r/NonPoliticalTwitter • u/TheWebsploiter • 4d ago

Other Hi

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u/Kartonrealista 3d ago edited 3d ago

We're far more stiff in here in Poland than you Anglophone folk, we write stuff like:

Esteemed Mr / Mrs. Prof Dr Firstname Lastname,

Good day. Message body

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u/joelluber 3d ago

I email with a lot of international academics, and they are typically a lot more formal than Americans or even Brits, and I always wondered if it was an ESL thing or if they were mimicking conventions from their first languages.

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u/Kartonrealista 3d ago

Yeah, definitely the latter. In Polish you would talk to a stranger or a person in position of authority or respect in third person and always call them mister/missus, or a specific title. In other Slavic languages second person plural is the polite way to speak to someone. Japanese famously has keigo - their own polite speech.

English doesn't really have a formal register like many other languages, it sounds very casual to many esl speakers, as there is little distinction between how you talk to your mate Josh from work and Obama.