Mom [OT]

It ticks me right off when somebody calls me maam. It's like a old lady
title or something and I'm way too young for that! (29). Why does a lousy
title like that even need to be used? Saying "thank you" as opposed to
"thank you maam" sounds perfectly polite and respectful to me.

I was at a restaurant with a group of my friends once and the waiter --
likely in his late teens -- kept calling us maam. We started calling him sir
every time he addressed us as maam, then we'd laugh cus he didn't seem to
know how to react to that. After the main course one of my friends said to
him "you know... most women, us included, prefer not to be addressed as maam
cus it makes us feel old". If you really have to call us something, how
about using our names." We did a roundtable of introductions and he called
us by our first names for the rest of the evening.... he had no trouble
remembering them either. We ended up giving him a big tip of course for
respecting our preference not to be maamed.


"jmcquown" wrote in message
. ..
Karen Chuplis wrote:
in article , jmcquown at
wrote on 3/27/04 10:40 AM:

Kreisleriana wrote:
On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 04:23:43 -0600, "jmcquown"
yodeled:

Karen wrote:
"Kreisleriana" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 11:15:58 -0600, "Karen"
yodeled:

Yup. We call our "Mums" "Mom" or sometimes when younger "Mama"
(though my siblings and I held on to that one for a long time
actually.) "Mother" is generally held for referral use only OR
when aggravated by said parent.

Karen


And Mommy. My brother and I called our mother Mommy when I was
little (which is an increasingly long time ago ), and all the
children I
knew growing up said Mommy. My mother called her mother Mommy
when
she was little. I know English people say "Mum" or "Mummy," but
I never found it irritating. It's what they do. So what?


Oh, some things are just like that. I dislike "Ma'am". And I know
a
lot of women who do and yet people use it all the time. I swear,
it makes me feel ancient!

Karen

You're not the only one, Karen! "Yes ma'am" in the U.S. is
considered
polite but it makes me feel like someone's grandmother. Granted,
I'm almost old enough to *be* someone's grandmother, but point in
fact, I'm not.
Still, I suppose it's intended to be polite.

Jill


Another regional difference. It's pretty standard in the south,
almost non-existent in the north. So it can be a jolt to a northern
woman to be "ma'amed" when it's nowhere in her experience.

Theresa

True enough, Theresa... I never run into this when I go up North
I guess this is what is left from the "old South" (pre-Civil War
days)... M'ornin Mz Scarlett ma'am ROFL

Jill


Well, I guess it is better than "Hey, Lady!"

Karen

No, beats the hell out of "Hey mama, come on over here" LOL I run into
some
real Southern redneck yokels at the store down the street! ;-)

Jill

"Jeanette" wrote

dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers wrote

Like who? Who doesn't love the Geordie accent? It's one of my favourites!


I like it but I do have some difficulty understanding it. ;o)

--
Marina, Frank and Nikki
Email marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi
Pics at http://uk.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/frankiennikki

"dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers" wrote in
message ...
Well, like others have said, I think it's pretty much a
regional/cultural thing. California's a pretty big state, and there
are, at least in my opinion, definite differences depending where you
are. I grew up in the Central Valley surrounded by Okies who had come
out during the Depression. BTW, Okie is one of those labels that can
be either an insult or perfectly alright depending on the situation.


Where I grew up in the north-east of England, accents could vary from one
village/small town to another. You caould tell which part of
Northumberland
someone came from by the way they pronounced some words and the strength
of the
accent.



Aye, same thing happens in Scotland - two small towns
(villages) 8 miles apart have different accents (recogniseable
to ourselves and each other, but probably not to a visiting
american g)


--
Jette
"Work for Peace and remain Fiercely Loving" - Jim Byrnes

http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 11:41:33 -0600, Steve Touchstone
wrote:

Authority figures were always Sir or Ma'am; all adults, Mr, Mrs, or
Miss (don't think we had even heard of Ms back then).

We were raised the same way. Maybe I'm just an old fogy, but it
*really* ticks me off to be called by my first name by strangers, now
that I'm entitled to the honorifics. This was especially noticeable
in Florida. "But it's just being friendly." But you're not yet my
friend. Telephone solicitors starting off on a first name basis: I
ask "Do I know you?" (Stops them every time). Doctor/Dentist offices:
receptionist calls out "Jeanne" and three Jean(ne)s stand up. "I don't
know how to pronounce your last name." So mispronounce it; I can
figure it out. Grrrr!!!

Jeanne (the old fogy)

JBHajos wrote:
We were raised the same way. Maybe I'm just an old fogy, but it
*really* ticks me off to be called by my first name by strangers, now
that I'm entitled to the honorifics. This was especially noticeable
in Florida. "But it's just being friendly." But you're not yet my
friend. Telephone solicitors starting off on a first name basis: I
ask "Do I know you?" (Stops them every time). Doctor/Dentist offices:
receptionist calls out "Jeanne" and three Jean(ne)s stand up. "I don't
know how to pronounce your last name." So mispronounce it; I can
figure it out. Grrrr!!!

