Colombia Expat Forum

EpaEpaEpa
Joined 2019
Posts: 403

4 years ago

Cultural Differences of No Consequence

4 years ago

In the US I imagine it is typical for an employee at a business owned by (for example) a Robert Jones to address his boss as "Mr. Jones." In Colombia the employee would likely address the owner as "Don Roberto". Don plus the individual's first name is used when addressing either an older individual such as a "persona de tercera edad" or a person of higher rank in the Colombian class system.

Tuluiendo. I'm not sure that's correct, it's slang but refers to the use of "tu" vs "used". A couple of years ago when driving up the dirt road to my parcelacion returning from Cali I would sometimes encounter an old campesino with flowing white hair trudging along the road and give him a lift. We would chat lightly and after a couple of times I realized he was addressing me as "tu". That would normally be unheard of. A campesino addressing a "patron" would always use "usted". The next time I picked him up and we chatted I dug a little deeper and it turned out he wasn't a campesino after all but had practiced law at one point and was now down on his luck and living in a cambuche in the hills above Cali.

Along the same road I sometimes encounter tourists up from Cali who stop me to ask directions. I don't know them from Adán but they address me as "tu". Were I tromping along on foot with a machete swinging from my belt they would say "usted". Colombians recognize others of their own class instantly even if they are complete strangers.

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