tou soba review still coming up, things not to say to a japanese girl

Um, yeah. Review, what review? Kinda busy at work so haven't had a chance to write one up.

But, I still have time to watch tv. Funny, that.

There's a Japanese practice called 合コン(goukon). Normally, three girls and three guys meet up and drink and eat and talk. Usually, a girl and a guy know each at least nominally, someone says, "Let's have a goukon!" The girl brings two female friends, and the guy brings two male friends. Basically a form of group dating. Hrm.. kind of like the somewhat outdated American concept of double-dating?

Anyway, the goukon is the first-time meeting for the participants. So, this variety show did an informal survey of 100 men and 100 women. They asked the men how they usually addressed a lady at a goukon. And they asked the women what they hated most to be called when at a goukon.

The women's ranking:
１．呼び捨て not using any suffix (dropping -san from Suzuki-san)
２．君 male speech pattern for saying you (men use this form more often, does not reflect on gender of person being addressed)
３．あだ名 making a nickname out of the person's proper name

The men's ranking:
1. ～さん (using -san)
2. ～ちゃん (using -chan, like Keiko-chan - which is used for young children and close female friends, although sometimes you use for guys too)
3. 呼び捨て or あだ名 (I forget which)

Funny that the men think #3 is friendly, but the women don't like it. At least according to this sample.

update: 2006/4/7: there doesn't appear to be a rule about how many people are required for a goukon, but I think 3 or more of each side is common.