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> Since you are talking about the order of names, do you mean "last name" as in surname or given name? Exactly. For people you don't know well, 'getting forma
by chrisfinazzo 4y ago
> Since you are talking about the order of names, do you mean "last name" as in surname or given name?
Exactly.
For people you don't know well, 'getting formal' is never really going to steer you wrong. Many of the Romance languages (Spanish being one I know best, also because my brother's wife is originally from Panama) have the concept of a formal and informal pronoun "you".
To an older person, I might say, "¿Como esta usted?" instead of "¿Como estas?" as a sign of respect or deference.
For the record, I know precisely zilch about the rules in pinyin, and by coincidence didn't really grasp that "Standard Chinese"[1] is really an offshoot of Mandarin until a couple of years ago.
Seeing "Crouching Tiger" in Mandarin somehow got me in the mindset that this was "old" Chinese to fit with the time period of the film.
Not so much.
- chrisfinazzo 4y agoTo the point about last names, it's also culturally off-putting.[1] This is a different context obviously, but the idea is the same. "In most of the English speaking world it is not considered polite to open letters to a Mr. Joel Spolsky by writing “Dear Spolsky.” One might write “Dear Mr. Spolsky,” or “Dear sir,” or perhaps, “Hi Joel!” But “Dear Spolsky” is usually followed by some story about embezzled funds and needing to borrow my bank account." [1]:https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/01/26/getting-your-resume-read/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/01/26/getting-your-resum...