France banning word "Miss". All women are to be calles "Madame: (high school, biased)
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Are you referring to the delicious Croque Monsieur and Croque Madame sandwiches? To the best of my knowledge, there is no Croque Mademoiselle sandwich.
They are very tasty. If you like sandwiches I would recommend trying one or both of these!
Yum--now I'm hungry. They're really easy to make at home too...
Germany and Austria already made the switch with Fräulein/Frau (Miss/Mrs.) becoming Frau (Mrs., now with a meaning more akin to Ms.) Poland did the same with Panna/Pani (Miss/Mrs.) also becoming Pani (like Ms. too). I think France can handle it.
I once had a job working at a convenience store/gas station. I would always call the male customers 'sir' but didn't know how to address the females. I noticed that when I used Ma'am they didn't seem to react nearly as positively as the males did to 'sir.' Then I started calling them all 'miss,' whether they were 8 or 80. They all loved that. Ma'am of course can work in certain situations, but for general use it is no good. Even the sound of the two words are a contrast. IMO "Ma'am" is harsh sounding while "miss" is soft and pleasant. As for as 'Ms' (pronounced 'MIZZ,' don't even go there.
I had more than one customer tell me how much she appreciated being called miss instead of ma'am. My boss later told me that for a month after I left the job, every regular female customer and their sister was asking where I was, saying they missed (haha) me, etc. And believe me it was not because I am a stud-muffin. It was all because of that simple word 'miss.'
Personally I hate being called any of them. Being addressed according to gender feels as absurd to me as being addressed according to race. I don't correct people or respond negatively cause I know they're trying to be polite, but it irks me to hear every time.
Personally I hate being called any of them. Being addressed according to gender feels as absurd to me as being addressed according to race. I don't correct people or respond negatively cause I know they're trying to be polite, but it irks me to hear every time.
I'm not trying to be a smart alec by asking this so please don't take it in that tone. How do you want them to address you instead? Should people just say "Hey you?" We don't really have a good gender neutral term to use in this country...
I'm not trying to be a smart alec by asking this so please don't take it in that tone. How do you want them to address you instead? Should people just say "Hey you?" We don't really have a good gender neutral term to use in this country...
I know, which is why I don't complain to them directly. But I just wish there was a term that wasn't gender- or age-based.
At least progress is being made by removing the age factor. In some regions of the country, people are either sir or ma'am regardless of age or perceived marital status.
I don't think it will change in common usage though. I'm in my 50's and married, and I've never been called anything but mademoiselle when I've been in France. I didn't think anything of it when I was younger, but I finally asked someone when it became very obvious that I was not a "miss." I don't know if this is true or not, but it was explained to me that to call an older woman madame is seen by some as a slam on her age, so for cultural reasons many simply use mademoiselle. If we have a native French speaker here, or someone more familiar with the culture than I am, I'd be curious to know if that's true. Regardless, I think titles by marital status are silly.
I dd not know that. I thought it was weird they would ban a word, but now it seems even worse, because they are banning a word that is used as a compliment. I'll bet this is driven by old hags who everyone calls 'madame'
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