First Impressions: How to win Them All by Asmaa Kadry - HTML preview

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Rule number 12:
Know your place, Keep your place!

Last year I went to visit my old school;

 

this place is very dear to me and

 

symbolizes a very nice and peaceful era

 

of my life. And while at it my teacher

 

introduced me to his favorite students; eight lovely high school girls, they

 

possessed so much talent and

 

potentials succeeded to impress me a

 

great deal, so I saw them again, we

 

exchanged phone numbers and e-mails

 

and soon we became friends.

 

It was their final year at high school and

 

we discussed each one's dream faculty,

 

one of them – let's call her Betty

 

dreamed of getting into the faculty of

 

fine arts which did happen fortunately,

 

but she was really confused about the

 

department that she wanted. And because I have a very dear friend – let’s

 

call her Sue - who’s a lecturer in that

 

faculty, I naturally advised Betty to talk

 

to her and gave her Sue’s number.

 

After a while when I called Sue to ask

 

her proudly about my little friend she

 

shocked me by saying:

 

- Thatgirlisyourfriend?!Idon'twant
anything to do with her! I'm even
surprised that you gave her my
number!

 

It was really astonishing and confusing,

 

I thought that she will love her; I mean I

 

loved her myself and we (Sue and I) have

 

always loved the same things!

 

Disappointed that I was I asked her

 

about the reason she felt this way, she

 

said:

 

-She talked to me like I'm her
schoolmateorsomething;shecalledme
by my first name and spoke to me
completely inappropriately! Can you
believe it? She's my student; a fresher
one,Iimagineherrightnowspeakingto me this way in front of my class, that
wouldbesomething,wouldn'tit?

 

I won't deny that I wasn't very happy by

 

what happened, she judged Betty only

 

by the first impression she made over

 

the phone; this can't be right! But in the

 

same she did have a point.

 

Sue isn't the only one; all people need

 

to be addressed properly with their

 

titles and all especially by someone they

 

meet for the first time, your first name

 

is a part of your personal territory where only friends, old colleagues and

 

family are allowed. For some people it's

 

a part of their FCFC and having a total

 

stranger calling them by it is a kind of

 

vocal interference. And if that stranger

 

was much younger than you, and a new

 

student in your class! Well, that's too

 

much I'd say!

 

When you speak to someone for the first

 

time you need to know exactly your

 

place; socially I mean. So ask yourself

 

those three questions before deciding how you’re going to address new

 

people:

 

1.Aretheyyounger,olderoraboutthe
sameageasyou?
2.Are they superior to you somehow;
like your teacher, boos or friends of
your parents, are you the superior
one or you’re equals; like colleagues
forinstance?
3.Whatgenderarethey?

 

Accordingly you decide:

 

- if they were much younger or inferior

 

then it’s absolutely alright to call

 

them by their first names whether they are of the same gender as you

 

are or not.

 

- If you’re equals and of the same

 

gender, then it’s ok too, but if they

 

were of the opposite gender then it’s

 

better to address them by their title

 

until they allow you to use their first

 

name.

 

- If they were older or superior to you

 

then without a question you should

 

address them by their titles along with

 

a respectful speech.

 

-