4 ms·
I lived in Asia for many years and worked with people from many places there. It's common to hear "How should I address you?" This is equivalent to the people
by jzwinck 3y ago
I lived in Asia for many years and worked with people from many places there.
It's common to hear "How should I address you?" This is equivalent to the people here suggesting a "nickname" field (good idea).
There are people with only one name. Don't make them double it (Ananda Ananda).
There are people with several given names. But they may only want to be called by the first, or the first two, or the last.
There are people who wish to be called by their full name. They may find it jarring to be addressed by just one piece of their name.
Finally there are people who go by a name which is not part of their legal name at all. Short forms like Bob instead of Robert, but also freeform names for various reasons, perhaps the most sensitive being that some government official may have determined their legal name contrary to their own wishes. Imagine your mother named you Sue but someone decided that must be short for Susan and put that on your government documents.
Related: when people want to show which part of their name is the family name, they either make it all uppercase or underline it. You can see this on some CVs but it happens elsewhere too when a full name is going to be read by people who don't know the addressee.
- masklinn 3y ago> It's common to hear "How should I address you?" This is equivalent to the people here suggesting a "nickname" field (good idea). It’s not uncommon in the west either and it’s weird how much we ignored it in software e.g. “I’m John Q. Smith the Third but call me John” or “May I call you j-dog?” > There are people who wish to be called by their full name. They may find it jarring to be addressed by just one piece of their name. There’s also the issue of honorifics which you usually can’t get from names alone, as well as titles (whether professional or nobility) which can be very important to people’s identity.
- ozim 3y agoWeb apps great equalizer. No one cares if you are knighted or have phd, put in your name and you can watch funny cats same way as the rest of pleb.
- MandieD 3y agoI have an elderly German aunt by marriage who considers it an affront that Vodafone sends her chirpy business letters starting "Hallo <<first name>>!" and continuing in the familiar second person instead of the more (to her) respectful "Sehr geehrte Frau Dr. <<last name>>," and formal "Sie" (grammatically third person plural, but also the formal second person). First names and familiar second person grammar are very much reserved for family and friends in that generation. Is there a similar sentiment among older people in parts of Asia?
- jval43 3y agoIt is an affront though, a butchering of the language and just generally disrespectful. The distinction is an integral part of the German language and it's wholly inappropriate for a telco provider to address someone like this. Same goes with names: missing accents, umlauts, special characters, wrong ordering, wrong titles/gender etc. is aggravating. And customers do complain. German companies often spend a non-trivial amount on software engineering time and data cleanup to get these things right. And the French take it even more seriously. Non-native speakers may not understand it, but that's no excuse and you will alienate people and customers. Even younger generations notice. And just fyi I'm a millennial and per "Du" with everyone I know. Not my telco provider though.
- leokennis 3y agoBut this is the issue. There is not one way to do it right. My ideal message from my telco would be this one line: "Hi Leo, your monthly bill for <phone number> is available. Get it here: <url>"
- kyleee 3y agogoing further i have a strong preference not to be named at all in an email from my phone company. let's keep it simple; if i want the email at all then i want to go right to the bill URL, in your example
- sarabande 3y agoIt's your personal preference to be addressed with _Sie_, but languages change and German is seeing shift to the use of _Du_ even for transactional business [1]. Target audience, region, familiarity etc. will all affect which word is used. Claiming the use of _Du_ in customer relationships as "wholly inappropriate" again is an expression of personal preference, not fact. [1] https://www.abendblatt.de/wirtschaft/article233949947/firmen-kunden-hamburg-otto-aldi-duzen-siezen-unternehmenskommunikation-sprache.html https://www.abendblatt.de/wirtschaft/article233949947/firmen...
- pmontra 3y agoImagine if the name on a tomb does not match the one that the person preferred to be called with, and everybody used all the times. I know one case but I don't know the reason.
- Minor49er 3y agoLoved ones sometimes pay to have nicknames engraved on tombstones. I think those things are often left off unless the nickname had strong significance to the closest friends and family members of the deceased