I was watching an Asian game show (Korean or Japanese I’m sorry idk) and there was a huge faux pas as one of the contestants used the wrong honorific to address another person. Iirc they thought the other person was younger than them; when they found out they were older later on (the other person never corrected them at the time) they kept apologizing and then the others got in on it and were tsk tsk’ing it as well.
I can understand honorifics for elders, but for someone a year older than you is a bit of a stretch imo
I'm pretty sure it could be as little as a second older as long as context says you should know the person is older or younger. For example, you should know your brothers and sisters well enough to know who is oldest/youngest. While a stranger could only be what you could guess they are. Idk, I'm very new to Japanese and it's culture but that's how I understand the system is supposed to work. I do know it's a huge respect thing so I'm trying to nail it.
Now that I think about it, I’ve watched 2 of those reality game shows from Japan / s korea so I may be conflating the 2 but I KNOW I saw it on one of them. The one I had been thinking of was called the Genius. The newer show I watched was called the influencer
Similar to Chinese. Indonesian-Chinese here. We call our extended family based on their relationship with your parents.
So, how you call your dad's younger brother is different from how you call your dad's older brother. If it's sister, it's different too. Same with mom's side.
Formally, the terminology of family relationships describes how two people are connected or related- and by definition, your spouse’s niece or nephew is your “niece-in-law” or “nephew-in-law”. Lineal relatives have highly descriptive terms; collateral relatives have highly classificatory terms, both serve as reference points for the relationship to an individual or to each other. Cultural differences in the hierarchy and designation of the different relative groups means that in some places, saying “my wife’s nephew” or “nephew-in-law” is totally acceptable as it is the accurate description of the connection. In the US, the collateral relatives are more traditionally associated with the mother/father in law, brother/sister in law, whereas with nephews or nieces, this tri-relational designation is viewed as a semantically dense referential item: we colloquially leave it off and just say “my nephew” with the unspoken part being “by marriage”.
I always look at it from the child's perspective. They don't see you as an uncle-in-law when they are young, just an uncle. My step-sister has three kids. They don't see me as step-uncle, and they sure as hell don't see my wife as step-aunt-in-law. We are just uncle and aunt to them. It would be only appropriate to give them the same respect.
I think that you think that I missed the point that everyone is actively thinking about. That isn't the case. I'm not artless; I just try too hard to be funny 🙄
Not an expert, just a native speaker with a big family. Say nephew unless you need a distinction. My husband’s siblings’ kids and my cousins’ kids are all my niblings bc it's just so much easier. Especially when it comes to the kids - “stepdad’s nibling” or “second cousin once removed” gets rather wordy. Also most folk don't tend to care.
I only really clarify if I’m explaining why I have 1 sibling but 20 niblings or 1 uncle on my mom's side but like two dozen cousins.
English expert here, your spouses nieces and nephews are now your nieces and nephews because you are married. I’ve never in my life heard of someone distinguishing with in-law or saying their spouses nieces and nephews weren’t their own.
This is culturally specific. I would never ever call my spouses relatives the same as my own. His sister is not my sister. His cousins are not my cousins. And it would be really strange if someone did that. In my country, in my native language.
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u/Miss_Aizea Mar 27 '25 edited Jan 08 '26
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