From: Michel Noddy
To: Anne
Subject: call me "mitchan" sometimes
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 14:47:15

i wrote,

> Ordinarily in japanese we do not call someone full-name personally.
> to call full-name is restricted to the case of public name such as the
> authors, musicians, politicians or else. certainly sometimes it is
> necessary to use full name to distinguish same name.

> in general we attach "san", "kun" or "sama" beneath the name.
> "san" is polite and applicable to most case. "kun" between boy students.
> "sama" is very polite and used in letters.
> I was called "nockun" in my elementary school age from my class mates.

> To call directly by last name is in equal relation or to the inferiors
> but direct last name sounds a little rude. Female is never called
> directly by her last name. So i do not call you "hey, liu!"

however, if you can call a person by his last name directly, you can use
his full name out of the presence of him. for example,
if you are the teacher of Tanaka Takao (this is an average name),
you can say "Tanaka wo tsurete kinasai" (bring here Tanaka Takao) or
"Tanaka Takao wo tsurete kinasai."

But, if you are a female teacher, these are still unnatural. you had
better to say "Takakakun wo tsurete kinasai" or "Tanaka Takao kun wo
yonde kite ne." that is, a female is not called by her name directly
(without tail-attachment) does not call anyone (except the case of
inside of her family) their name directly.

It can be said that anyone does not call some person by her/his full
name in the presence of the person.

for infants you can use "chan" in stead of "san". so if you treat me as
kid you call me as "michel-chan!" or "mitchan".

after all, every naming system is the reflection of their relationship.
especially in japanese language, it remarkably reflects it's social
hierarchy structure. sexuality is the problem. roughly speaking,
there are two variations of japanese language, for-woman and for-man.
for-woman is more polite than for-man.

nowadays, more japanese girls incline to use boyish rude language
and socially, strict hierarchy regulation is gradually loosening towards
flat structure.

m.n. 1/9/99

P.S.
if your major is japanese language, a research for Japanese naming system
might be the theme of your graduation thesis.