Comments on: Column: Adventures in Multicultural Living

By: reggie

reggie — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:59:59 +0000

growing up as a filipino american, i always addressed the friends of my parents as, “tito” fill in the blank for the males and, “tita” fill in the blank for the females. it translates into uncle and aunt. i’m enjoying your anecdotes. keep ‘em coming!

By: Athena

Athena — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:15:10 +0000

Dear Frances:
We Greeks are the same. As a child and teenager, it’s “Thea” (auntie) and “Theo” (uncle) for the parents of your friends and “Yiayia” and “Papou” for their parents followed by thier first names. If it is your actual grandparents you don’t have to say the name, just plain Yiayia and Papou is fine. We add a twist with those that serve as the wedding sponsor: “koumbara” and “koubaro” and then the godparents use another name (even if the godparents are really aunts or uncles): “Nona” and “Nono”. In the end everybody is related to everybody and were all cousins! I understand the feeling of community and respect that you describe. If you see an older man who needs help with a bag or to walk across a busy Athens intersection, he would be addressed as “Papou”. After all, mostly likely he is sombody’s Papou. You honor their years of living and passing down the wisdom and traditions.
Great topic. I agree, keep them coming and then we’ll all look forward to the collection as your book!

By: Reema

Reema — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:25:39 +0000

I know exactly what you mean, Frances-
It’s funny. Just today my husband was telling my daughter to stop calling me “Mommy”. It drives him crazy- it’s “Mama”. My girls always call him “Baba”.

I was also at school the other day as a team of workers came in to rip out old cabinets. I wanted them to help put a couple of the old ones into my car for me. I approached one of the older guys and found out he spoke arabic very quickly. I immediately addressed him as “Amo”, which means uncle. It’s just immediate. That’s how I was raised and it shows respect.

When parents come into my classroom and want students to address them by their first names, I usually put the Mr./Ms./Mrs. in front of it.

I make a lot of connections to these articles, Frances. Keep them coming and thanks!

By: Ed Thierbach

Ed Thierbach — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:47:55 +0000

Thank you for a wonderful article. When I was young, American culture was similar to yours in how children addressed adults. We were taught not to address adults by their first name; those who were near and dear to us were “Aunt” or “Uncle”. Very special elderly adults could be Grandma or Grandpa — I had one of those, Grandma Winstrom, who lived just around the corner.

I, too, always felt awkward when “hipster” parents wanted me to call them by their first names. Mostly, I just avoided using their names at all.

Once in a great while, the “Mr./Mrs./Miss” custom backfired. When I was a high school senior, my school’s computer teacher helped a couple of us find part time jobs at the University of Maryland. A few years later, she was hired on in the same office. Everyone there was on a first-name basis, but the two of us just could *not* call her anything but “Miss Levin”. After a great deal of ribbing from our co-workers, she finally convinced us to call her “Sheri”.