Why do Indian people always..

I'm used to hearing "dear" and "love" from old english ladies but by someone who is a freelancer is sort of strange unless they are old english ladies living in India working as freelancers

Why did you give up my secret of kidnapping old english ladies and making them work in India :pirate:
 
Lol some bizarre responses and ideas here. As someone who lives in England, the home of the English language, I can tell you straight up why it's funny.

When you address someone as "dear", as in "I'll get it done in 10 minutes dear", it's the equivalent of calling someone darling. If I go into a shop and the shopkeeper is a very old woman, it would be quite normal for her to call me "dear", it's an affectionate word. (Please note, starting a letter with "Dear Bob" is perfectly acceptable professional/business practice).
If a male shopkeeper, no matter how old he is, was to call me "dear", it would be very weird - as strange as him calling me "babes". Actually, if he was a super camp guy I wouldn't be surprised if he'd call me "dear".

When you address someone as "sir", it's not so much a display of respect but rather one of subservience. So a waiter in a restaurant might call me "sir". However, someone I'm working with wouldn't call me "sir" because we're on equal terms. When you call someone "sir" you are saying "you are the boss of me". Addressing someone as "sir" is a one way street, two people talking to each other would never call each "sir".

While it's great that people learn English so well, there's no need to get defensive about these quirks - the OP is simply pointing out incorrect usage of certain words. You say thanks because any native person being called "dear" will just laugh at you in private and find it quite ridiculous. You might as well call someone "sweetheart" if you're going to call them "dear"! Really, it's that simple!
 
Lol some bizarre responses and ideas here. As someone who lives in England, the home of the English language, I can tell you straight up why it's funny.

When you address someone as "dear", as in "I'll get it done in 10 minutes dear", it's the equivalent of calling someone darling. If I go into a shop and the shopkeeper is a very old woman, it would be quite normal for her to call me "dear", it's an affectionate word. (Please note, starting a letter with "Dear Bob" is perfectly acceptable professional/business practice).
If a male shopkeeper, no matter how old he is, was to call me "dear", it would be very weird - as strange as him calling me "babes". Actually, if he was a super camp guy I wouldn't be surprised if he'd call me "dear".

When you address someone as "sir", it's not so much a display of respect but rather one of subservience. So a waiter in a restaurant might call me "sir". However, someone I'm working with wouldn't call me "sir" because we're on equal terms. When you call someone "sir" you are saying "you are the boss of me". Addressing someone as "sir" is a one way street, two people talking to each other would never call each "sir".

While it's great that people learn English so well, there's no need to get defensive about these quirks - the OP is simply pointing out incorrect usage of certain words. You say thanks because any native person being called "dear" will just laugh at you in private and find it quite ridiculous. You might as well call someone "sweetheart" if you're going to call them "dear"! Really, it's that simple!

Why isn't that taught in language learning schools?
 
What about in letters?

Dear sir or madam:


Come on you can't be serious?

Dear Sir, How may I help you.

How may i help you DEAR?

Do you see the difference in these sentences?

do you u n d e r s t a n d english?

This is two different uses for word Dear

I did not say that the word dear is never used for anyother purpose.

I SAID

In america we don't call each other dear unless they are intimate relationship, or we are trying to cousel someone.
 
Come on you can't be serious?

Dear Sir, How may I help you.

How may i help you DEAR?

Do you see the difference in these sentences?

do you u n d e r s t a n d english?

This is two different uses for word Dear

I did not say that the word dear is never used for anyother purpose.

I SAID

In america we don't call each other dear unless they are intimate relationship, or we are trying to cousel someone.

I don't understand regular English rules. Internet English is better. As long as someone can understand someone else the grammar is pointless.
 
When you address someone as "sir", it's not so much a display of respect but rather one of subservience. So a waiter in a restaurant might call me "sir". However, someone I'm working with wouldn't call me "sir" because we're on equal terms. When you call someone "sir" you are saying "you are the boss of me". Addressing someone as "sir" is a one way street, two people talking to each other would never call each "sir".

