Calling someone お兄さん or お姉さん in the street; is it irrespectful?


So... i been seeing a lot of cases in anime or real life japanese that pepole
use 「お兄さん」or 「お姉さん」(depending on gender) to ask something to someone that you
don't know. Is this direspectful or something? because i've never seeing it in
textbooks lmao.




お兄さん/お姉さん is basically a fairly friendly second-person pronoun, so it's not
disrespectful by itself. In real life, you may hear this typically when
someone tries to get your interest and get you buy something.

However, it can be overly friendly (or even a bit scary) if used in
inappropriate situations. It would be safe in a popular tourist area or at a
festival, but I'll probably get defensive if a total stranger suddenly said
this to me in unsafe or quiet places. It may not be as informal as "(Yo) bro",
but you should not use お兄さん/お姉さん when you are politely asking for the way to a
station.

You cannot use お兄さん/お姉さん to a small child for obvious reasons, but it is not
uncommon to say it to a middle-aged or old person (as flattery).

