is anata wa rude?

[Bemo]

I was chatting with some Japanese friends about learniing Japanese. They told me to use 'anata wa' is rude...well, not rude, but it is strange to use it.

However, I spoke to another Japanese friend on another occassion with whom I discussed this matter. They disagreed.

So has anyone heard this before? whats the story.

[Javizy]

I'm a noob, but 'anata' means 'you' (singular), and 'wa' is a particle used to mark the subject/topic. It'd be unusual to use it because the topic is often omitted in Japanese when it is obvious; where we'd say 'don't you like it?' in English, Japanese might say 'don't like it?'. Anata wa would usually mean 'you?' on its own, but could convey a number of things in a given context.

[Bueller_007]

I was chatting with some Japanese friends about learniing Japanese. They told me to use 'anata wa' is rude...well, not rude, but it is strange to use it.

However, I spoke to another Japanese friend on another occassion with whom I discussed this matter. They disagreed.

So has anyone heard this before? whats the story.

Anata is not normally used in conversation except by wives to husbands, etc, or in situations where it can't be avoided grammatically. The concept of "you" is generally clear from context or from keigo usage.

Anata is also used when addressing large groups of strangers in impersonal contexts such as TV commercials, etc.

IMO, it's not rude, but it's a tad familiar. Stick with using people's real names plus "san" or "sama" instead.

[annie]

I was chatting with some Japanese friends about learniing Japanese. They told me to use 'anata wa' is rude...well, not rude, but it is strange to use it.

However, I spoke to another Japanese friend on another occassion with whom I discussed this matter. They disagreed.

So has anyone heard this before? whats the story.

All of my Japanese teachers told us that using "anata" is rude.

Whether it's really rude or not, I'm not sure, but I rarely hear anyone use it.
It's better to use the person's name.

[Tom]

It's better to use the person's name.

That's what I heard, that you should use the person's name instead of あなた wherever you can.

[annie]

Actually, just today I was teaching at a special school for kids with severe medical problems. Another teacher and I go there once a month for a few hours.

Today one of the teachers was asking us a question about the lesson plan (or maybe our opinion on winter in Japan), and he started to asked "anata..." and changed it halfway to "minna"

So make of that what you will.
He also wasn't sure if we knew the word "setsumei"....

[Jordi]

I asked the same question to my father, who lived in Japan for a year, what he said was that anata (sorry my input method editor is unwilling to work so I'll resort to romaji ) is too direct, and as it is known, directness in Japanese more or less equates to impoliteness.

[Charles]

面白い. We used 「あなた」 quite often in my classes. Although I'm familiar with all the statements above, repeated use of the word in classroom settings meant I never really picked up on the heaviness of the nuances.

It really is fascinating, that to explicitly acknowledge another's existence as an individual is such a meaningful form of familiarity. Referring to someone as "you" takes them aside and grammatically excludes them temporarily from any group except that of the speaker and the listener. That may be undesirable. Morever, if that is meant to be understood by common sense in some situations, it may seem more unusual than offensive.

The grammar of 2nd-person narrative creates a 2-person group. While we may see this as necessary for facilitating 2-way communication, many Japanese probably do not, and instead see it as language used in reflecting on a connection between the speaker and listener.

[Airth]

Charles, that's an interesting way of looking at it, and one I hadn't considered before.

I had always assumed that if you know a person's name then it is disrespectful to ignore it for the generic あなた. Another angle is that あなた and of course あんた are heavily used by couples, and so have certain connotations of familiarity. Personally, whenever I find it impossible to skirt around 'you' I usually resort to the more polite そちら.

[Girumon]

I was watching the 12 Kingdoms and this one character found out this other character was the emporer and he switched to anata and...well, its in here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iCAhb1gaPk

Around the end somewhere or something.

12 Kingdoms is an awesome anime, by the way. But it appears that the English voices arent very good.

[tiroth]

あなた should never be used to someone of higher status. That's why it is always rude to use it when speaking to teachers, superiors, etc.

The only times I have seen it used are the special case of wife-to-husband and in service situations where they have no idea what your name might be.

[Girumon]

Well, you could always use あんたさま。 Even though I never ever hear that.

[Elfunko]

I was watching an old TV show in class today and this CEO of a company addressed this guy who got her tea as "anata" then proceeded to criticize his tea serving abilities. The context it was used seemed pretty patronizing. Thus, in this context it really shows who is of higher status than who.

Personally I use kimi all the time it is necessary. Most of the time you don't need to specify "you" like the above poster said. It is implied.

Or just say, "Dou Omou?" You is implied. Just understand the verbs.


Funny story: Years ago when I went to Japan (the one and only time) I was talking to a cute girl up in hokkaido. I used omae, very rude unless in the right context, and this was not it. Needless to say, shortly thereafter I didn't see her the rest of the night. Live and learn.

[Bucko]

As far as I know it's not rude. I think it's strange to use it if you know the person's name though - maybe that's why Japanese people might consider it rude, "I told him my name just before, why is he still calling me あなた?".

The other day we were riding the bus up to one of the northern prefectures and the bus driver asked us あなたたちは日本語よくわかりますか. Obviously it was fine for him to use it towards two customers.

[Elfunko]

Thats a different context though. Its adressing a group of people with whom he's not familiar. Wrong context and it'll seem condesending like my example or odd like the others. So whats the right noun for the context?