This is exactly the reason I currently tell my VA's to never call me "Sir" again. Me and my employee's are on equal terms. It just sounds totally non personal and weird when im working with people for a longer period of time.

If peope join my team, they need to call me by my name, that is what gets me to respect them.
 
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I think you should look it up
In the english language many words have double meanings , some have even nmore
Dear is a greeting just like Hello or hi. when used to address people
but it is generally used in the written form,
In the spoken language it generally refers to somebody close to you, in an affectionate way. Genarally used among family members. and lovers

Sir is not only knight, but anybody in a higher position, like a schoolteacher or the boss.
It derives from the french Sire.

Nowadays westerners are a bit embarrassed to be called sir, as we are now taught to be more polite and to treat all people as equals.

Also be cause they think of the title.(knight} as being the Sir. and knowing they are not a knight, they feel like a fraud, when called sir.

the real and proper meaning of Dear Sir, is
Hello, you are the person who is going to give me money, a job, a pass in my exam

LOL. This is a boring saturday , when this is the best conversation we can come up with
 
i see this as a great niche umm thanks www.dear-or-sir.com , being a indian i have never used Dear for anything lol that is just :| but sir i dont have a problem tell a angry man ' sir calm down ' he will calm down try saying ' dear calm down ' you will have a 4th of july / diwali on your face.
 
Dear OP,
thanks for starting this thread, it will help teach others how to use the word DEAR more often.
 
Dear Mr Deer

I apologize for calling your wife dear,but her dress was just so dear,and she looked hot in it.and one of my dearest wishes is to go out with her

FUCK you sir,she will be mine
 
"Dear Sir..."

That's the word I have used whenever I sent communication letter to my College Principal, ex Boss and clients/customers when I was working for a company :)

Using "dear" wasn't an option... it was mandatory!
 
Partly right. But the fact is not the authority. We in INDIA have two completely different words for "YOU" We do not use the same "you" to address every one. We have one "you"(Tum in Hindi) to address equals are those younger than us. A different "you" (Aap) to address those elder to us or those who is not known(i men first acquaintance)

When we try to speak in English, many think that we are using these words as a result of mother tongue influence. But the fact is it is our Cultural influence. We feel awkward to call a person by his first name. Atleast, I do not feel any respect in addressing like that.

During British rule(thats when English came into India), The british rulers made us call them Sir,(No idea if they were just passionate) just make sure, they make us feel inferior (As outlined by some in a post above).

After independence, when we started to learn and speak english, our teachers did not find a word equal to "aap" (the second you used with respect) in English language and they assumed that Sir is that word as British made us use it as a symbol of respect.

This is how Sir came to be used like this. Now even if we know the actual meaning of Sir(Yup we know it is a title) we are accustomed o using it here as most of our people would not accept using first name no matter what language we use.

Dear- yes I accept it is a little absurd to use it so. But my personal feeling is that in our local languages, there is a lot of difference in the sounds and intonations when we speak caring which I dont find in English. What I mean by this is monst of our languages are like songs with rhythm(Well I mean it listen to our languages and you will notice there are different ways we drag or cut short some words according to mood of the situation). The word means same but the sounds mean different moods.

To show that I care, some noobs use dear - not knowing that we (here on the net or when we speak globally) dont care wather they show it or not.

Just the difference in culture and the way language is used to convey messages.

Never mind my Western brothers and Sisters :p we will catch up :ridinghor


Sir - man in a position of authority.
you post a project so you have authority to award a project. lol thats why you get called SIR by Indian bidders.
another example is your workplace. you address your senior or boss as SIR coz they have authority to kick you out of job.
No idea for Dear. i never used it in real life or online but its a way to show that they care for you as they getting business from you.
 
Why in English there is one word that means several things,but in other languages there is words for different meanings? There needs to be a modernization of English so that different things do not have the same word. This will make it easier to communicate and for people that want to learn English.
 
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