waider: (Default)
waider ([personal profile] waider) wrote2008-09-01 06:18 pm
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more travel notes

Customs/TSA/INS: surprisingly pleasant. No beady stares. No grilling. Some actual smiling and humour on both sides of the Atlantic.

On the English end of things: "and who do you work for, sir?" "Amazon" "Amazon, eh? I've given them quite a bit of my money!" *laughs*.

On the American end: "what's your tshirt say?" "I'm not Johnny Ramone" "Who's Johnny Ramone?" *pause* "Uh... a famous American musician. Punk music." "I'll have to ask my son about him, he's into punk" Smiles, chuckles, says "welcome back" and corrects himself to say "enjoy your stay" instead.

I will say that there's something about the way an American says "sir", or perhaps the way it sounds with an American accent that makes it seem more of a challenge than a politeness, however. A caution that this person is not your friend, and therefore you should act accordingly, rather than an air of respect. Maybe that's just me, though.

[identity profile] peglegpete.livejournal.com 2008-09-02 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
About 'sir', one thing that stood out to me when I visited UK & Ireland was that there, when I was addressed as 'sir', the word was not particularly emphasized in the sentence. However, here it often seems to be the most heavily inflected part of a sentence.