[manganimefan227]

Originally Posted by Columbine

方 is a polite (or at least, less direct) substitute for 人 when you're talking about people you either don't know, or don't know very well. You can add it onto the end of あなた to make the 'you' less direct as well.




From what I understand of being rude in Japanese (and how to avoid!) it seems to come of being either too direct, like saying あんた (あなた) instead of someone's name, or being inappropriately polite. Which is why words like おまえ are often used as swears or rude words, but there are actually ways you can use them that are quite polite and technically have an origin in polite language.

So THAT'S what's so wrong about あなた! OK, I'm not sure what you mean by "direct" though . . .Is it just more respectful to say something like

としろさんはなんさいですか instead of using あなた?