Let’s say you order something online. You enter in your name and address and there you go. But a few things that make me smile every time I have to do it over here, so let me share them with you.
First, titles are very important. Every time Megan calls for something, to top up her phone, to talk to a dentist, they insist on knowing whether she is a Mrs or a Miss. Who really cares? What’s even funnier are the options in title drop down menus. Here are a sample:
Ms
Mrs
Ms
Mr
Dr
Prof
Rev
Sir
Sister
Father
Lady
Lord
RH
(Side note: This reminds me of when I was strongly reprimanded by our department secretary for calling someone Dr. Soandso and not Prof. Soandso. Anyone with a PhD can be a doctor, but a Professor earns that title only once appointed as a named chair. This is very different from our American understanding of the word/title!)
Second, post codes matter. Posts codes, the equivalent of an American zip code, don’t seem to cover as much area here, so you often enter your post code FIRST. Then your house number. Yup, that’s enough to place you. It’s brilliant and a little unsettling that they seem to know where you live with so little information. The best part is that the field for a house number is usually titled thus: Enter your house NAME or number. House name as a valid postal identifier = Awesome.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Bits and Bobs and Odds and Sods 2
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4 comments:
Can you tell/explain what "RH" means? I've never seen that before and Google (even the British one) didn't give me any answers.
Sarah
Oh my goodness, sarah, that is absolutely the most bestest and hilarious one...
Royal Highness!!
The distinction between Professor and Doctor is one that I was surprised to hear brought up by professors in graduate school here in the US as well. Some full professors in my PhD program were offended that their junior colleagues were referred to by the title. You're right, though, students don't know the difference. Where I teach now it's actually the opposite in that my colleagues without PhD are introduced as Professor so-and-so because Doctor isn't appropriate (I suppose my professors from grad school would say that Prof isn't either...perhaps Master so-and-so??? This is silly.)
Sarah! Might've been wrong on that RH thing. It might stand for Right Honourable, like for an MP (Member of Parliament- like our congress) or judge or something. Even some British I was talking to weren't sure! :)
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