classes.

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