

From S02E10 of The Quintessential Quintuplets

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ibkmE.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ibkmE.jpg)

Above, we see that Miku is working part-time at some bakery. Yotsuba is
visiting Miku at the bakery where Miku has just started working part-time.
Miku's seniour colleague refers to Miku as Nakano-san when talking to Yotsuba
about Miku's initial failed cooking/baking.

Below, a few seconds later in the episode (which I guess is maybe an hour
later in the characters' time), the seniour colleague addresses Miku as Miku-
chan when Miku does a little better in the cooking.

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MlX5n.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MlX5n.jpg)

This is not just the subtitles. The dialogue really says this. Ah here I found
something on youtube: See for yourself [from 11:40 to
12:15](https://youtu.be/GDJH8n3ErXA?t=700).

**Question** : What's up with this? Is Miku's seniour colleague really
referring to Miku so differently from addressing Miku? Is the time skip here
perhaps actually not 1 hour but several days (and so Yotsuba actually visits
Miku more than once) ?


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2022-08-11T18:24:11.907
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question
japanese-language culture the-quintessential-quintuplets
Why does Miku's colleague refer to Miku by last name but addresses Miku by 1st name?


This isn't because they just became closer; It's because of (strange) Japanese
culture.

When people in Japanese refers to their colleagues or friends in formal
conversation, they use family name regardless of whether they are close or
not. I believe 99% of Japanese people always do this (including me), but I'm
not entirely sure why. Though, it's not strictly limited to do the same, so
some people prefer to refer their colleague/friends with their given name.

This often involves omitting honorifics (such as -san, -chan, -kun, etc), but
in this case that does not seem to be the case (perhaps because Miku's
colleague is talking to Yotsuba - the older sister of Miku).

I actually once had a situation where some of my co-workers didn't know my
given name (actually, I didn't know their given name either). I even think
that only the HR peoples or immediate supervisor might actually know the names
of their colleagues perfectly well, since Japanese people often call them by
their family name at work and there is little need to know their given name
(unless you get to know them well).


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2022-08-11T19:05:52.757
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answer