This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 1226.
Professor?
Miss?
Teacher?
What to call your teacher in English.
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In today's episode we answer a question about the best way to address a teacher in English.
Find out today.
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Hey, Michelle.
How are you doing today?
Hey, Lindsay.
I'm good.
I'm good.
How are you?
Oh, my gosh.
I'm good.
But I have a question for you because I'm out here in LA.
You're in New York.
We have different perspectives, which is awesome.
But what do you think makes someone a magnet, like a conversation magnet?
What makes people magnetic?
In your opinion.
Wow.
That's really, you know, I mean, I think funny people are very magnetic.
I think people who know how to listen are magnetic.
That's good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think people who just like have kind of – they have this way about them, don't they?
They have a kind of a fun vocabulary set, a fun way of talking.
They're very expressive and friendly.
Yeah.
I love that.
Charismatic, right?
Similar to –
Magnetic is charismatic, but I know that a lot of our listeners really get stuck.
They want to be that way in English.
They want to be the person that they are in their native language, but they get stuck with things like feeling ashamed when they speak with native speakers.
Have you seen that?
Right.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Well, I mean, I think about myself when I've tried to speak another language.
You're focusing on so many different things.
And how can you be as comfortable in another language?
It's just it's very difficult.
So you want people to see the wonderful person that you are.
And yet, how can you express yourself in the same way, right?
It takes tons of practice and tons of time.
But also just the idea of focusing on this feeling, focusing on what's going to get you there, what's going to get you to be magnetic.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, things like not knowing how to start that conversation, that can be paralyzing, right?
Because we can stand there and we know we need to walk over to that person and start that English conversation, but we just don't know what to do.
But when we are magnetic, we know what to do.
We have the tools to be that person that we want to be, right, Michelle?
Yeah.
Right, right.
We want to be really confident, right?
You just want to exude confidence.
And so you know, if you know how to be magnetic and you have this confident feeling, people are just going to flock to you and they're going to want to talk to you.
Ooh, I love that term, flock to you.
That's great.
That is fantastic.
So Michelle, you and Jessica did a web class on Saturday and you're doing another one on this exact topic tonight at 8 o'clock Eastern Standard Time.
Isn't that right?
That is right.
Yep.
We had one on Saturday.
Super fun, guys.
Oh, my gosh.
It's really fun to you know work with Jessica and you know we're being silly over there and we're teaching you how to be magnetic and we're going to do it again tonight.
So you guys, you still have time to sign up.
So we would love, love, love to see you there.
Yeah, guys.
So the name of the web class is How to Be a Conversation Magnet in English.
And you're going to learn everything you need to know to overcome this feeling of embarrassment, of shame, to start conversations and do what you want to do in English.
So Michelle, how can our listeners sign up?
Because it's their last chance.
It's the last time that we're doing this webinar for this session.
Okay, they can sign up by going to the link, which is... Which is all...
Which is allearsenglish.com forward slash become.
Thank you.
Yeah.
So that's B-E-C-O-M-E.
Guys, that's where you want to go to make sure you get your name on the list for tonight.
Guys, last year, this webinar was super popular.
Right?
We had hundreds of students attend and we don't have space for everyone on the program.
So make sure you sign up.
Michelle, one more time, where can they go?
Forward slash become, B-E-C-O-M-E.
Oh my gosh, I'm so terrible at memorizing the links.
I remember doing a bonus with Jessica.
The same thing happened.
I got to get on it.
You got to get on it.
That's okay.
That's okay.
You'll get better and better at it.
Little by little.
No worries.
It's all good.
But Michelle.
So I'm excited to see what our listeners do on that web class tonight because they'll also get a chance to ask you guys questions.
I mean that's the cool thing that at the end, if you come to the web class, you can interact with Michelle and Jessica and ask them questions, which obviously you can't do on this podcast.
Right, Michelle?
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
This is a live webinar, guys.
And we are excited.
We are so excited to get your questions, to help you learn how to become magnetic in English.
And yeah, just to hang out.
It will be a lot of fun.
It was great Saturday.
Looking forward to tonight.
And I'm really excited about it.
So I hope to see you guys there.
Awesome.
So, Michelle, what are we getting into today?
Are we talking about teachers or something along those lines?
Yeah.
