*grumble*

[ratcreature]

I'm really not that picky about British vs. American English in Harry Potter fanfic (a lot of the time I don't even notice, it's not like I could always tell for sure which words belong to which variety), but right now I'm reading a story that I would enjoy quite a lot if Harry wasn't addressing his female teachers as "Ma'am" all the time, which to me sounds really American, and I don't recall it being used in the books at all. I don't have copies of the books at hand (I just borrowed them from my sister when I read them), so I could be wrong, but I don't think so. "Ma'am" to address teachers and such is American, right?

Comments

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

In British schools, you tend to use 'Miss'. Even if she's married. Male teachers are called 'Sir'. It's considered sucking up to use the full name - it implies you care enough about them to have actually bothered learning their name.

I've never heard 'Ma'am' used.

[ratcreature]

It's considered sucking up to use the full name

Wow, that's certainly different from here. But then in German you can't really address people without using their last name, I think it would be kind of like calling someone "Mister" in English without a name attached. Here you call teachers "Frau ..." or "Herr ..." with their last names (the German equivalent of "Miss" isn't really used much anymore), and address them as "Sie", while they use your first name and address you as "Du." Though at least in my school (and from what I've heard in most others too) in the year most students turn sixteen the teachers begin to address you as "Sie" from then on (that's the general etiquette, that once you turn sixteen you have the right to not be addressed as "Du" anymore as people do with children), though usually the "Sie" was still combined with the first name, while as a student you used "Sie" and last name for the teacher. Some teachers even offered students the "Du" so that from then on you could call those teachers by their first name in return, though not everybody was comfortable with that kind of familiarity with teachers. I guess having an informal and a polite version of "you" makes everything more complicated... *g*

[lcsbanana.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's certainly different from here. But then in German you can't really address people without using their last name, I think it would be kind of like calling someone "Mister" in English without a name attached.

...wait, so how do you address someone respectfully whose name you don't know? Like, customer service, "may I help you, sir?" That kind of thing. Do you not do that?

[ratcreature]

The polite "you" i.e. "Sie" takes care of that automatically. It's the polite way to address a stranger or someone in a formal relationship, opposed to the informal "Du". There is quite an amount of social etiquette around when which form is appropriate, who is allowed to offer the less formal form of address first etc. In customer service for example, you'd simply say "Kann ich Ihnen helfen?" without a name. That is respectful if you don't know the name, there is no need to add anything to be more polite. Whereas you'd ask "Kann ich Dir helfen?" if you know the person well. In English both "Ihnen" and "Dir" would be "you".

Ma'am in UK

[mofic.livejournal.com]

In England you call the queen ma'am!

Re: Ma'am in UK

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

When I met her, I called her a pathetic old biddy.

Unfortunately, I didn't get up the courage to actually say it to her face. Damn. What a wasted opportunity.

(Dinner on the Britannia. Yawnfest.)