Jeanne (the old fogy)

Here they don't do first names at doctor/dentist offices and I know,
when I hear something that could be close to my last name around the
time I had the appointment for, I get up and check if it was me they
meant. I have a tricky last name too. Can't even count the times I've
taught ppl how to type the ü (u with dots) on an ordinary keyboard, both
at work and even in offices where names are required.

--
Christine in Vantaa, Finland
christal63 (at) yahoo (dot) com
photos: http://photos.yahoo.com/christal63

JBHajos wrote:
On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 11:41:33 -0600, Steve Touchstone
wrote:

Authority figures were always Sir or Ma'am; all adults, Mr, Mrs, or
Miss (don't think we had even heard of Ms back then).

We were raised the same way. Maybe I'm just an old fogy, but it
*really* ticks me off to be called by my first name by strangers, now
that I'm entitled to the honorifics. This was especially noticeable
in Florida. "But it's just being friendly." But you're not yet my
friend. Telephone solicitors starting off on a first name basis: I
ask "Do I know you?" (Stops them every time). Doctor/Dentist offices:
receptionist calls out "Jeanne" and three Jean(ne)s stand up. "I don't
know how to pronounce your last name." So mispronounce it; I can
figure it out. Grrrr!!!

Jeanne (the old fogy)

ROFL!!! Last time I was at the doctor's office they called out Ms.
Mc..Mc..Mc... I can always tell when they are calling me. But I wanted to
say "Who you calling a Mick?!" Just say McGowen (incorrect) and get it over
with; I'll know who you mean.

Jill

John F. Eldredge wrote:

My mother was an elementary-school teacher, and once had a principal
gesture to the Halloween-decoration witch on her classroom door and
ask her, jokingly, if Eldredge meant "old witch".

I thought that "Eldredge" was just one of those names that begin with
"El", like Eldorado, or El Paso.

CK wrote:

Hopitus2 wrote:

Hopitus2 does not watch "little brats" of any origin on tv, but prefers
science fiction pretty much, where no one calls parents anything at all,
because there just *ain't any*. Brit actors are rare in sci-fi tv, Patrick
Stewart, a Yorkshire boy, excepted.


More Brits in sci-fi:
- Terence Stamp, born in London, England, is in both Superman II and
Star Wars I, The Phantom Menace.
- Liam Neeson, Irish, the new episodes of Star Wars
- Ewan McGregor, Scottish, the new episodes of Star Wars.
- Christopher Lee, Belgravia, London, England, in Star Wars II, Attack
of the Clones (and LOTR, but those aren't sci-fi)
- Colm Meaney, Dublin, Ireland, Star Trek, The Next Generation and DS9

... just to mention a few off the top of my head...

(have I ever mentioned I like sci-fi?? )

You're good to catch Colm Meaney. I always overlook him. There's
also all the science fiction that comes out of the UK, like Dr. Who,
Red Dwarf, etc.

"Kim" wrote:

It ticks me right off when somebody calls me maam. It's like a old lady
title or something and I'm way too young for that! (29). Why does a lousy
title like that even need to be used? Saying "thank you" as opposed to
"thank you maam" sounds perfectly polite and respectful to me.

I was at a restaurant with a group of my friends once and the waiter --
likely in his late teens -- kept calling us maam. We started calling him sir
every time he addressed us as maam, then we'd laugh cus he didn't seem to
know how to react to that. After the main course one of my friends said to
him "you know... most women, us included, prefer not to be addressed as maam
cus it makes us feel old". If you really have to call us something, how
about using our names." We did a roundtable of introductions and he called
us by our first names for the rest of the evening.... he had no trouble
remembering them either. We ended up giving him a big tip of course for
respecting our preference not to be maamed.

I have a habit of sometimes calling women "sir". I also call groups
of women "guys", like "Hi guys", and "I'm going out with the guys". I
sometimes get some funny looks. Do you suppose that's okay?

wrote:

Why would kids from Glasgow want to imitate Londoners with Cockney
accents? Is it some kind of working-class chic or something? Like over
here, when white suburban kids start talking hip-hop lingo to imitate
black kids in the cities?

A friend of mine (who's black) once told me that I wasn't "black
enough", and tried to teach me how to walk more black, talk more
black, and even romance women more black. He eventually gave up and
told me that I would be the worst excuse for a black person he's ever
seen.

I also used to occasionally tweak a colleague of mine at work by
casually slipping in black slang into my everyday conversations, but
in egregiously incorrect ways. For example, I would talk to some of
the personnel about how I was "kicking it" to him about some new ideas
for calibration procedures. The other employees (who were white),
would just gloss over the phrase, but he would growl, "You weren't
KICKING IT TO ME!"