"Please call me by my first name"

[LukeSkywalker 6,288]

3 hours ago, john g. said:

I‘ve been married twice ( a Brazilian and a Spaniard ) and in both cases my wives just carried on with the local traditions and added my surname to their existing one.

So, something like Maria Conchita Gonzalez Rodriguez Gunn 🤔.

[BayrischDude 2,000]

Señor Juan De los Gunns!
 

[Anna66 2,353]

I personally don't care if they use my first name or refer to me as Ms with my surname, what I find far worse is

 

"This is the wife of my son, brother etc..."

 

Terrible...

 

I have a name...

[john g. 33,715]

1 hour ago, BayrischDude said:

Señor Juan De los Gunns!
 

aka Juan Pistola!

[john g. 33,715]

3 hours ago, LukeSkywalker said:

So, something like Maria Conchita Gonzalez Rodriguez Gunn 🤔.

Something like that.. but you have to be careful in certain countries‘ urban slang if you go around calling yourself conchita!🥱

I will give NO clues!!!😷🥱

[katheliz 16,283]

My cousin and her husband each earned a PhD. In Germany, he would be Herr Doktor; she would be Frau Doktor Doktor, once for herself and once for him. Swear to God, that's either taking it too far or else not far enough.

[Keleth 7,615]

9 hours ago, evildudette said:

Just to clarify, I really like that in German it’s just Frau, as marital status really is irrelevant.

Didn`t Fraulein used to be the equivalent of Miss and like Miss it has now dropped out of favour.

[bramble 8,828]

3 minutes ago, Keleth said:

Didn`t Fraulein used to be the equivalent of Miss and like Miss it has now dropped out of favour.

 

Yes, my spinster German great aunt was Fräulein Wehrmann until she died at 90 about 50 years ago.

[Feierabend 924]

On 5/9/2020, 11:14:21, alderhill said:

 

After 10 years here, I still find this weird. My wife is pretty relaxed, had lived outside Germany a couple years before we met, and in a lot of ways is not your 'typical' German. But this is something she still always does. Friends call, name's on caller display and it's still 'Hallo, hier ist Nachname'. Her parents, family and two of her best friends (and me) it's just straight 'hello', at least. I myself always answer with "Helloooo?"

Well, at least it's still a sentence!

I used to get quite alarmed when someone just answers the phone with a curt "Wolff!" "Böse!" or "Sauer!"

Usually totally sweet people!

Quote

 

 

[Missysx 123]

I spent 5 years working for a company that purchased stock from suppliers in Germany on a daily basis and I always used to email the suppliers on a first name basis and don't remember ever being pulled up on it.

 

I do however remember a customer ranting at me one for calling him by his first name. He was outraged because he'd earnt his doctorate and demanded that I'd call him doctor... I wasn't intentionally being disrespectful, the only information I'd been given by the sales team was his first name as was the case with all the customers at that time.

[john g. 33,715]

I am an insurance broker. A client of mine was a policeman in Hamburg and we did some contracts about 20 years ago in the office. We were on „ Du „ terms and first names- we were at the same fitness studio.

One evening, he came with his girlfriend into the office because he wanted her to hear what I had to stay. She was a policewoman/ Beamtin as well.

She didn‘t sign up for anything.

A week or two later, I bumped into Jan ( just remembered his name!) at the fitness place and I asked him about his girlfriend.

 

He told me: „ John, she would have signed up on the spot but you kept saying Du to her. She was offended.“

 

Yep!

[dessa_dangerous 12,318]

47 minutes ago, Feierabend said:

Well, at least it's still a sentence!

I used to get quite alarmed when someone just answers the phone with a curt "Wolff!" "Böse!" or "Sauer!"

 

Husband's family answers the phone with a harsh and curt barking of their last name.  Even on birthdays, when they know they'll be receiving congratulatory calls, even when those birthdays fall on a Sunday, even when caller ID shows a family residence from the Old Hometown.  I think it's just down to tradition and habit. 

[alexunterwegs 303]

I've noticed that in the entertainments, arts, music  world, first names and 'dutzen' is pretty much universal in Germany, but what sounds strange, is that on TV chat shows, its Herr or Frau.  Its not as if TV chat shows come into the formal business meeting category, but as the name implies, are set up for informal chat.    

 

[john g. 33,715]

On 5/10/2020, 8:50:45, Keleth said:

Didn`t Fraulein used to be the equivalent of Miss and like Miss it has now dropped out of favour.

Yes, I wondered that yesterday as well, Keleth. I don‘t know if it is used at all these days. Maybe for young teenagers? No idea.

I was personally surprised to be called Herr Gunn at the age of 18 in Bonn when I ended up in a factory and some kind of secretary at some reception desk ( a young woman ) addressed me as such.

I had no memory of ever having been called Mr Gunn at that age in England.

[john g. 33,715]

On 5/10/2020, 7:02:31, Anna66 said:

I personally don't care if they use my first name or refer to me as Ms with my surname, what I find far worse is

 

"This is the wife of my son, brother etc..."

 

Terrible...

 

I have a name...

I must be missing something. What is your name?😜

[LukeSkywalker 6,288]

1 hour ago, john g. said:

I had no memory of ever having been called Mr Gunn at that age in England.

Since you were used to mate and love 😄.

[john g. 33,715]

Fun!

At that age, Luke, I wasn‘t used to mating and loving! Too young!😂

But I know what you mean linguistically! Yep, the use of „ mate „ and „ love „ as terms of affection etc! Right on!

[Anna66 2,353]

12 hours ago, john g. said:

I must be missing something. What is your name?😜

 

 

 

 

[lunaCH 968]

On 09/05/2020, 21:21:07, john g. said:

my name is Gunn. John Gunn.“

Yes, but is it golden?  

[nina_glyndwr 4,731]

Way back in.. the 80s (if I remember correctly)...women started saying that it was unfair that men were always called Mr, with no hint as to whether they were married or single. Only women's titles signalled their marital status.

 

In the past, you used Miss or Fräulein to denote an unmarried woman. However, it was a general custom that beyond a certain age, even unmarried women were addressed as Mrs or Frau, because it was thought ridiculous to call a 50-year-old woman 'Miss'. I know that my Auntie Winnie was always addressed as Mrs Jones in bills and letters from authorities.

 

Anyway, in those days, in both Germany and the English-speaking world, things changed. In Germany, all women were addresses as Frau, with no diminutive. And in the English-speaking world, they came up with Ms.