You may call me Raymond
By Raymond on Apr 21, 2009 in Science and Research, blog
Quite a lot of undergraduates have contacted me and asked me for study advice. Generally they called me by my surname Gao (高师兄), instead of my first name Raymond or Li Wen. This should be a mainland China tradition different from Hong Kong and probably USA. In lab, I just call the graduate students by their first name straightly, and they don’t really care much about it.
When I became a sophomore, I felt rather “uncomfortable” if the freshmen called me Gao. Now I am a senior student and most of the undergrads, from Year 1 to 3, call me Gao. Although I have got used to that, it will be nice if they are “able to” call me Raymond, if they are willing to.
I sometimes feel that when some people call me by my surname, besides the respect to more experienced student, the action also shows a kind of subordinance. Subconsciouly, they tend to keep on agreeing with me, or pretending to agree with me, by saying numerous “yes” or “right”. A discussion which is not bi-directional, however, is meaningless. I am not a master of everything, and I always have a lot to learn from others, including those who are younger than me.
By calling each other’s name straightly, we are putting ourselves on the same level. This is very important to scientific discussions in labs and in symposiums. Students and professors can freely share their own thoughts to each other without hierarchical barrier. If we call our superiors by surname, we will probably be very careful in the use of words and expression of contradicting ideas. This may suffocate the conversation. Calling each other directly by first name does not only have a literal meaning. What we speak affects what we think, according to cognitive neuroscience..
Hi,Raymond! How I wish I could call the senior students by their fisrt names! I also feel rather uncomfortable to call them “师兄” or “学姐” (I cannot think of any English words which have the same meaning as these titles). However, when in China, do as the Chinese do. It seems a little impolite to call the firt names of those who are senior. After all, we have to follow the customes in mainland. And these customes have been dying away. I heared that Japanese and Korean use much more honorifics to the elders and superiors than mainland Chinese.
Raymond Reply:
May 11th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
also have our own style~
lonelyroads | May 1, 2009 | Reply