Actually, we have a really good question from a listener about this topic and we're going to get into that today.
So, Lindsay, could you read the question for us?
Yeah.
So this is from Marcelo Figueroa.
And he says, I'm an English teacher in Brazil and I have a question.
What's the best way to address a teacher?
Should I encourage my students to call me Mr. Figueroa or just go by my first name, Marcelo?
What should I do to make it more natural?
By the way, in Brazil, it's pretty common for kids to call us teachers, uncle, aunt or just teacher.
And last but not least, I've been living vicariously through your show.
Oh, have a good one.
That's awesome.
Marcelo.
That's so cool.
That's right.
I love the living vicariously one.
I think I did an Instagram video on that when you were in Japan, right?
He's definitely tuned into our Instagram channel because you did do a nice video when we were in Japan for the live event.
And now he is using that correctly.
That's fantastic.
That's right.
That's right.
Okay.
Awesome.
Well, I really like this question.
So this is really interesting because it seems that it's so different across cultures, right?
These how to title people.
I mean, Lindsay, would you have ever called a teacher uncle or aunt?
No way.
That's different.
I mean, it's not weird because it is the way you do it, but it's strange to us.
To say that, for sure.
How about you?
Yeah, no, I wouldn't have done that.
So it's just, yeah, not common in the United States to call a teacher that.
But what would we call a teacher?
So...
Yeah.
Sorry.
Go ahead.
No, go ahead.
Go ahead.
I mean, there's things we have to think about, right?
Right.
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So, well, the first thing is, you know, how old are the students?
So, for me, I teach, like, university students.
So…
People in their, you know, late teenage years to and beyond, right?
Many different ages.
So I tell them to call me by my first name personally.
However, if I taught elementary school right, if I taught younger students, I would probably have them call me Miss Kaplan right.
Yeah.
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, I remember when I was in college I think most of my, actually I called most of my teachers professor.
I mean, a university like on campus.
Right.
But often in high school.
I would just call them by their like, for example Mr Brown or Mrs Smith, that kind of thing.
Yeah, right, right, right.
Yeah.
So that's what that's what you have to think about, you know, how old are the students.
And then this next one is really important.
I think that's one of the keys.
Lindsay, what's the second thing you want to think about?
So how formal do you want to be, right?
So you are thinking about the impression you want to make on that person.
If you like feeling more formal, you could say, you know, Mr. Figueroa would be fine.
But if you want to be less formal, Mr. Marcello, that's interesting.
Mr. Marcello, so you have Mr. in front of his first name. even less formal would just be Marcello.
So those are kind of the three.
I think Mr. Marcello is kind of funny.
It's kind of like, it's cute.
It's something that I would, I would think like younger kids might say like Mrs. Mary or something.
You know what I mean?
Right, right, right, right.
Exactly.
And you know, The thing is that you do have a lot of choice here.
I mean, you decide how you want to be perceived.
So, like, I go by Michelle.
I would never ask my students.
Sometimes I get emails like, oh, professor or miss or whatever.
And I don't.
I don't know.
I just feel I like to be a little less formal.
I mean, I don't think that means that I should be not respected in the same way, but I do like this idea of being on that same level with my students in terms of titles.
That's just me, though.
Yeah, I agree.
I agree.
I would not want to be called Mrs. McMahon.
That would be so strange to me.
It would make me feel very old.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And also I think our culture has just become more and more casual in academia or in the academic space over the last I don't know 30 years.
We've just been moving to a more casual model in general.
Right, right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So I think that's a really good point, Lindsay.
And you know what?
Something else you want to think about is what about the other teachers that you work with?
What are they called, right?
You don't need to follow what everybody else does necessarily, but it might be a little bit odd if, like you're called Marcelo and other teachers aren't.
All the other teachers at the school go by Mrs. or Miss or Mr. whatever in their last name.
Definitely.
I agree.
What about this teacher, like calling someone just teacher?
Yeah, I don't really.
That's not my favorite.
No, I don't like it either.
I get called teacher.
Well, I used to get called teacher a lot, but now I kind of make it clear at the beginning.
It seems very distant to me.
Like, you know, I want to have this close relationship with my students.
And so I don't want to be called a high teacher, a high teacher.
It happens.
Sometimes it's the easiest thing to do, right?
