Names and Respect

A student who calls a teacher by his or her first name in the United States would probably have a quick trip to the principals office after a warning or two. It is considered disrespectful. Instead students refer to their teachers as Mr. or Ms. (last name).

The past three weeks though, I have heard just that. Students call teachers by their first names, no Mr. or Ms. attached to even that. It caught me by surprise at first. As I think about it, I have realized I don't even know a lot of the teacher's last names. The ones I do know are because of email addresses.

Another thing I have noticed is while walking in town people will cut you off or sometimes just stand in large groups blocking the sidewalks. On more than one occasion I have had to walk out into traffic to get around groups of people. Again, in the United States (at least the South) this would be considered rude. But even when getting off a bus, people don't even expect you to let them out, much less stop and tell them go ahead. It sometimes gets funny looks because it is unexpected.

In other news, I really need to get a bus card and figure out the LOCAL bus system. That may be one of my weekend tasks coming up.