Use of -kun

[reverser]

All,

Simple question, hopefully. I've researched extensively on the internet and the consensus I have seem to come up with is that there is no real rule to this. Anyway, wanted to throw it out there to get some feedback from the real masters.

There is a girl, that I believe likes my brother quite a bit (she's giving all the signs: touchy feely, always wants to hang out with him, text messages him everyday, etc.), and she has begun referring to him by name-kun. He is one year older than she is, so it clearly isn't the older person referring to a young boy kun type of usage. Nonetheless, since Japanese suffix use is so important to the relationship of 2 people, I wonder what the meaning of this is.

I gather that name-chan would be even more intimate, but I wonder if in many / some / most cases this rapid switch (they have only known each other about 2 weeks), is some sort of indicator in her interest in him.

Thanks in advance for any insight you might provide.

[QuackingShoe]

It's pretty common to drop politeness levels (including honorific suffix levels) with foreigners pretty rapidly, since most of them don't observe the same levels of politeness themselves, and Japanese people are aware of this. So that's not necessarily a huge thing to go on.

But come on, touchy-feely = the hots. Make the move. What's with all this research anyway? It ain't a science!

[reverser]

Point well taken...thanks for the advice. I'm just in it for the Japanese study, so I was analyzing the whole thing.

[kagawashaun]

The politeness drop with foreigners is a good point.

-kun can be "talking down" to someone, or it can just mean a level of familiarity. You might also want to be aware there are some girls that will refer to every male friend they know as ~~kun. I know some of these and it's a little annoying.

~~chan might be akward, seeing that he's a boy and all.