Anime/Manga Lesson (2): About the term "Anime"

the term "anime" (as seen written as "アニメ" and pronounced as AH-nee-meh) is pretty much the Japanese term for a Japanese animation, Japanese animated cartoon, Japanese animated film.
Therefore, there's no need at all to say something like "Japanese anime." It's already implied that it's Japanese. (It's annoying when people say it like that... and it's almost redundant)
This is not to be confused with the term "manga" (pronounced as 'mahn-gAH' NOT pronounced similiar to 'mango'). Manga contains still images out of Japanese orgin (think of a comic book only that bookstores like to call it "graphic novels" being that they tend to be real thick). Again, there's no need to say something weird like "Japanese manga." It's implied to be Japanese.
Got it? Good.

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Japanese Lesson (5) Addressing Strangers

Of course, there are times when you meet someone without introducing each other. Usually, we would just call them "miss", "madame", "mister", and the like. Japanese has titles for strangers as well.
When addressing... (far left as formal to far right as informal tense)

• a woman much older than you = obasama, obasan, obachan
• a man much older than you = ojisama, ojisan, ojichan
  
  Careful when you use them; otherwise, you may offend someone. Unless that person has some gray/white hairs, it may be better to use titles addressed to an older sister/brother which again are...
  
• older sister/stranger = (O)neesan and/or (O)neechan
• older brother/stranger = (O)niisan and/or (O)niichan
  using the '-sama' prefix is rather rare. You wouldn't call a stranger in such a highly received way would you?  Older cousins are titled in this way as well.
  A person getting offended (especially females) might be because those titles ("oba" and "oji") sound closely to addressing a granparenst which are...
  
• female grandparent = (O)baasama, (O)baasan, (O)baachan
• male grandparent = (O)jiisama, (O)jiisan, (O)jiichan
  notice it's only one letter/syllable away from the stranger title to a grandparent title (someone who's of senior citizen age) 

and as always, younger people don't have a special title to them. They're just not really addressed; if anything, say something like "that girl", "that boy", etc.

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Japanese Lesson (4) Family

Now that you know about prefixes, it'll be easier to talk about family.

Far left as the more formal to far right as informal form... When you're addressing...

• Mother, Mom, Mommy = (O)kaasama, (O)kaasan, (O)kaachan; Hahaue (this term was used in samurai families prior to the Meiji period)
  Notice that we use prefixes when addressing 'mom.' It's the same idea throughtout. The '(O)' part is optional, but it is often used. Reason probably being is that putting an 'O' in everything is probably tiresome, though probably is the most proper way of speaking.
• Father, Dad, Daddy = (O)tousama, (O)tousan, (O)touchan; Chichiue (used in samurai families as well)
  
• Older/elder Sister = (O)neesama, (O)neesan, (O)neechan; Aneki is another but rarely used
  
  you can insert the person's name before mentioning the"nee"+prefix part which is the same for elder brother and sometimes but rarely to mother/father
• Older/elder Brother = (O)niisama, (O)niisan, (O)niichan; Aniki is another but is rarely used as well

Similar to the "sempai" idea (as seen here), younger brothers and sisters don't have a title. To the older brother and sister, they would just call their younger siblings by their names. And being they are in a close relationship, they would use the -chan prefix or without a prefix at all.

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Japanese Lesson (3) Prefixes

For those that are familiar, when you're watching an anime series, you almost always cannot miss prefixes such as "san," "chan," "kun," etc. at the end of someone's name
For this reason, these will be explained.
To start, calling a person's name plainly is considered very rude unless you are close to this person. Of course this is somewhat true when you are in the U.S., but this goes a bit more deeper. This can even go beyond courtesy, but part of the culture.
Next, prefixes in the Japanese culture is always used at the end of the noun. This includes people, animals, objects, and the like. That aside, let us now define the prefixes.

