We used to get the tawse if we didn’t call the teachers dominie. Only two on each hand though. Easy peasy.
Except that cunt Grigson who taught geography and kept a wooden blackboard duster in the sleeve of his robe, which he’d swing around in a wide arc and clout you on the head with. He got paintstripper poured over his car one day and wasn’t at all pleased.
[quote=“sandman”]We used to get the tawse. . . .[/quote] Wow, except for dictionaries, I’ve only seen that word in one other writing in my life:
[quote]Plato thought nature but a spume that plays
Upon a ghostly paradigm of things;
Solider Aristotle played the taws
Upon the bottom of a king of kings. . . .[/quote]–William Butler Yeats, “Among School Children” (1926?)
web-books.com/Classics/Poetr … /Among.htm
[Edit: I see you’ve used the word elsewhere on the board, and I missed it somehow.]
In the US, most people who teach at universities are referred to as “professors” or “profs” informally by students (e.g. “My prof is a hardass”). More formally, they’re addressed “Professor” if they are Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor or Emeritus Professor. Or, of course, Dr. [/quote]
In Taiwan though, it seemed to me that anyone teaching at a uni was called a ‘professor,’ even if they had just a Masters. Interesting. And in the US, the term is used so much more freely than it is in the UK, Aus, NZ, etc.[/quote]
In the US and in Taiwan (not in the UAE, then?) anyone of the ranks mentioned by Chris gets called Professor. Those not holding a PhD and teaching at universities are called Instructors in Taiwan, but that would not be used as a form of address. I expect they sometimes get called Professor, but that would by mistake.
All this caginess about people’s real names and breaking their Forumosan fake names down into sub-morphemic units is making this thread almost as difficult to read as the auto-Pinyiniser thread (where people are complaining about the forum software changing spellings, but when they try to cite examples of the problems the examples’ spellings also get changed).
My students address me as “Smith” or “Dr Sgj” 
. But if they call me Teacher I don’t really care, because I am one. It’s not really Chinglish, it’s a cross-cultural issue. The students are pretty comfortable with addressing people by Western first names, even though they would NEVER :no-no: address a teacher by their Chinese given name, and even though uni students in the UK who are 18-21 don’t normally call teachers by their first names either.
Teach your students (all ages) the name you wish to be called and ask them for the class name they want you to call them. At my university, female staff names are often written on pink paper, male names on blue paper. Foreigners may find their office or desk name card is their first name, no matter their degree or rank. I cringe when I’m introduced by my first name while, at the same time, local colleagues are introduced with titles and their full name.
Many locals feel this is a friendly gesture. So, as other posters have mentioned, maybe we need to teach our schools the name we want to be called.
Mr. M, Mr. “surname” or “Chinese surname” Laoshi. Same as in the USA.
I don’t accept first name. Too familiar. And I agree that Teacher “surname” or just Teacher is too Chinglish-y.
No shit, everyone calls me lao ban.
I definitely do NOT agree that calling foreign teachers by their first names when Chinese teachers are addressed properly is “friendliness” on the part of the school. I’m afraid it’s more a reflection of “one foreigner is much like any other, and we’ll have another one next year anyway.” The title “laoshi” is so pervasive in Chinese culture, and carries so much meaning, that failure to use it with a teacher because of nationality alone is at best horribly sloppy and at worst purposeful.
I also agree totally with ImaniOU that the proper form of address for any teacher by students of high school or younger ages (that is, apart from adult students) is Mr/Mrs/Ms/Dr Surname, just as the proper form of address for me in my Chinese classes is “laoshi”. My Spanish students call me “Doctora”, which would be the correct form of address in Hispanic culture.
When you teach a language, you are supposed to impart the cultural norms that will allow the student to function successfully in that target culture. If someone had bothered to really make me understand the importance of all titles in Chinese culture while I was still in Chinese classes in the US, I would have had a much easier time the first five or six years I was in Taiwan. (I mean “titles for everyone” such as “Director Zhang”, “Secretary Bai” and “Curator of the First Floor Bathroom Li”). By the same token, a Chinese student coming to the United States would probably never be correct to call a teacher in any capacity by his or her first name without being specifically invited to do so, so why get them into the habit?
I added the italics. If I have given the invitation, nothing is amiss in my opinion:
Is any Chinese student really going to go ahead and call their new teacher in the US by their first name? Not likely. They probably won’t even know it. They’ll be told, “This is Mr. xxxxxx” etc, and will use that. It’s just common sense.
My figuring is by far the most interactions my students will ever make will be on a first-name basis.
How about “Oh captain, my captain” ? 
How long have you been in Taiwan?? 
When I was teaching, some of my kids would call me “Jijitou”, which I am told is an honorific of great respect in Taiwan.
How long have you been in Taiwan?? [/quote]
Going on 19 years!
You must deal with a different class of student than I have encountered. Common sense??!? :roflmao: