mipeltaja: (Geek)
mipeltaja ([personal profile] mipeltaja) wrote2008-07-13 11:47 pm

(no subject)

Attention, duelists Americans of my friendslist! (and why not everyone else too, if you feel like it)

I want to ask you something.

Let's say you're having a conversation with someone. They don't use your name once during that conversation. Will you notice? Do you consider this impolite or offensive?

I'm asking because I once noted to my mother how, in Hollywood movies, people seem to sprinkle their sentences with the names of the people they are currently talking to ("Well, Dave, I better get going now."), and how odd it seemed to me. She said that it's an American thing and that over there, people would consider it rude not to keep saying each other's names every now and then.

Is there any truth to this?
Because I know that here in Finland Ican bluff my way through entirely natural-sounding conversations with people whose names I can't for the life of me recall. People don't notice, because they don't generally expect to hear their own name in the middle of a conversation. Overall, I usually only have to resort to calling people by their names when I'm trying to get their attention, not when I'm already talking to them. As it can, at worst, take me up to two months to learn new names, this is a relief. Would that strike an American person as rude?

[identity profile] muura.livejournal.com 2008-07-13 09:25 pm (UTC)(link)
I've noticed this! It's so super-awkward sounding if you image doing that in a finnish conversation. BUT, it's super-HANDY when you do comics in english and need to drop names for the sake of plot-exposition!

[identity profile] mipeltaja.livejournal.com 2008-07-13 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
You're right, it can be terribly handy like that. It's not easy to casually reveal characters' names otherwise.