Calling people by surnames
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In the SAF,I find the practice of calling people surnames damm fuc-king rude.
Hey Tan! (Hey Lee!) (Hey Ho!) How many Tans,Lees and Hos are there?
Another practice is that of calling out your full name,I also find rude
eg Hey Tan Ah Kow! Why can't they just call you by Hey Ah Kow! -
maybe... there's many Ah Kows? hahaa.. hard to say right?Originally posted by Marco_Simone:In the SAF,I find the practice of calling people surnames damm fuc-king rude.
Hey Tan! (Hey Lee!) (Hey Ho!) How many Tans,Lees and Hos are there?
Another practice is that of calling out your full name,I also find rude
eg Hey Tan Ah Kow! Why can't they just call you by Hey Ah Kow! -
because your no 4 shows your surname only.....unless you got christain names then you can speak out .....is common lah...
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I dun find it rude.
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u r more rudeOriginally posted by Marco_Simone:In the SAF,I find the practice of calling people surnames damm fuc-king rude.
Hey Tan! (Hey Lee!) (Hey Ho!) How many Tans,Lees and Hos are there?
Another practice is that of calling out your full name,I also find rude
eg Hey Tan Ah Kow! Why can't they just call you by Hey Ah Kow! -
yeah .. especially for ppl like mi whos chinese name is veri hard for non-chinese to pronunce .. make it easier for ppl to juz call mi by my surname ..
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well. this is mostly due to convenience - our name tags have the initials of our first names, and our surname, so naturally, A B TAN will be called Tan, which sounds more suitable than calling the person A B rite? but of course, some of us have more unique name tags with only christian names and such.Originally posted by Marco_Simone:In the SAF,I find the practice of calling people surnames damm fuc-king rude.
Hey Tan! (Hey Lee!) (Hey Ho!) How many Tans,Lees and Hos are there?
Another practice is that of calling out your full name,I also find rude
eg Hey Tan Ah Kow! Why can't they just call you by Hey Ah Kow!
so if you do not know a person, you would naturally call him / her whatever is indicated on his / her name tag. and as time goes by, and without correction or amendment, this person will be known by the surname.
but trust me, this does not happen in units where the same group of people work together for a relatively long time, and of course, in a more cordial manner. -
i find that in BMT, this seldom happens. when it comes to unit life, people starts calling u by surname. my unit call each others by surname (for chinese of course) i don't find it rude what. what's the big deal?
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People always call my surname without knowing.
Curse somemore!
Get used to it is ok. -
ch.....?Originally posted by LilO gIrL:People always call my surname without knowing.
Curse somemore!
Get used to it is ok. -
What's the prob? During my BMT, combat medic, and combat medic spec courses we called some people by their surnames, eg Lua, Zhuang, Khoh, etc.
It also applied when I was posted to a unit, albeit with less prevalence.
I guess it's more convenient to call each other by surnames as the surname is what that appears on the No.4..... and even knowing after their given names.... well..... old habits die hard.
The only wrong thing is when you take offence at it.... when I don't think there's any reason to. -
i gotta agree some chinese surname are not suitable to be called as names...
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No.Originally posted by pie:ch.....? -
Den if malay how??
Cause malay dun have Surname wad.... -
actually doesnt matter la.. it's the matter of getting used to it or not. last time i work, people also call me by surname.. cos surname is easier to rem??? hehe. furthermore, my surname is not as common too. =P
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Don't see what the problem is, Simone.
Heck, we used nicknames in my company - Elephant, Pinocchio, SAFSA (SAF Short Ass) and so on. Nobody got their knickers in a twist about it. -
Of course some people would take offence at their surnames being used, but for the most part, everyone's ok with it.Originally posted by Gedanken:Don't see what the problem is, Simone.
Heck, we used nicknames in my company - Elephant, Pinocchio, SAFSA (SAF Short Ass) and so on. Nobody got their knickers in a twist about it.
And (in BMT especially) nicknames were even more prevalent. I remember in my BMT platoon and combat medic course platoon there were nicknames such as Baby Wild Boar, Brother Wild Boar, Michelin Man, Ice Age Squirrel, Indian Chief, The Rock, Super Mario, Cock-Up IC, DY Cock-Up..... you name it. It was the instructors who gave those nicknames, as a matter of fact.
Heck, I was nicknamed The Robot.
Did anyone take offence (especially the 'wild boar' guys?). Nope.
If they did, they didn't show it. They would in fact laugh and make jokes out of it. -
this is mostly due to convenience - our name tags have the initials of our first names, and our surname, so naturally, A B TAN will be called Tan, which sounds more suitable than calling the person A B rite? but of course, some of us have more unique name tags with only christian names and such.
Actually, calling by surname is also informal as far as the military is concerned; it's the same culture for foreign armed forces. Remember the "Tour of Duty" TV series? The enlisted characters called each other "Taylor", "Purcell", "Horn" (the RTO), "Johnson", et al.
As for calling by full name - presumably for only Chinese - IMO it's no different than how the Koreans, Taiwanese or PLA Army troops address each other, even with buddies. It's part of the general Oriental accent: an underlying self-awareness that many hailed from different parts of the country, & thus politesse is accentuated as they began to train together. It's the same with the S'pore context, less so geographically but the initial unfamiliarity is still there (the contemporary "connectivity" within the island only came with the MRT system).
Wait till you reach reservist. My own experience was that even the men-officers were on a surname basis - at most, they'd address the junior officers by their appointment or, more generically, by rank ("El-Tee"). The senior officers were addressed mostly by appointment, sometimes funnily like the MO being nicknamed "The Doctor" cuz no self-respecting LTA was willing to acknowledge his CPT rank! Only the CO was regularly addressed as "sir", except by his driver who called him by surname! -
the habit of calling by surname is mainly because of those senior officers. they can't possibly remember all their men by name so the easilest way is look at their name tag and call them by surname.
but i believe most NSF sergeants and 2LTs will make a habit to remember their men's name. -
i dun mind ppl calling me by my surname... but most know my name...
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its local culture to call each other by surnames wat.
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i don't find calling army friends by surname rude. because only people that u are close to will do that. give me a heart warming feeling, no?
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During my first ICT, I barely know my men. The only way is to call them by whatever is on their name tags. They dun take offence to it.
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Maybe after a few more decades, it wouldn't be rude. -
It is rude if you say "wei4, xing4 chen2 de, guo4 lai2".
