Yes Sir, yes Miss.

[bobleponge]

I was at a wedding on Saturday, and as at most French things, everyone knows everyone.
One thing that struck me was the respect that the French seem to hold for their teachers.
Mme Pastis left skool when pterodactyls had just stopped flying, she met her old physics teacher, and used "vous" throughout the whole conversation, never "tu."
A friend of mine, a young lad of only 25 was talking to his ex history/geography teacher, and again, only used the formal "vous" instead of "tu" even though the teacher was younger than me.
The only ex teacher I've ever bumped into was an ex partners dad, so I didnt call him Sir, but I dont know if I would call my ex teachers "Sir/Miss" if I met them again?

[Nicos]

..............

Mme Pastis left skool when pterodactyls had just stopped flying,

*quick slap on behalf of the lovely Mme Pastis


but I dont know if I would call my ex teachers "Sir/Miss" if I met them again?

Nope- but most of mine are probably dead by now...they were ancient even then....

[scarey55]

I actually think that I still might As Nicos said, most of them will be dead by now so it's probably academic anyway (see what I did there )
Having said that, I would always use vous anyway, I never could get the hang of tu-ing!

[janeyo]

I worked for a while in my old school. I did not call them by their proper names as that would have been wrong wrong wrong! They were still Mrs and Mr etc...

I often bump into children I have taught in town or sometimes now they come round for tea with my children (as am teaching the littlees) and they find it hard NOT to call me something formal
In fact those littlees even at school sometimes call me Louis' mummy LOL

[Seahorse]

My Mum was a headteacher and it still makes me giggle everytime we meet the big, burly Yorkshire farmers who still meekly call her 'Miss'

[kirsty b]

I remember when we went on theatre trips in the 6th form our English teacher would ask us to call him by his first name while we were out, but we still all called him 'sir'

If I bumped into any of my old teachers now it would be hard not to call them Sir or Miss or Mr/Mrs/Miss (whatever name is)

[zebedee]

When I worked in a local Primary School, in the reception class, the daughter of a very dear friend was a pupil. Out of school, I was always 'Uncle Ken'. Stuck for what she could call me in school, the little sweetheart came up with 'Uncle Robertson', thereby satisfying both camps.

[piskieinboots]

vous? tu?

k?

[Capsid]

Vous is the French plural of you, whereas tu is the singular form. In usage however, when addressing someone you are not familiar with the default is to use vous. You have to cross over some invisible line before you can address someone with the informal tu. Same in German. Very confusing for us Brits. We have the same problem with the how many kisses to give our European cousins when greeting them. Best to avoid any physical contact altogether I reckon.

[piskieinboots]

Good grief - and they say English is hard wot wot!!

[bobleponge]

Its actually the same in most languages, very few of them are like English where we use "you" for both peasants and royalty.
It was the respect thingy that struck me really, the closest Mme P got to actually not using the formal "vous" was by calling one of her old teachers by her name, Mme Dupont (or something similar).
We all knew our teachers christian names and I just dont know if I would use Sir or Miss if I saw my teachers again.

ETA: One of the reasons my daughter loves coming here is the amount of kissing that goes on, I have no issues with it at all, except when my male friends do it to me, that really worries me!

[piskieinboots]

Last edited by bobleponge; Today at 02:41 PM. Reason: Kissing

[di]

When I worked in a local Primary School, in the reception class, the daughter of a very dear friend was a pupil. Out of school, I was always 'Uncle Ken'. Stuck for what she could call me in school, the little sweetheart came up with 'Uncle Robertson', thereby satisfying both camps.

'Mrs Di' here

[Florence Fennel]

I always treated my teachers with respect, but my dad told me not to refer to the men as "Sir" as they had not been knighted. I used their names instead. Mr Hooper, Mr Francis, etc. Same applied to the ladies, Mrs or Miss. There were no Ms at that time!

[Hilary B]

I would automatically use the same 'name' I used when I saw that person last, whoever it was.
On the 'tu/vous' thing, in Spanish there is a familiar form in singular AND plural (tu, vosotros), and a formal version of each (usted/ustedes). Gets very complicated!