Terms of Respect in Nepal

Video Transcript

(Note: This transcript has been edited for readability.)

When you meet somebody, with less familiarity (in Nepal), if you want to sound polite, what you would do is add that “ji” both for male and female, and address that person. For example, if I were to meet anybody, they would easily say my name, “Pritam-ji.” You know? “Pritam-ji, what do you want to do today?” or something like that, you know, it’s more cordial. Friendlier. It’s not rather friendly, it’s meant as a respect. With just the name, it’s considered like old friends. That’s the thing, here it’s very common to kind of, you could say, “Hey Richard!” Over there, some people, I mean the older people, find it offensive to take their name directly. So if you add “ji,” that solves a lot of problems, it reduces that.  

A Nepali national discusses using terms of respect in South Asia.