Mind Your Manners, Sasuke-kun!

 To anime fans, Naruto is one of the top most popular (and longest!) running series. It follows the story of an aspiring ninja boy with the curse of a nine-tailed fox beast trapped inside of him. He's loud and obnoxious, and usually only thinks of his actions after-the-matter. He has a couple of companions that are assigned to his team. His teacher, Kakashi ("Kaka-sensei"), Sakura ("Sakura-chan"), and Sasuke ("Sasuke-kun").
In the parenthesis, I have included what these characters are usually referred to when watching the show with the Japanese audio. This suffixes are called "honorifics". These are usually used in all Japanese normal society. The only time an honorific is usually not used with a name, is when you have a personal or intimate relationship with that person (i.e. close friend, younger sibling, significant others). It's a common courtesy that the Japanese teach and are taught to expect from others. Often times, students in junior high and high schools will refer to each other by their last names with the honorific "san". Once two students have become good friends, they may allow the other to finally address them by their first name with another honorific (generally "-chan" for girls, and "-kun" for boys). This is so saturated within Japanese culture that animes can often revolve around the climactic moment when the boy she likes tells her to call him by his first name! This can also serve as a stepping stone to the next step in a relationship, and can often be somewhat embarrassing for the Japanese. It is another step towards vulnerability.

(from Kimi ni Todoke)

HONORIFICS:

Suffixes--

-san

•  gender neutral
• used with last and first name
• can be used with occuption
• Example: 
• surname | Yamada-san | 山田さん | Mr. Yamada
  given name | Yoko-san | 陽子さん | Miss. Yoko
  occupation | honya-san | 本屋さん | bookseller
  title | oisha-san | お医者さん | Doctor

 -kun

• less formal than -san
• used with men who are younger or same age as speaker
• usually used at schools or companies
• applies to first and last names
• not used between women or when addressing a superior 

-chan

• often attatched to children's first names
• used to identify a close relationship in childish terms
• used with babies, young children, teenage girls, lovers, close friends, or youthful women
• Example:
• Mika-chan | 美香ちゃん | Mika
  obaa-chan | おばあちゃん | grandma
  oji-chan | おじちゃん | uncle

-sama

• significantly more formal than -san
• used with someone who is of a much superior rank, a customer, or someone you admire tremendously
• in older times, related to "m'lord"
• used for royalty

No one ever uses an honorific with their own name. This comes across as extremely arrogant or strange, ESPECIALLY if you used "-sama" (ore-sama: "my esteemed self").

Non-Suffixes--

There are also other honorifics that are not suffixes, but rather general terms one assigns to different age or gender groups:

In Naruto, however, I recently discovered that the directors made an interesting decision. The character Sasuke Uchiha never uses honorifics.

His parents are dead, by the way. In this culture, although this is considered tremendously rude, it provides an intriguing commentary/insight on Sasukes priorities and views/attitude toward society. He's an angsty character with a dark past, and a single objective. He has a problem with finding value in others due to his hurtful past, and wants to estrange himself from those around him. The lack of Japanese honorifics in his speech patterns is just another way to develop his character in a more subtle and layered manner. In English, we don't get this secondary nuance of attitude from him. But to Japanese viewers, his solidarity and coldness may come across much earlier in the season.

On the flip side, if a character uses honorifics too much, or for the inappropriate person (calling a guy "-chan"), it can give similar commentary to their attitudes or perspectives. This can be humorous, but enlightening as well. So next time you're watching anime, try to pick up on the "friendliness" level of the characters. Did you notice any subtle differences or hidden messages? Happy hunting!


My sources:

Japanese Honorifics

The Jargon in Our House

When you enter our house, among other things, you will see artwork, a lot of books, and cats freely roaming about. Our house is basically a scrapbook of our lives, with so many pictures of our trips and favorite sayings hanging about. But in the midst of this blissful abode, being a guest, you might hear us say a couple of phrases that you most likely wouldn't understand. 

"Kitty shut" the door 

This is what we say when we want someone to crack a door. It means that we'd ordinarly close the door, but for the sake of our poor closed-door-a-phobic cats, we leave it cracked for them to pass through freely; otherwise, they'll find that closed door and cry until it's been opened.

Hoser 

The equivilant of calling someone a "hoser" in our home would be "you stink". This is usually exclaimed in an unfavorable situation during competitive game playing, or if someone said something particularly undercutting.

I'm/who's the monkey(?) 

For years on Sunday afternoons, we used to play this video game called "Monkey Ball". One would chose a monkey to represent themselves, and then compete in various trials. I'm not sure if this phrase originated from this time, or if this dates back further in my dad's timeline.  All I remember was whenever he would win, he started to exlaim "Who's the monkey?!", in a rhetorical fashion. It proclaims one's victory or supremecy, and has since gone on to encompass victory in any situation.

I'm gonna get on the board! 

