How to address strangers

[DylanK]

I've been wondering how you'd go about asking a random person on the streets in Japan something. If you were to ask for directions for example, would you even adress the person you're asking or would you simply go for ''Xはどこですか。''?

Nothing majorly important to me at the moment, but just something that I want to know.

 

[lanthas]

You can grab people's attention and prepare them for your question by starting with すみません, just like you'd start with "Excuse me" in English instead of directly dropping the question out of the blue. すみません、Xはどちらですか。

すみません is a highly versatile word that's used in many situations. It can be used for apologizing after having done something bad, apologizing in advance before doing something "bad" (imposing on the person's time by asking them a question), or even thanking someone (by expressing that you feel guilty about them doing something for you).

 

[WonkoTheSane]

I usually say あの before すみません if it's not a waiter or someone expecting me to get their attention. I don't know if it's correct or not, but I heard it being done so I picked up the (possibly bad?) habit.

Is this wrong?

 

[Mike Cash]

There are lots of ways, including those already mentioned. One that may strike foreigners as odd, but which is actually used, is the もしもし used in answering the phone.

You can address the person in a variety of ways, depending on age, gender, situation, etc.

ぼく
おにいさん
だんなさん
おとうさん
おじさん
おじいさん

あたし
おじょうさん
おねえさん
おくさん
おかあさん
おばさん
おばあさん

For many of the above either さま or ちゃん may be substituted, depending on the circumstances.

If the person has a job title that you know, you can use that:

かかりちょう
しゅにん
かちょう
ぶちょう
じょうむ
せんむ
ふくしゃちょう
しゃちょう
かいちょう
マネジャー
てんちょう
してんちょう
Etc

If you know the name of the person's place of employment, you can address them by that or, more typically, an abbreviated version of it. For example, I am sometimes called (and will answer to) くぼたさん as くぼた is the family name of my employer and part of the company name as well. Note that this is only from people who are not from the same company.

There are also times when you may address a person by his occupation. I am also sometimes addressed as うんてんしゅさん or ドライバーさん, for example.