ma'am, do you think?
Question for you English-speaking folks! In things I've been reading or watching lately, I keep realising that these fictional people don't use names the way I do.
I've been pondering titles and honorifics especially. Do you have thoughts on them? Do you actually use them in everyday life, adressing of thinking of people as Mr/Mrs So-and-so? What about sir? Professor?
It's a foreign concept to me - I've always called all of my teachers by first names (the emphasis on Professor in HP always felt like a part of the fantasy setting), Mr/Mrs/Ms is things you need to fill in when you buy plane tickets, and job titles are things to use when explaining what someone works with or their qualifications, not for talking about or adressing them!
Actually, I'd bet that if you had a bunch of Swedish professors, doctors, CEOs and important people around a table and told them to make nametags for themselves, 3 out of 4 four would write only their first name. That seems natural; using titles would be pretentious.
(I'm absolutely terrible with French politesse, let me tell you.)
An other question: what would you say it implies to call someone by last name only? Because the difference between calling someone by first or last name keeps popping up in things I read, as Meaningful somehow - and it doesn't always fit with my ideas. (I'd say calling someone by last name only is 1. a military thing; 2. referring to a couple/family; or 3. a nickname thing. But mostly informal.)
This post is also brought to you by the new trend of people in my social cricle nicknaming me - I'm amused but constantly going wait what who me? Funny things, nicknames.
This post has
comments on Dreamwidth. http://emei.dreamwidth.org/58339.html
I've been pondering titles and honorifics especially. Do you have thoughts on them? Do you actually use them in everyday life, adressing of thinking of people as Mr/Mrs So-and-so? What about sir? Professor?
It's a foreign concept to me - I've always called all of my teachers by first names (the emphasis on Professor in HP always felt like a part of the fantasy setting), Mr/Mrs/Ms is things you need to fill in when you buy plane tickets, and job titles are things to use when explaining what someone works with or their qualifications, not for talking about or adressing them!
Actually, I'd bet that if you had a bunch of Swedish professors, doctors, CEOs and important people around a table and told them to make nametags for themselves, 3 out of 4 four would write only their first name. That seems natural; using titles would be pretentious.
(I'm absolutely terrible with French politesse, let me tell you.)
An other question: what would you say it implies to call someone by last name only? Because the difference between calling someone by first or last name keeps popping up in things I read, as Meaningful somehow - and it doesn't always fit with my ideas. (I'd say calling someone by last name only is 1. a military thing; 2. referring to a couple/family; or 3. a nickname thing. But mostly informal.)
This post is also brought to you by the new trend of people in my social cricle nicknaming me - I'm amused but constantly going wait what who me? Funny things, nicknames.
This post has
comments on Dreamwidth. http://emei.dreamwidth.org/58339.html