• -san is the unisex prefix. Using "-san" (sounds like 'SAHn') is pretty standard and is often used. It's pretty much equivalent to calling someone Mr. or Miss or Mrs. I'd like to call it the safe prefix that can be used on anyone.
• -chan is the more feminine prefix. "-chan" (sounds like 'CHAHn") is used on children mostly. It's also ok to use it on girls and people who you are close to. Not a good idea to use on males being that it sounds more condescending though I have heard it used between guy-guy friends.
• "-kun" is more used on males though I have heard it used on females just more rare.
• "-sama" is the royalty type of prefix. This prefix is something that is used on royalty or like a servant to a master/mistress. I have heard it by females using it on their crushes as well.
• plainly saying their name is reserved for usually lovers or someone you are just real close to.

Conclusions: using prefixes indicates what sort of relationship you're in with someone so use them well.

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Japanese lesson (2): Japanese and American School Comparisons

It may be obvious that, naturally, schools in Japan and schools in the U.S. are different; but here are some qualities that you may have not noticed; whereas some stuff that you ought to know that remains the norm in Japanese schools.

• Before students attend high school, they are to apply and take tests to which high school they desire. So, in a sense, it's similar to students applying for college in the U.S. If they are really determined (or if parents force them to), students would go to cram schools which occur after normal school hours in a separate sort of facility.

• Once they enter high school, they only stay there for 3 years. It's funny since junior high for them goes from 6th-9th grade. So, in comparison to the U.S... Their "freshman year" is still in junior high.

• In grade school, the kids are to keep a dairy as a homework report for the summer. That's not-so bad if you compare to the junior high school kids and up that just have summer homework. Yep, it doesn't matter if you're going to school or not, Japanese kids WILL get homework haha.

• In high school, students are often given questionnaires as to what sort of career they want to shoot for. For some people, that may enforce an individual to really consider the future...

• Every student rotates for cleaning duty after school in which they clean their classroom and the like. (i doubt this was done in college). This not only teaches kids how to clean, but it may (or may not) enforce discipline in which seems to be only forced in bootcamps (at least in the US).

• Not sure if it's in grade school, but I know both in Junior High and High School they have student representatives both male and female which are pretty much the person that is considered a role model to the class as well as the "student pet" to the teacher. The student rep also runs student meetings within the classroom to discuss regulations, concerns, and who does what in the sports festival and the like.

• Contrary to U.S. schools of junior and senior high, Japanese students pretty much stay in one classroom all throughout the day. The teachers are the ones that transition to different classroom locations after each class time. I figure that builds up strong friendships/teamwork/pride within the classroom. Though by next year students change classrooms and may not see the same people again, but still stay within that classroom until next year again.

• Students don't really have lockers but cubbies where they keep their shoes. They would (usaually) have 2 pairs of shoes: one pair they wear for everyday use and the other pair that is worn within the school building; thus, they rotate shoes before the school hours after hours.

• girls and boys are taught separately during P.E. and yes, girls wore those bikini-looking bottoms for PE. They even had swimsuit uniforms o.O They don't wear them anymore, but they are still seen in recent anime for laughs & giggles.

• "senpai" and "sensei" is often heard during school hours. Senpai (sounds like 'sehn-PIE') is a title-prefix given to someone who is upperclassman to you. Whether this person is 1 year ahead of you or 3, you would still address that person as "name-senpai" or just simply "senpai." That sort of formality is used the same way for "Sensei" (sounds like 'sehn-SAY") only it's used for teachers/instructors. Underclassmen (known as "kouhai") don't really have a title used among the upperclassman, they're just called by their names.

• school trips seem to often occur after the school year (guessing at the end of elementary, junior high, but definitely high school). It's like a field trip, but they get to stay over night or two. So jealous over that.

• there aren't any school buses, students generally just walk and/or bike to school (considering the overpopulation and it's eco friendly ;p). The rich ones are usually seen transported by car.

• yes, students wear uniforms (even as far as kindergarten) and no, the girl's skirts actually aren't that short as they make it to be in some anime. (When you watch enough anime, you notice the type of genre you're watching by the girl's skirts sometimes.) As far as I can tell, high school students WILL have school uniforms. Junior high is seen often, grade/elementary is debatable.

• Also good to keep in mind that--Japanese students treat applying to high school as a U.S. student trying to apply for college. U.S. high schools are usually decided by taxes and location (unless your parents are really anal [or other circumstances...] and prefer you to be enrolled in a catholic school or home-schooled). 

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