Here they call each other by surnames, and to be polite they add "san" in the end. Like Mr. or Ms. We don't really use Mr. or Ms. in English in every day conversations with colleagues, but they use it all the time. If their surname is Tanaka, they call them Tanaka san. If Ozaki, Ozaki san. In the beginning it was hard to me to get used to it, but now I'm starting to realize more and more how impolite it is if I call them by names, or just by surnames.
And they call me Tina san. :)
5 comments:
My japanese teacher told us that first names are also okay, but we shouldn't refer to ourselves using san.
So I can call you Tina-san but I may not call myself Paul-san :)
How is your Japanese getting on? Do they speak English much in the lab? Is that phrase book useful?
Glad to see you are enjoying the food also! I'm still very jealous of you despite your long working hours.
Take care,
Paul
Hi Paul. Yes I know I shouldn't refer to myself with san, but I just wanted to tell how they call me :)
I'm mostly increasing my Japanese food vocabulary, and I'm starting to catch and understand some words they use when they speak. But I wish I had more time to afford to put effort into Japanese.
Their English... reading is ok because they read papers. But they have less practice with speaking and listening, so it's an interesting experience trying to do work together. But it's possible, and it's going somewhere. And my English is getting worse every day. :)
I'm most probably meeting Miu next weekend, I'm very excited about it.
What are the news about F&K?
Meni je to fuul všeč! Prvič sem to slišala, ko sem še kot majhna gledala Šogun ... zdaj pa včasih to kar uporabljam za foro ;)
V državah bivše SZ pa izraziš spoštovanje, če uporabiš poleg imena še ime po očetu. Vsak ga ima - fantje recimo Aleksej Nikolajevič, punce pa Olga Nikolajevna. No, jaz sem bila nekaj časa Ana Janesovna ... pa je bilo tako zakomplicirano, da smo se na koncu domislili Ana Ivanovna.
Ej .. če bi imela ti bratca, bi bil Miloševič! ... UPS :))
Hahahaa, Milosevic...
Prav vidim, kako bi ti uzivala s temi imeni tukaj.
Mene pa kar matra, kaj je primerno in kaj ni... pred kratkim sem slisala, da uporabljajo tudi "-kun". Pa knjiga pravi, da tudi "-sama", "-sensei" in "chan". Prevec zame!
Evo, Tinca, pomoč moje Nives:
"-sama" = izredno spoštljivo (za učitelja, nadrejenega, svetnike ...)
"-sensei" = dobesedno v prevodu učitelj
"-chan" = ljubkovalno za ženske (prijateljice med sabo, mama otroku ...)
Zakon, zakaj nimamo mi tega??
:)
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