New answers tagged politeness
2
This is very good question and I have faced the same issue with my parents in law and other family members of friends' families. Chocolate has given us an invaluable answer but to add context, I think the simplest rule to follow is "When in Rome..." or 「郷に入っては郷に従え」, and it does not make any difference whether you are in Kanto or Kansai：
In other words, ...
4
It is usual to call them last-name+の+お母さん and last-name+の+お父さん (that means, you refer to your friend by the last-name). It is widespread to call people by their function unless you got closely acquainted with them. Both referencing and addressing the same.
お母さん・お父さん basically means "my mother / my father", either in direct or figurative sense. (Update: At ...
2
How about last name plus さん?
Even among good friends, the last name plus 君 is quite common (for male friends), so in a sense, the last name doesn't feel quite as formal as in English (or everything is more formal than in English, depending how you want to think about it). Thus, I think that last name plus さん is very appropriate.
After a while, you might ...
3
It's important to realize that there are two dimensions at play here. One is the "heartfelt" dimension, and the other is the "formality" dimension.
Both ありがとう and どうもありがとう are casual in the sense that you should only use them with people that you do not use 丁寧語 with. どうもありがとう shows more sincerity than ありがとう, but even (本当に)どうもありがとう would not be appropriate ...
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