I (24M) first went to Japan in 2017 and stayed with several host families, and still keep in contact with them today. Though I speak fairly fluent Japanese, I am still unsure the best way to address my host siblings.
I refer to my host brothers (all 21M) as name + くん, for example たろうくん (fake name).
For the host sisters (18F and 23F) I use name + ちゃん, for example あいこちゃん (again, fake name).
I have noticed my host families normally just refer to me as my given name without an honorific, indicating a high level of closeness. However, I’m hesitant to just drop the honorifics from their names with first asking, as it could come off as rude.
What would be the most natural and polite way to refer to my host siblings?
2 comments
If you’ve really been friends for such a long time, just ask them if it’s okay if you drop the honorifics. Say that it makes you happy that they address you so familiarly and if it would be alright if you did the same. They’d probably be flattered by you asking
It might be an indication of closeness for sure, but it’s also just a pretty common “foreigner thing.” I used to work at a company in Tokyo that had a pretty heavy mix of Japanese and non, and it was really super common for people to just “yobisute” all the foreigners. You know, “Hi Nagasaki-san, hi [Sarita].” Because they know that I’m called just “Sarita” in English so they call me that in Japanese too.
But either way, yeah you should definitely just ask!