Is it rude/improper for an older man(40s) to refer to a younger woman(20s) as Ojou Chan ( 'お嬢'ちゃん)

I was wondering is this a real life thing such as a parent to their friends children or is that only in anime?


According to Japanese: the spoken language, page 260 (my ancient textbook: my emphasis):

-tyan̄ is the familiar, diminutive equivalent of -san̄, usually affixed to the given name of children and to that of young adults a a term of intimacy. Like -san̄, it is never used in reference to oneself, or to a member of the in-group when talking to the out-group.

At age 20, I believe you are reaching the absolute very edge of what could be called young adults and it’s getting kinda weird tbh. I believe it’s safer to go with ozyôosan̄ unless you’re in quite familiar company.

EDIT: Not to discard the absolute banger “name”-san̄ as a replacement for any personal referent which 9 out of 10 times when talking to out-group people works every time.

EDITED AGAIN: to add the exception of you being the 60’s hit singer and actor Kyu Sakamoto addressing a mannequin.

That romanization is giving me headache :sweat_smile:

Yeah, it’s Japanese: The Spoken Language. They just straight-up invented their own romanisation system. “It’s more accurate!”

That’s been causing many of us pain since the dark days of eGoooott.

As creative and brilliant as Mrs. Jorden was, JSL romanization is very similar to other systems that already existed at the time (kunrei/nihon) and I’d have to say it’s misleading to say she invented a system. More like stuck pitch accent and nasalization onto an existing system honestly.

This is all neither here nor there in a topic about how to address ladies. :smirk_cat:

Edit: Ms - > Mrs.

Kunrei-shiki doesn’t make my eyes bleed. But regardless, you shouldn’t be relying on romaji anyway.

I half agree with this (there is after all a reason to me learning all these kanji beyond bragging rights) , but the question came in the shape of roman letters, and it would seem amiss to answer in kana.

eGoooott will be forever burned into my mind. I remember decoding it and rejecting it, assuming that I had surely made an error somewhere… and then it turned out to be the right answer.

Well, it turned out to be the accepted answer, anyway. I still refuse to believe that it was the right answer.

I kinda miss those days. WaniKani should send us on another wild durtle chase.