calling people’s name at work
“정육부 김과장님! 전화왔습니다. 3번 라인으로 받으시기 바랍니다!” (Jeong Yook Bu Kim GwaJang Nim! JeonHwa Wat Seup Ni Da. Sam Bun La In Eu Ro Bat Eu Shi Gi Ba Rap Ni Da.) Hew… This is the longest one ever. Can you even try to say this Korean? 🙂 In English -> “Manager Kim of the meat department! You have a phone call! Please take line no 3!”
During the easter weekend, Jessy and I went to Washington, DC to enjoy the annual cherry blossom festival. First thing we did was going to a big Korean market, almost like Costco size, over there to eat some authentic Korean food. While we were having lunch, there were several announcements about phone calls and asking someone to take them by using a specific line. Of course, they spoke in Korean. Hearing them, I suddenly realized one thing about cultural differences between Korea and America. In Korea, when you need to call someone at work, you usually go by their last name plus their job title. As you may noticed from the announcement above, the announcer said, “Manager Kim!” Especially, if someone is higher than you, you never call their names at all. If you do, you might be fired. Always, last name + job title. Or, if you want to use their name, then full name + job title. Whereas, in my company here in America, I call my boss by his first name. I remember that, when I first met him, I called him “Mr. Kelly” but he insisted me to call him by his first name. I even use the first name to call my CEO and President. Maybe, this is very unique in my company since my company is not big. (Is it true? Or most American companies have the same norms?) So. I realized a big effect on decision making process due to this cultural difference. First, calling my boss by his first name makes me feel really comfortable and more closer to him so that I can speak my opinions out in meetings. This of course makes the organization more open to diverse opinions. At the same time, this may cause some decisions to be made slower, I guess. In case of Korea, I felt like there were some sort of limits I have in terms of speaking out my thoughts based on my job title. But, this sometimes leads to a faster decision making process. I do not think one thing is better than the other but it is just different and I felt so weird to hear calling someone by their title and last name for the first time after staying in America for four years. I am also very curious whether there are any differences in different countries. Could you tell your story if you have any differences in your country?
Speaking of work, there are two interesting acronyms you might be interested in.
1. PTO : Paid Time Off (Instead of saying vacation, these days, most of the American companies use this term.)
2. STD : Along with the PTO, there is another one, STD (Short Term Disability). When you are really really sick and cannot make it to the work for a specific period of time, you are under the STD. Funny thing is if you use this acronym in America, most people, I would say 9 out of 10 (maybe 10 out of 10), will think the other STD, Sexually Transmitted Diseases. So, be careful! 🙂
Using first names is a new development in America. It was (and still is) difficult for me to do because I was raised in a very traditional manner. When I was young I would have gotten wupped (spanked) if I used an adults first name.
This is one of the things I don’t like about modern manners.
Agreed. As I’ve aged, more and more adults have asked me to address them by their first name. I guess it’s a sign of equality or comfortability. I still default to “yes sir, no ma’am”, even if sometimes in an honorific-where-it’s-not-needed situation (like when I’ve said “Mr. Anderson” to Phil, mostly because it’s a Matrix reference, and he likely is so tired of it he doesn’t even hear it any more when people say it, haha).
Example: when I taught, students I don’t know very well and only in a professional setting called me Mr. Dean, whereas the ones I knew outside of work and generally before being my students I permitted to call me Colin except in my professional capacity. Some called me Professor Dean, and this was just weird. This is the general rule with teachers in America, I’ve found. At least in western Pennsylvania 😉
Thanks for sharing the information! Really good to know. Good thing I have been calling my landlord by “Mr. his last name.”
Huh. I call Phil “Mr. Bagginses” in the same dead-pan voice.
It may have something to do with Hugo Weaving being in both movies…
“Mr. Bagginses…
It seems that you’ve been living two lives. One life, you’re Frodo Bagginses, hobbit in a respectable shire. You have a hobbit hole, pay your taxes, and you… help your landlady carry out her garbage. The other life is lived in adventures, where you go by the alias “The Ring Barer” and are guilty of virtually every crime we have a law for. One of these lives has a future, and one of them does not. “
STD is an acronym for something else. I’ll let you figure it out though. 😛
Schäffer The Darklord — The Rappist (video)
PTO is actually something different from vacation. PTO is code word for “you must use vacation time if you are sick”. I’ve never heard short term disability called STD, but I guess you could say most STDs are short term disability…
I suspect title is required in Korea because everyone is named Kim. If there are two application engineers named Kim, what do you do to differentiate?
Haha, well remember there are also Lee and Park in Korea. If anyone have the same last name and have the same title, then you can use full name with title. But, if you know to whom what you are talking, then you can emit the first name. And, as the example of the post, Koreans even use the department of a person to differentiate the people with the same last name. There is always connection between the title and the people when it comes to work. For example, if you have a meeting with another person from another company, your title really matters. If the title of the other person is really higher than yours, you cannot really have a meeting with him/her. You should let your boss or boss’s boss have a meeting with him even you are smart and have a capability to handle the meeting.
So if it’s so obvious that someone who I want to call is elder, I’d better call him or her Mr or Miss last name..
I think that is a safe bet. Maybe we should start to call all of the elders in the church by Mr/Mrs + last name.