WordList Letter - S

San - Mr or Mrs. Suffix attached to a person's name. Used in normal polite speech among equals.

Sama - Mr or Mrs (very polite). Suffix attached to a person's name. Used in formal speech and/or to refer to someone who has clearly a very high status.

Sayonara - Goodbye, farewell. Note: correct pronounciation is "sayoonara" instead of "sayonaara". It is not normally used when leaving one's own homes or places of temporary residence unless one is leaving for a very long time. If you know that you will see a  person again soon, expressions like "Ja mata" or "Mata ashita" are used instead.

Senpai - Senior, elder (as opposed to kohai = underclassmen). Used to address or refer to a person who has a higher status in a hierarchical structure. At school this is a an upperclassman. [Kimagure Orange Road]: Aside from "Darling", Hikaru also uses the term "Senpai" when talking to or about Kyousuke because he is older and in a higher class than her. Note: senpai is actually pronounced "sempai".

Shoujo - Girl or girl-related item. It literally means young/little and woman respectively. In Japanese, these refer specifically to a young woman approximately 7–18 years old. Shoujo manga/anime is therefore manga or anime targeted at young girls.

Shounen - (or shonen, shonen) its kanji word literally means few years and generally referring to a typical boy, from elementary school through grade school age. So Boy or boy-related item. Shounen manga/anime  is manga/animte targeted at young boys, the most popular genre of which is battle manga which is generally about action/fighting but often contains a sense of humor and strong growing friendship-bonds between the characters.

Senshi - Warrior, Soldier. [Sailor Moon]: "Sailor Senshi" translates as Sailor Soldier. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" means Beautiful Girl Warrior Sailor Moon.

Soko - There, that place. Used to refer to a place which is closer to the listener than to the speaker.

Sugoi - or Suge... Amazing, wonderful, great, awful, dreadful. Pronounced "sue-goy". Expresses amazement about someone's accomplishment or talent. This word can be used both in positive and negative sense depending on the person one is talking about. If it is a friend's talent one is describing it would be: "He is great!". If it is arival or an enemy it would carry a certain dread like: "He is awfully good!". "Sugoi ne" is also often used, "ne" is a casual way to end a sentence. So it's like saying: "oh wow","that's amazing","it's incredible".

Suki - Fondness, liking. Correct translation depends on the context. When talking about objects or food it can be translated as eg: "I like/love ice cream.". When talking about a person it tends more to "like" than to "love". To express love between two people "Daisuki" is used. This literally translates as "Big liking". More common translations are: "to like a lot" or "to love/fall in love". [Kimagure Orange Road]: At the end of the manga series, Madoka asks Kyousuke if he likes her or loves her. Kyousuke assures her it is the latter. So there is indeed a world of difference between these two words. The Japanese generally don't express their love openly. They believe that love can be expressed by manners. When they put their feelings into words, it is preferred to use the phrase "suki desu".

Suteki - Lovely, beautiful, fantastic, great, superb. Used to express admiration about the physical appearance, rather than some inner talent as with Sugoi although the two are perfectly interchangeable. Women tend to use it more than man. Note: The "u" in suteki is a whispered vowel so it is actually pronounced "steki".