Anata only for family?

I have read that the use of anata in a question to someone you do not know to will cause offense - the writer stated that anata, like omae, anta and temee are colloquial for 'you' such as here: Tanaka-san, anata no shigoto wa nan desu ka and would be improper. Does this apply in the course phrase: Genki desu, arigato, anata wa?

Um. let's see. the words for "you" are: anata, kimi, kikun, kisama, omae and temae. At least that's all I can remember. Anata: Most proper expression for both males and females. It's literal meaning is "respectable person". Kimi: Used for equals and those lower than you, expressing familiarity. It's literal meaning is emperor/majesty. Kikun: Used by males to equal partners. Only really seen in writing. Kisama: Used by males only between friends. Very informal. Omae: Literally means "you in front". Used by males and females to equal partners and those lower than you. Temae: Used mainly by male merchants or craftsmen. Literally means "you in front of me". Anta is a very colloquial variation of Anata. Temee is a rude variation of Temae. I thinks that's it. Hope it helps :) Omae:

That helps very much! Thank you!

Minnasan konnichiwa! "Anata" is actually rarely used and avoided in colloquial Japanese. In Japanese, we tend to use the person's name instead of "you". So for example, in a dialogue such as: Sayaka: How are you? Taro: I'm good, and you? In Japanese you would normally hear something like: Sayaka: Taro-san genki? Taro: Un, genki dayo. Sayaka-san wa? In the Rocket Japanese Premium conversation, we have used the word "Anata" to understand where the "you" would come in a sentence structure. You can replace the "You" with a person's name. -Hope that helps Sayaka ;)

... If we do happen to use あなた (Anata) on a regular basis... what kind of things does it convey, does it make us sound mean, does it make us sound impolite? I used it a lot when I didn't know a person's name (next time I go to Japan, I will work harder to remember peoples names) so... I was just wondering what kind of closeness/distance was I telling them on accident?

あなた (Anata) --- if used, may sound impolite and direct if you are meeting someone for the first time. Frecuently, あなた (Anata) can be heard used between husband and wife. - Sayaka ;)

Now since you all mention there are more than one way to say "you" and now i am so confused.

Keyatta-san, We are so sorry to confuse you!! Japanese can be confusing at times... The best way to think of this... is that unlike in English where we use the word "YOU" in most sentences when talking to someone, in Japanese we omit this. So, instead of saying "How are YOU?" with can omit the YOU and simply say: GENKI? - another example is "What is YOUR name?" - we can omit the YOUR bit and say: NAMAE WA NANI? - and so on. -Sayaka ;)