In some ways my western highschool was similar to the schools I see in Japanese media. Teachers and people you didn’t know tended to call you by your family name. People closer to you used your first name but being kids we tended to give each other nicknames. How widely those were used outside your friend group tended to depend on how well known you were. I have heard the commentator on sports day (a teacher) call one of my classmates by their nickname.
If I had to break down how your name was used,
Teachers and people from other classes — Your Family name
General classmates — your first name
Your friend group — your nickname.
From Japanese media it seems that school kids mostly refer to each other by their family name with an attached honorific that reflects social position such as relative school year. Referring to someone by their first name seems to be a big deal since it signifies that you are close.
So my question: Do kids in Japanese schools use nicknames? If so are there any rules to using them? For example, is this a replacement for your first name with the same restrictions on who could use it? Would a particularly famous student (say a star athlete) be more likely to be referred to by their nickname by other students not in their group?
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https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/17tq8qp/nicknames_in_japanese_schools/
2 comments
Kids use nicknames or first name with kun/Chan to refer to each other. They use last names if they’re not as close.
>Do kids in Japanese schools use nicknames? If so are there any rules to using them? For example, is this a replacement for your first name with the same restrictions on who could use it?
I dont know that much about western schools but I’m assuming it’s pretty smiliar. Yes japanese kids use nicknames and most people won’t use them if you aren’t buddies.