-chan ?

[hihlordjp]

ben wrote:
Well its just that i was reading manga and a 16 year old girl called a 16 year old boy -chan... ??? I donno maybe the girl was kidding or maybe the translation is wrong. ? Can you call your good friends -chan?

Certainly. It just depends on how close you are.

[momotaro]

No Japanese in NC
Well, maybe a few that speak too fast for me to understand
I saw this guy who kept saying chotto over and over while buying a cell phone
I guess he wanted a smaller one

[Athildur]

Getting back to the point .

I'm no expert on Japanese...hell I'm not even a Novice ,
but from my many months (-_-') of experience watching anime and reading mange, it would seem that chan is indeed some sort of 'cute' name for someone. young children are cute (by definition, although I think it might be faulty at some times ). If you call someone chan, it means you care about them or like them a lot (in other words...love them). But not in the parent-child kind of love...(I think calling mom, dad or uncle, aunt, grandma and whatnot chan would be quite...unappropriate. Why I don't really now, just seems to fit with the whole 'respect for your elders' thing they've got going on (Which I have no problems with, by the way...just didnt know how to put it into words otherwise)).

Oh well, enough rambling, hope it helps you.

Oh, btw: Maybe chan could be used as a very degenerative thing (have no idea whether this is the right english term for patronizing someone...). Like you say chan in a way that the sarcasm could almost slap you in the face . So, more of a teasing thing.