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Why Koreans ask what year you were born

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Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#351

Post by erutuon »

triceratops wrote: post #324
tdeck wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wiki article I linked goes into it a bit: > Early English translations of the Bible used the familiar singular form of the second person, which mirrors common usage trends in other languages. The familiar and singular form is used when speaking to God in French (in Protestantism both in past and present, in Catholicism since the post–Vatican II reforms), German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic and m…

That doesn't really explain why people used a more familiar form with God, literally the most powerful anything, than they would with mere strangers.

In English, some prayers came directly from the King James Bible. The singular second-person pronoun in those prayers corresponded with the informal second-person pronoun in the normal spoken or written English of that time. It would have been weird to change the "hallowed be thy name" written in the Bible to "hallowed be your name" when actually praying just to be more formal towards God. Being formal would also not reflect the teaching that Christians have been adopted as sons and daughters of God. I read that "thou" indicated familiarity and affection like between family members and friends and lovers, whereas "ye" indicated distance, and using "ye" towards someone that you'd normally call "thou" would indicate you had a problem with them. So calling God "ye" would require you to rephrase passages in the Bible and might connote that you don't think God has a friendly or familial sort of relationship with Christians, but is far removed from humans or even antagonistic towards them.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#352

Post by ralfd »

triceratops wrote: post #324
tdeck wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wiki article I linked goes into it a bit: > Early English translations of the Bible used the familiar singular form of the second person, which mirrors common usage trends in other languages. The familiar and singular form is used when speaking to God in French (in Protestantism both in past and present, in Catholicism since the post–Vatican II reforms), German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic and m…

That doesn't really explain why people used a more familiar form with God, literally the most powerful anything, than they would with mere strangers.

In his prayer Jesus did not address YHWH as Adonai (“Lord”) as is customary in Judaism, but as “Papa/Dad”, Abba in Aramaic, and taught his disciples this form of address.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#353

Post by ralfd »

hulitu wrote: post #290
balanced2 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's normal - at least for the big US companies, even with a large presence the culture is highly American. I remember when a VP of APAC sent a org email expressing strong feelings about the Black Lives Matter protests, and it was quite awkward since that wasn't really an issue discussed outside the US - he couldn't even understand how it couldn't be an issue for everyone. Getting to hit the culture filter very early…

> about the Black Lives Matter protests, and it was quite awkward since that wasn't really an issue discussed outside the US Maybe outside of NATO. In EU we knew more about Black Lives Matter protests than about local news.

As every EU country could be practically the 51st state, we know any US news better than our own local news.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#354

Post by pnin »

yxhuvud wrote: post #266
inerte wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the judge who sued his condominium demanding its employees call him "doutor" (Your Honor)... As a Brazilian raised to not care about this stuff, I would say even rebelled a bit, it was weird to basically be required to do so once I reached adulthood. I remember getting in front of a sheriff and having to address him as "doutor". I remember talking to an intern in law firms and he corrected me when I addressed him…

The Germans are also pretty ridiculous around titles, in that not only can you have multiple titles, and each are mentioned, but you can also have several copies of each. So someone can be Herr Doktor Doktor Professor.

The senior title comes first -- Prof. Dr. Dr. Honorary doctorates are "honoris causa", abbreviated h.c. If you get multiple of these, you write Dr. h.c. mult. So you occasionally find Prof Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. X (would have been the correct way to address Umberto Eco, for instance). After introductions, people generally name only the most senior title, if any.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#355

Post by bubblyworld »

ivell wrote: post #318
hulitu wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These people usually leave the PhD off their CV, as some employers frown upon it, as they think the person will have higher expectations and be hard to work with. Most of them are hard to work with. As is with any people that climb on titles. They consider themselves special. That's why it is difficult for them to integrate in a team.

Not my personal experience. Many of whom I have worked with are quite friendly and open. PhDs are not take just for social climbing. Many were genuinely interested in the subject until they got disillusioned..

Are PhDs ever taken for social climbing? It's absolutely wild to me that somebody would go through that for status. Doesn't generally give you much of it and costs you a ton in opportunity cost and stress (at least based on the cases I know lol).

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#356

Post by staticman2 »

anal_reactor wrote: post #230
skygazer wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you find they look at you the same way your CEO did? If not, you apparently have unusually "special" relationships.

Sometimes. Those who don't usually also enjoy hearing me in a much more relaxed tone, whereas those who do end up perceiving me through the lens of much more official language. I still fail to see what's so absurd about this. Do you... literally talk to your boss the same way you talk to your best friend?

This is a very confusing discussion.

If you live in a Robert Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land-esque sex positive utopia where you're constantly going around talking about sex to everyone and getting positive reception, talk about it with your CEO as well, I guess?

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#357

Post by j-bos »

losvedir wrote: post #217
xenadu02 wrote: post #210

In the USA as a low-level employee address the company CEO as "heya phil, hows it going?". Then address your friend with "Hello Mr. Smith". In most cases you won't get a positive reaction out of either one of those (yes exceptions exist). How about this: address your husband/wife as "Mr/Mrs ", especially after a fight. Similarly when the kids have been doing something or you are frustrated with your partner say " you…

I actually think "heya phil" is more the norm than not. Certainly in tech that's the case. For example, we address the CEO of the company I work at (small but public) by her first name. From tuning into investor calls from my days in finance it's even common at non-tech companies.

Can attest, I work at a fortune 500 and have addressed c-suite-2 by their first names, also seen the CEO adressed by his first name in Q&As by commom employees.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#358

Post by tsm »

anthk wrote: post #205
agubelu wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spanish has actually three levels of formality when addressing someone by name: : Informal, casual conversation. Don : More formal, conveys respect while still indicating some closeness. Señor : Most formal, normally used in writing. Using only someone's last name is just plain weird. If you want to speak formally to someone just address them as "usted", it will get you the same goodwill without sounding off.

Don it's very outdated unless you address a very important person.

Don is especially susceptible to huge regional differences. It's as GP described in Honduras and I think as you described in Spain.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#359

Post by Melonai »

whstl wrote: post #47
kinleyd wrote: post #35

As a young man many years ago I happened to be in Seoul, in a shoe store. I was casually asking prices in English and noticed the salesman or owner was getting visibly angry with me. So much so that as I went around the corner of the store I clearly saw that he had begun advancing toward me, with every intention of physically attacking me. I put my hand forward to stop him and as I did, I shouted loudly, again in Eng…

In Germany I never had someone go to those lengths, but I've once made someone visible irritated when I used "du" instead of the more formal "Sie" . Of course I didn't notice but a friend just clued me into it right after. Thing is, in Berlin nobody really cares I guess, but this time I was in the country... oooooops...

Interesting. In Germany I've always had the opposite issue of my superiors vastly preferring I used "du" for them instead of "sie". I've always had some trouble with that since in Russia you usually try to address senior employees, your teachers and professors formally, although tech companies are as usual a big exception.

Many people were quite unhappy when I kept slipping up and being too formal with them afterwards... :)

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#360

Post by InitialLastName »

losvedir wrote: post #233
canjobear wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was absolutely not the norm I experienced in the 2000s.

I did in that timeframe. To be clear, it's not "Mr Surname" but just plain "Surname". I have a lot of friends like that, "Boughter", "Mooney", etc. Not everyone, but particularly if the first name was a common one or they played sports. I'm actually surprised you're not familiar with the practice. Think Scully from X-Files or Stifler from American Pie.

Not just Scully, but essentially everybody from every doctor or police procedural goes by their last name. The shows aren't called Meredith's Anatomy, Gregory, Adrian, or Theo.
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