First name basis

The ESL class has been working on formality and politeness, and they had an assignment to talk to someone at the wrong level of formality - greet their roommate with "Good afternoon, Miss Hossenpfeffer" or something like that.

Most of them talked to their roommates too formally, but one girl talked to the international student coordinator - too informally, she thought. "I said, 'What's up, Tim?'"

"Oh, Aiko," said Shizuka, eyes enormous. "You are so brave."

Aiko grinned and ducked her head. "But he didn't react!" she said. "When I told him about the experiment, he said many students talk to him like that normally!" She sighed. "I wanted him to be angry. It would be a better story."

A pause in the conversation. I said, "When my dad went to New Zealand, they warned him that the students all call their professors by their first names. They said a German professor visited once, and on his first day a student dropped by his office wearing a t-shirt and swim trunks, and barefoot, and greeted him 'Hey Klaus!' The German drew himself up to his full affronted height and bellowed, 'Return when you are properly attired to speak to a professor!'"

They giggled. "In Japan we would never call professors by their first name," said Aiko. "Never."

"Sometimes we would call high school teachers by their nicknames," added Shizuka. "But not by first names, never."

I attempted to conceive of calling a high school teacher by a nickname. "But how do you call someone by a nickname without calling them by their first name?"

But then the professor said it was time for class discussion, so I didn't find out. :(