Hi everyone.
1 # According to sir Rover, It is nor grammatical.
2# According to teacher Raymott, It appears to be a small inconsistency.
3# According to moderator 5jj , context is always important.
4# According to madam Emsr2d2, "this" is sometimes used in a rather strange way.
5# Accourding to administrator Tdol , Insulting people is not a good way of getting them to help you.
6# According to English native speaker Parser, one usually does not use a comma after the word "so".
Are the sentences above used naturally, modestly and accurately?
Actually I want to know how a native speaker refers to a name.
Thank you......
We simply use the name. If their job/role or some other detail is relevant, we can mention in in apposition:
According to Raymott, a teacher, ...
According to TheParser, a native speaker of English, ...
If gender is relevant, then I would use a non-defining relative clause:
According to emsr2d2, who is female, ...
Context is always important; labelling is rarely important.
According to my first language, to use who is female or male like that is a little bit strange.According to emsr2d2, who is female,
Do you use like that only before a nickname?
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
(1) I know how you feel. In many cultures (maybe in yours?) people like to be
addressed by titles. I remember that one woman who came here from country X
was angry all her life because her boss in her country had forced her to always address him as "Doctor."
(2) Here in the United States, many people do not use titles because they think that
since everyone is "equal," why should they have to use a title? For example, in our
newspapers, the president is often referred to only by his last name. In fact, many
newspapers don't always use "Mr." or "Mrs." For example, if there's a story about
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, she will often be referred to as "Clinton." (How ugly and rude!)
(3) I used to address Moderator Smith, or Key Member Jones, or Mr. Carpenter, but
some complained and insisted on being addressed without titles, so now I just refer to
them by their user names.
(4) I personally agree with you: it is always nice to use a title, but in the United
States, it is NOT considered "natural." To be very honest, people would laugh if you
addressed a letter to "Sir Rover." That is a title in England for people who have been given a
special honor by the Queen. And "Madam Emsr" is equally "wrong." And definitely
do not write "Moderator 5jj"!!! If you write Administrator Tdol, that is also not a natural
way to address the editor. (5jj in his post above has told you the accepted ways to
refer to members.)
(5) Of course, in conversation, it's still very polite to reply to someone with "Yes, sir"
or "Yes, ma'am." But do NOT be surprised if some do not like those answers, either.
Some people are offended. Why? Because they think that you think that they are
OLD!
Context is always important; labelling is rarely important.
I use Excuse me sir/madam if I want to speak to a stranger, and sir/madam in other similar contexts, though I believe that puts me in the minority in BrE, but I like a degree of formal politeness when talking to strangers.
In my example, I used 'female' because I am not sure these days whether the person I am talking about is unhappy with 'woman' or 'lady'. I have in my time been rebuked some people of that gender for using the first of these words, and by others for using the second. As a result, I have found 'female', in the appropriate context, relatively safe. Until today, that is.
Context is always important; labelling is rarely important.
I would be perfectly happy for someone to refer to me as "female" if such reference were necessary. I don't have a particular problem with "girl", "woman" or "lady", but at least saying "female" removes any potential connotations. I admit that the first time anyone referred to me as "a lady" was when I was about 25 and I looked around the room to see who they were talking about. At that age, I felt that calling me a lady made me feel very old!
As far as the original question is concerned, it has been stated on this forum over and over again that the best thing to do is to refer to each other simply by our usernames. I would not address the OP as "Learner Sumon", nor do I wish to be referred to as "Teacher emsr2d2" etc.
Last edited by emsr2d2; 16-Jan-2012 at 20:04.