Re: [xmca] Terms of Endearment

Welcome to the list, Louise!
I went to England from Australia aged 21 and then returned aged 40.
In terms of terms of endearment, when I came back, I was bowled over by how
when I phoned a company the person at the other end would pick up the phone
and say "Hi, this is Julie" or something. First name terms for complete
strangers! This was combined with me embarrassing myself continuously
because despite being the union rep. wherever I worked all my time in the
UK, back in Australia I was constantly finding myself paying deference to
my betters where it was not expected. I got over this in a couple of weeks
mind you. :-)
On the other hand, when I had arrived in London back in 1967 it was
wonderful to be able to walk out on to the street and not have to be
prepared to defend myself or run for my life, at a moment's notice. But
Australia had caught up to London and overtaken it in terms of public
safety by 1985.
Andy
At 09:41 AM 14/12/2007 +1000, you wrote:
>I moved from England to Australia when I was 16yrs old. I was not
>expecting the culture shock I felt. Same language different meanings with
>so many things. The differences were reinforced when I returned to England
>for a holiday and seemed to be offending people by making eye-contact and
>smiling at complete strangers in the street (every day occurrence in
>Australia, but considered bad taste in England).
>
>I am sure the adding dramatic changes in culture and language pose
>exponentially bigger problems, but sometimes the fact that you are not
>expecting difficulties with interaction makes them more of a surprise. You
>are not forgiven so easily for errors when the language is the same.
>
>Louise Hawkins
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: bella kotik [mailto:bella.kotik@gmail.com]
>Sent: Friday, 14 December 2007 02:01 AM
>To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>Subject: Re: [xmca] Terms of Endearment
>
>How interesting: in Israel, though so different culture we have the same
>syndrome. Everybody is called by the first name and nicknames of
>politicians are used by mass media. As a new immigrant from a different
>world (Russia) I still have some difficulty- I call some of my older (or less
>close) Russia-speaking friends using "wy"=usted in Spanish, but my
>daughter who was immersed in the Hebrew language and culture at the age 12
>uses "TY"
>in Russian even to people whom I call "wy".
>This things are interiorised in the context and really difficult to teach
>just as a part new (foreign/second) of language.
>Bella Kotik-Friedgut
At 04:49 PM 13/12/2007 -0800, you wrote:

>No message came through andy
>mike
>On Dec 13, 2007 4:33 PM, Andy Blunden
><<mailto:ablunden@mira.net>ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
>>
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  Andy Blunden : http://home.mira.net/~andy/ tel (H) +61 3 9380 9435,
mobile 0409 358 651

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Received on Thu Dec 13 17:25 PST 2007