This is a kind of threat used to rile up others, or generate a competitive mood inducive for playing board games. Dad started introducing cool new European board games to our family a couple years ago, and it caught our interest like wild-fire. Therefore, after a year of competitive playing with Dad, me, and my husband, Dad decided to create a score-board to keep track of who was winning what. This phrase is used to goad someone into wanting to play against you.

"Blue Friggin' Ray!"

One year, my husband bought us a new high definition TV. Once Dad started to collect Blue Ray moviess, he became obsessively excited with the quality difference. He began replacing our DVD library one by one, and each new time we get to watch a new Blue Ray version of a movie (or one that we want to show my husband), Dad gets excited and says: "Yeah, let's watch _____________-- on BLUE FRIGGIN' RAY!"

Check the cat-bus 

The cat-bus is a character designed and created by Hayao Miyazaki in his movie "My Neighbor Totoro". A while back Dad bought a penny bank of this character. Since we own cats, the cat litter must be sifted daily. My little sister and I take turns every other day to do it. However, we would keep forgetting who's turn it was. So, Dad took a paper, wrote our names on either side, and propped it in the slot of the cat-bus coin bank. Now, whoever's name is facing forward is the one who has to do it that night. When we are done, we flip it around to indicate it being the other's turn the next day.

Oh look, it's my turn!

No more good-time-fun running 

When Dad and I started running together a while back, we would start with a short distance and work up. Well I hated bumping up the distance, and when we were going to move it from 800 meters to a whole mile that next week, I dreaded it. Dad and I were laying on his bed and he said, "Well... Starting next week, no more good-time-fun running." I laughed so hard, since I never enjoyed running that small distance!

Cat on my lap 

If you couldn't tell already, we love our cats. They often like to curl up on our laps when we relax together or are watching shows/movies. Sometimes they'll even cuddle up when we sit at the table or computer to work on something. If something has to be done (i.e. turn off a light, turn on a fan, get a snack), a person who has a cat on their lap can say, "Oh. I have a cat on my lap". This statement therefore excuses you from taking responsibility for the action, transferring the duty to another. The cats just look so cute when they're all comfortable and happy, that we've just grown to not want to disturb that happy moment.

Cricket Coffee 

Dad and I are coffee drinkers. For the longest time we had a coffee brewer that we used every morning. When I started to make the coffee, Dad really enjoyed it. When he would try to make the coffee in the morning thereafter, he told me that I just make it better. My nickname from a small age was 'Cricket'. In the mornings, he began to ask, "Ooooh, are you going to make some Cricket-Coffee this morning?" or, "Yeah! I love that Cricket-Coffee". Even now that our brewer has passed on, and we were forced into the cruel realm of Instant-Coffee, the same principal applies. The instant-coffee cup that I'll prepare for him in the morning every once in a while is still lovingly referred to as "Cricket-Coffee". 

I'm the Admiral 

Going back to the concept that we love playing modern board games together, this is an honorary statement. When we play Star Trek Catan, the winner is called "The Admiral of Star Trek Catan", but it is often just abbreviated to "The Admiral". Dad and my husband used to taunt each other in public with this declaration. My dad would visit my husband's work for lunch, and depending on who had won between them, that person would tease the other. This is considered another way to propose a rematch. This can also be used as a kind of come-back. 

                     Example: "I did really well on my test today."

                                   "Yeah, but you're not The Admiral, now, are you?"

"Well Met Friend!" 

Ever since it was gifted to my Dad for Christmas in 2011, Skyrim has become a staple game in our home. I fell in love with the endless creative possibilities, and inspiration of this beautiful land. I would often create original art featuring my different characters. Sometime I heard that the game created before this one, Oblivion, was very good for its story-line and imaginative quests. So, I started to play it. Not only was this game 10x more difficult, it's graphics quality was drastically less than that of the newer game. The alarming nature of even the most ordinary of characters in this game made traversing through this world quite thrilling. It turned the most mundane of tasks into uncomfortable social challenges, and increased the monster-chase thrill factor by 20. The first time I came across a Khajit (cat-person) in this game, I was excited because they had been so neat looking in the other game. But as soon as he turned around to greet me, I cried out in alarm. His friendly greeting ("Well met, friend.") HIGHLY contrasted with the brutality of his face!

   SKYRIM (what I'm used to):

OBLIVION:

Ever since I showed Dad this contrast, it became an inside joke. We eventually found this comic that accurately expressed our alarm:

This image is what comes to our mind when we quote it to eachother.

There are so many other phrases that I haven't covered in my blog, but at least this would be a good "starter's guide" for any visitors. These phrases pull our tiny community of family into a closer circle. The fact that we can practically talk in code to each other represents the amount of shared events and feelings that we've developed or experienced. It draws us closer into the same category of shared life experience. As language keeps evolving, there will always be pockets of seemingly nonsensical lexicons created by those of a common mind.