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Back in my native country, I never called a person older than me only by his/her first name as this would have been rude. Even now, when visiting my family in Romania, I still call those older than me as Mister or Madame, followed by their first name if I know them very well, or family name. However, Ive seen that this is no longer common. Things are changing and addressing someone only by their first name is very common. Websites dedicated to young people will welcome visitors using their first name, but official websites or those dedicated to all ages will use first and last name together, or formal titles followed by family name.
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Chinese:
A Chinese name starts with the family name followed by the first name. I usually call my Chinese coworker Deyu, but his wife and other Chinese people I know call him Tang Deyu. Tang is his family name and Deyu is his first name.
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Russian:
What makes Russian names different is that the middle name is derived from the fathers first name. Another favorite writer of mine is Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. His parents were Mikhail and Maria Dostoevsky. The writers first name is Fyodor and his surname is Dostoevsky. His middle name is based on the root Mikhail, his fathers name. The name is actually a transliteration of the actual Russian name: . Other versions of the names were Dostoyevsky, Dostoievsky, Dostojevskij, Dostoevski or Dostoevskii If he would have lived in these times, the authorities would have had a hard time with so many different transliterations. Another well known Russian writer is Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (known as Leo Tolstoy in the West). His wifes name was Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya. Russian women take their husbands names, but theyll add an a to the end of the surname. So, Tolstoys wifes surname was Tolstaya. First names, diminutives and nicknames are used between friends. So, make sure you dont address your online visitors by their first name, unless youre invited to do so. And remember that the a at the end of the wifes name isnt a mistake
Arabic:
An Arabic name consists of a main name, nickname, patronyms (derived from fathers first name) persons occupation, etc. E.g. (wikipedia.org): Abu Karim Muhammad al-Jamil ibn Nidal ibn Abdulaziz al-Filistin ab karmi muHammadu-l-jamlu-bnu niDli-bni abdi-l-azzi-l-filisTnyu This means: Father-of-Karim, Muhammad, the beautiful, son of Nidal, son of Abdulaziz, the Palestinian (karim means generous, muhammad means praised, jaml means beautiful; azz means Magnificent In general, Arabic names are written in the same order as English: given name, middle name and family name. When creating online forms for Arabic people, remember that Arabic reads from right to left, so your form design should be changed to be right to left. Also, if the form is a php file, html file, etc, remember to declare the language and direction. And also make sure that the character encoding in your form is Unicode. Otherwise, youll only see small squares instead of a name. A few things to remember when creating online forms and subscription notices: 1. leave more space for names for some languages 2. have the correct language declaration, direction and character encoding in the form 3. do not assume everybody is on the first name basis in all cultures; adapt your thank you note to different languages and cultures 4. most Asian names start with the family name followed by given name 5. in most cultures, Mr. and Mrs. will be in front of the last name; however, for Japanese the word -sama will actually be used after the family name and not in front of it.
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