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@kylie-wingfeather

The French do that as well! (I’m not from France, but I got to go there a couple of years ago, plus my family–including myself–really enjoy the culture) But still, I think it’s only when you know them well.

That’s really cool! I think it’s a general European thing, as far as I remember, the Germans do it too.

In South Africa, you call everyone older than you ‘Aunt’ or ‘Uncle’ even if you’re not related at all. It’s a respect thing like Americans would use ‘Sir’ or ‘Ma’am’, I guess.

Another respect thing is that when you’re being especially respectful, you can’t call someone ‘you’, you have to speak in third person. So you’d say: “Aunt, could Aunt hand me that?”

In Dutch, you don’t do this at all. But, you do have a respectful ‘you’ and a casual ‘you’. That would be ‘u’ and ‘jij’, respectively. The tricky thing is when to use which, which is usually just trial and error. Many people don’t like it when you call them ‘u’, because they say it makes them feel old XD