One thing about learning a new language that has been difficult for me is using a formal tone. In Romanian like many other languages, but unlike English, has a different way to conjugate verbs when speaking formally. Technically, I should speak to people I meet for the first time and anyone older than I in a formal tone unless they say otherwise, but for some reason it has been difficult for me to use.
Americans are generally known for being informal. Other than teachers, professors and meeting an important person I barely use “Mr” or Mrs” when addressing someone in English. At around the age of eight I stopped saying “aunt” or “uncle” before saying the name of an aunt or uncle. But in Moldova that does not seem to be the case. If the person is older, they address them formally and people will call family friends aunt or uncle.
The other day I was with a group of volunteers and I said something like, “Will Sasha help?”. I was think told that I should make sure I never call him Sasha because he is older than me (this man is in his 50’s) and that I should call him Alexandru (his full name). I was reminded that his friends and those older than him can call him Sasha, but I should not.
At first I thought this was strange. When I meet someone who is younger or older than me, I introduce myself as Tim. But then again, I do know people who were called Bobby when they were young, so their family and older people that knew him at that time call him Bobby, but as he got older he went by the name of Bob.
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