For maybe if a student is just thinking of something quickly, they might say teacher, you know, that's okay.
I understand.
But my personal preference is to just go by my first name.
Yeah, for sure.
I also, When you say distant, you mean that it feels kind of impersonal, just not connected, and kind of a little too easy for the student to say that you mean.
Is that what you mean?
Right, right.
Exactly.
Because if you're... It's teacher.
I mean, I don't really... I mean...
I guess if you go to a doctor, you might say doctor, right?
So like – That's true.
But I wouldn't – I don't know.
I'm trying to think of another example.
Like I wouldn't say like – who's like – what's like a relationship where you – well, whatever.
I can't think of an example.
Yeah. right now um but i just feel like it it's it's just like giving you a label and i don't know it just seems kind of impersonal to me so yeah that's why i would prefer to just be called by my first name Yeah.
And I mean, it really depends on what kind of academic environment you're in, right?
I mean, I would say definitely at university, at my college, or my... Actually, you know what?
My graduate school was a little more informal than my undergraduate program.
So in my graduate program, we called teachers by their first names.
But my undergrad was Dr. This, Dr. That. because they all have PhDs, right?
And so it's interesting, like it depends on the type of academic environment you're in.
Yeah.
Right, right, exactly.
So yeah, so I mean...
What can you do if you're taking a class and you don't know what to call the teacher, right?
Yeah.
I say – yes.
All right.
Go ahead.
Go ahead, Michelle.
Well, first of all, the teacher will probably introduce themselves to you first.
Okay.
But if for some reason you like you have to talk to them before the class or whatever, I always say it's better to go formal first.
Right.
And then and then let them guide you.
Right.
So so what do you think about that, Lindsay?
I agree with that completely.
It can be insulting, you know, if you go informal first and then or embarrassing and then you realize you have to go back up to formal.
So start by showing them the respect of doing the most formal thing, which I guess would be well.
What would be in a non-university setting right?
When we're not talking about, you know, PhD professors, what would be the most formal thing to say?
I would say Mr. or Mrs. and then their last name.
I agree.
Yeah, exactly.
And then in a university setting where the teachers have PhDs, doctorates I would say doctor would be the most formal or professor,
And I guess it will depend on their personal preference.
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So, you know, you wait to hear, you know, you go by what the other person wants to be called.
I mean, then this just goes in general.
I mean, if I'm writing an email to someone that I haven't met, I will go first by you know a formal title, and then I kind of wait and see what you know what they say.
How do they call themselves?
And then I might make it a little less formal once I get to know them a little bit better.
Definitely.
That sounds like a great plan.
I like that.
We go slowly and carefully into something and we always just try to start off very respectful, and you know, just in case, just so we don't kind of make anyone feel uncomfortable.
We're going to have to come back, Michelle, and do another follow-up on this, don't you think?
Yeah, I think that this is a really good question.
There's a lot to talk about here, about titles in general.
And I've had students ask me about this a lot, so I know that there's a lot to say.
So we will revisit this topic at some point in the future.
But yeah, Lindsay, what's the takeaway today?
Well, I mean, the takeaway, guys, well, first of all, Marcelo, this is a great question.
Thank you for asking this.
Michelle, you know, for you as a teacher, and I'm kind of a teacher, too.
I am a teacher.
I just teach online through a podcast.
You know guys, you want to consider a variety of factors when you're deciding what you're going to call this teacher, right?
For students definitely go with the more formal version of it first and then wait for the teacher to tell you how they want to be called.
They'll tell you, right?
And maybe you'll see their name.
They'll announce, they'll introduce themselves on the first day.
So you'll know.
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
So I think that's a really good way to think about it.
Go with what the teacher says.
And, you know, don't stress about it.
But yeah, I think this was a great question.
I love this episode.
I love that.
And Michelle, what should we remind our listeners to make sure they do if they don't want to miss the web class tonight?
Sign up at allearsenglish.com forward slash become.
Yeah, guys, come to the live webinar.
Grab your spot before they run out.
Come and hang out with Michelle and Jessica and learn how to be a conversation magnet in English.
We can't wait to see you on there right, michelle?
That's right, that's right.
See you guys tonight and have a good rest of your day.
All right bye michelle, have a good one bye, bye.
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