第二人称 – What do I call ‘You’ in Japanese?
In English, we say ‘You’ all the time to refer to the person we are talking to. In Japanese however, this is usually not the case. When learning Japanese most people will learn about 「あなた」、「きみ」、「お前」and so on but Japanese makes it harder than this. So, what do I call ‘You’ in Japanese? Keep reading below.
INDEX
Just call them by their Name
The easiest way to resolve the issue of not knowing how to address someone is by calling them by their name. This is such a great way to resolve the confusion that it is how most Japanese refer to each-other. In English when talking to a friend if we talked like this it would sound weird. “Where would Jimmy like to eat today?”, “Does Jimmy know where we are going?”, “Tell me why Jimmy is looking at me with that face, what would you prefer me to call you? James?” In English, it sounds like we are talking to a child or a dog or something. In Japanese, it is ok though.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/Should you call someone by their First or Last Name?
Friends
If you are talking with friends it can go either way. This will be a preference. In the United States when I was in High School most people called me by my last name but all my other friends were called by their first name or a nickname. It is the same in Japan. I think more people call each other by their last name or by nicknames than they do in the United States but that is up for debate.
Professional Settings
At work or in other professional settings people will call each other by their last name and usually but さん at the end of it. You may also refer to a supervisor by their job title like 「部長」or 「課長」.
Specific Words used in place of someone’s Name
Family Members
Of course, if you were talking with family members it would be confusing if everyone called each other by their last name. In that situation usually call your siblings by their first name and use
お父さん（おとうさん）
for your dad, and
お母さん（おかあさん）
for your mom.
School and Workplace
先生（せんせい）
If you are talking to teachers or doctor’s you would usually call them 先生.
先輩（せんぱい）
This is a word that anyone knows that is into Manga. You would call upper-class students or people who are senior to you in some profession 先輩.
お宅 not オタク
If you don’t know the name of the person you are talking to, you can use「お宅」（おたく）. This word means ‘house’ or ‘home’ and refers to someone’s family. So you can use 「お宅」to refer to all three, someone’s home, family or the person you are talking to.
‘You’ in Japanese is a Complicated Subject
Addressing someone in Japanese involves knowledge of who the other person is and in some cases social relations between you and them. There is even a show in Japan called 「YOUは何しに日本へ？」”Why did you come to Japan?” or “What brings you to Japan?” where the shows staff hunts down foreigner’s in the airport to ask them why they are in Japan and uses ‘You’ to refer to them. This is not a regular thing though outside of that show.
Just like ‘you’, saying ‘I’ in Japanese is not straight forward either. If you are interested, you can view a previous article “第一人称 – What should I call myself in Japanese?”.
