Japanese/Honorifics

Used when addressing someone to indicate your relationship/level of respect for that person.

Note: Do not use these when giving your own name unless you wish to come across as (acting) terminally cute ("Hi! I'm Kazu-chan!") or as a megalomaniac ("I am the almighty Kazu-sama!").

Basics:

-chan : Addressing a younger female, pet or just generally the cute mode of address. The highest level of familiarity
-kun : Addressing a younger male or (in anime at least) a "tomboy".
-san : Standard level of respect. Polite. How you would address someone you are unfamiliar with.
-sama : High level of respect.

These are commonly expanded into the business world as a matter of 'rank'. (i.e. your boss is -sama if you respect him or not ^^;; Also, you are kun or chan to your boss regardless of familiarity)

Others:

-sempai - "Upperclassman". Someone further through the school system than you are. (Someone respected by you in an academic environment?)
-sensei - Teacher, in any environment/level.
-kaichou (or simply "Kaichou") - Captain, I believe (Other military ranks and similar are also used as suffixes of names, eg Urashima-tai = Lieutenant Urashima)
-dono - Old fashion, high level of respect
-hime - Princess
-ouji - Prince
-ou - King
-oujo - Queen

It should be noted that addressing someone without any honorific actually indicates a level of familiarity far higher than "-chan".

To get by in Japan, resign yourself to speaking like a schoolgirl and pray that you don't accidentally mortally offend anyone by accident.

: As opposed to accidentally offending someone on purpose? And I'm not sure I would take that literally. If I started referring to myself as 'Atashi'I'm sure I would get a number of raised eyebrows :) --Kazuhiko