When students in my Spanish courses address me as señora, it really bugs me. These are non-native students, of course.
But when the French students say “bonjour, madame”, I find it charming.
Double Standard
Opinions, art, debate
Opinions, art, debate
When students in my Spanish courses address me as señora, it really bugs me. These are non-native students, of course.
But when the French students say “bonjour, madame”, I find it charming.
Clarissa's Blog 
“señora”
What’s wrong with señora? Would you prefer doña Clarissa? Profesora?
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I accept profesora and maestra.
At least, nobody attempts to use my first name after meeting me in person.
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Doña is either a nobility title or extreme old age. Or mockery. I don’t like any of these options.
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thanks for the clarification
I was always confused and a bit uncomfortable calling all our building-ladies “Senorita (firstname)” as they were all well into middle age and it just felt weird to call them “Miss”. They corrected me, as they were not married, and I complied!
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“Senorita (firstname)”
Is the senora/senorita distinction maintained in Peru? It’s dead as a doornail in Spain.
Also, IIRC the Frau/Fraulein distinction in German and the Pani/Panna distinction in Polish are gone (not sure about Italian signora/signorina in Italian).
Interestingly in these examples the married form was more neutral but in English ‘Miss’ seems a bit more neutral… maybe from the old habit of using it for women in entertainment…..
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In Spain, strangers who don’t know your name will address you as señorita because señora is kind of rude.
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In tieng Viet, it is similar: An unfamiliar woman who is not obviously elderly is “Co” until they correct you. Technically, that’s “older sister” but it’s used like “Miss”. Elderly women are “ba” (grandmother) out of respect for the gray hairs. But among women you are friends with, you might get permission to call a woman older than you “di” (aunt), and anybody younger than yourself with whom you have an affectionate relationship, like a younger sibling, can be “con” (child), even if you are ninety and the person you are talking to is seventy. When we were there, even though I was an adult, my Dad always introduced me as “con gái út” (youngest girlchild). Because what’s most important is not your age or even marital status necessarily, but your status relative to the person you are talking to, or the person who is talking about you.
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“strangers who don’t know your name will address you as señorita”
But they wouldn’t say Señorita González López…
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I didn’t survey the whole country! But among the small group of Cusquenas with whom we were friends, yeah they insisted on it. I assumed Senora at first, and they said no. Not married, call me Senorita M, Senorita G, etc. I never did find out any of their last names. I don’t know if it is the rule generally, but that is what they asked me to call them. The landlady, who was not a Cusquena, and was I think divorced or widowed, was “Senora (lastname), though when she was not around, everyone simply called her “La Duena”.
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“Senorita G, etc. I never did find out any of their last names”
Spanish pluricentrism… a form that sounds completely fine in one country will sound dated or ridiculous or just rude in another.
I remember using the neutral Latin American word ‘lindo’ in conversation with a Spaniard who stopped cold “Don’t say that to someone from Spain”.
A bit similarly, British use of ‘geezer’ took a lot of getting used to… (it’s roughly ‘guy’ but often kind of tinged with admiration).
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Haha, I love lindo. I was there with a new baby for 2.5 months, and the entire city had to tell me “que lindo!” whenever we walked out our front door! It was extremely gratifying.
If you ask anyone in Peru, they will tell you that they speak the best Spanish in the Americas, possibly even better than Spain… so of course if Peruanos say it, it must be correct 😉
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pluricentrism: also, it may not have even been common practice *in Peru*! Our social circle was very small. For all I know it’s a Cusquena thing, and not broadly applicable.
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You must admit that doña Clarissa sounds very distinguished.
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Being pedantic here, but IIRC Clarissa is Clarissa’s blog name only. Not the official name — maybe these titles ring differently next to her real name/surname, hence the preference.
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In the USSR we addressed strangers as “man” or “woman”. I’m glad non-binary people weren’t discovered back then.
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“we addressed strangers as “man” or “woman””
I remember a long time ago a russian trying to explain that to me but neither his Polish or English was up to speed for that and I only realized what he’d been talking about years later.
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