Hello! Does anyone know the difference between the honorific titles さん (san) and さま (sama). - Feed Post by otakukat23
Hello! Does anyone know the difference between the honorific titles さん (san) and さま (sama).
ありがとうございます！
ありがとうございます！
posted by otakukat23
Comments 5
さん is Mr./MS. , but if you want to say them respectfully then say さま
Sama is a step higher than san. Like addressing someone better than you sort.
Honestly, you pretty much never need Sama (さま), it's used for extreme situations. Even your boss at work would still be called by San (さん). If it was your bosses, bosses, boss... someone like the company CEO then Sama is appropriate.
Generally it works like this.
Chan (ちゃん) - Children, young women, close siblings. Women can use this amongst other close female friends if they want to sound cute. (because everything in Japan has to be kawaii... *groan*). Never use this with grown men, or anyone older than you, it's a massive insult. Only possible exception I've seen is girlfriends calling their boyfriends Chan, and I know of one guy who calls himself Chan... sort of in a self-denigrating way, playing himself up as the "loveable buffoon", but I doubt that's commonplace.
Kun (くん) - Close friends, cousins and same generation family mainly. Never use this in professional relationships, it implies family. Usually used for boys/men, but it's also considered a more respectful title for women who you don't want to call cute but still want to imply closeness. Rarely used for people older than yourself. Age matters in Japanese for some bizarre reason.
San (さん) - Anyone you meet can be referred to by San, strangers, friends, most professional relationships. If you're unsure, just use San. It's also used for anyone for whom Kun would be appropriate, but who happens to be older than you.
Sama (さま) - People of high authority or importance. A courtroom judge, a company CEO or important investor, a member of clergy. In some rare cases, shop assistants will call customers by this, and it's usually put on packages/letters by companies to their customers, but this is seen by many as excessive pandering... it's probably the most common usage though. Oh, and God gets to be called Sama too, because it's God.
Senpai (せんぱい) - Not commonly used now. It means a respected colleague of higher status than yourself. Only seems to be used in schools and dojo's now for talking to people in higher classes, but it could be used as an inbetween for when you want to be more formal than San, but less than Sama. For example talking to the head of a department at work for a department outside of your own. Again, this is rare, but it might show up in TV shows or manga, so it's worth knowing.
Sensei (せんせい) - Any teacher or instructor, used in place of a normal honorific particularly when the person in question is or was your teacher or instructor; even when they're not acting in that role at the time. It's not unknown for someone to still call someone Sensei years after they stopped being in a teacher-student dynamic, because Sensei is considered a more important title than San, and there's a fear that downgrading someone's title can be taken to be insulting (though this is often just out of extreme politeness and few people would really take offense I feel).
Thank you!! ^-^
