[Vocabulary] TEACHER (used vocatively)

[wace]

Hello everyone
A few years ago I was told that the word 'teacher should not be used when addressing a high school teacher. However I have recently come across no fewer than ten examples on Google containing, among other things, the phrase, 'Excuse me teacher!'. I understand that the word 'sir' or 'miss (in the UK) or 'ma'am' (in the US) should be used instead, but why was I told that 'teacher' is best avoided vocatively when there are so many examples on the Net confirming the opposite? :shock:
Thanks for your comments..

 

[renard]

In North America (I can only speak for AmE), we use the term "Mr/Mrs/Miss ..." when addressing a high school teacher in a regular classroom. We do not use the term "teacher". In ESL classrooms, particularly classes with international students, addressing with "teacher" is common and generally acceptable. A "regular" high school teacher will find it unusual, but those of us who teach ESL understand that it is a sign of respect and are okay with being addressed as "teacher".

 

[Raymott]

Hello everyone
A few years ago I was told that the word 'teacher should not be used when addressing a high school teacher. However I have recently come across no fewer than ten examples on Google containing, among other things, the phrase, 'Excuse me teacher!'. I understand that the word 'sir' or 'miss (in the UK) or 'ma'am' (in the US) should be used instead, but why was I told that 'teacher' is best avoided vocatively when there are so many examples on the Net confirming the opposite? :shock:
Thanks for your comments..

There's no mystery here. Google does not weed out, or correct, non-English phrases. It collects whatever people write.
Here's the first example of "Excuse me Teacher" on my Google page:
Excuse me teacher
I also get 3 hits for "excuse me taecher".

My post does not touch on whether "Excuse me, Teacher" is correct or not. Did you want to discuss that?

 

[Raymott]

In North America (I can only speak for AmE), we use the term "Mr/Mrs/Miss ..." when addressing a high school teacher in a regular classroom. We do not use the term "teacher". In ESL classrooms, particularly classes with international students, addressing with "teacher" is common and generally acceptable. A "regular" high school teacher will find it unusual, but those of us who teach ESL understand that it is a sign of respect and are okay with being addressed as "teacher".

I think the correct form in that case would be "Teacher". It's a substitute name.

 

[renard]

Correct, capitalization would be required in writing because it is being used as a title to address someone :up:

 

[wace]

You've got a point there. But all the examples I found seem to have been written by native speakers... not foreign students. That's what got me thinking. Thank you both, anyway||:up:

 

[wace]

Raymott, you picked the only one that seems to have been written in France or by French speakers hahaah

 

[renard]

You've got a point there. But all the examples I found seem to have been written by native speakers... not foreign students. That's what got me thinking. Thank you both, anyway||:up:

There is a possibility that it is being used as a neutral term when speaking about to/about a teacher in general, rather than a specific teacher. I googled "excuse me teacher" and that is what it seems to be. A lot of those statements are also being used in a negative manner - sometimes people use "excuse me [teacher/other name or profession]" to introduce a rude statement!

 

[Raymott]

Raymott, you picked the only one that seems to have been written in France or by French speakers hahaah

Maybe, but I honestly did give you the first one on my list.

 

[Raymott]

There is a possibility that it is being used as a neutral term when speaking about to/about a teacher in general, rather than a specific teacher. I googled "excuse me teacher" and that is what it seems to be. A lot of those statements are also being used in a negative manner - sometimes people use "excuse me [teacher/other name or profession]" to introduce a rude statement!

But surely, you'd still still need a comma? "Excuse me, teacher".
I'm not really quibbling about commas or capitalization. I'm objecting to this fascination with trying to work out the correct English meaning of an incorrect English phrase that some people have managed to type on the internet. Therein lies insanity.

"Excuse me teacher can i go to the bathroom? LOL jk im going to walk around"
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Excu...OL-jk-im-going-to-walk-around/121232487897116
Is this right? Shouldn't 'i' be capitalised? Is "LOL jk" real English? Can we really say "im". I was always told to write "I'm" ...
This was probably written by a native speaker, too. The default reply to "I found this on Google" is "So what?"

 

[wace]

Yes, considering the rest of the text, the form of address chosen by the writer does sound a little .. defiant...

 

[Tdol]

However I have recently come across no fewer than ten examples on Google containing, among other things, the phrase, 'Excuse me teacher!'.

That's a tiny number for Google- you can find examples of almost any usage. In fact, if there are only ten, then it suggests that it is very rare. If there were hundreds of thousands, things would be different.

 

[wace]

I knew there were many more. I just stopped at the tenth example... That was enough!!!!!!

 

[wace]

This was probably written by a native speaker, too. The default reply to "I found this on Google" is "So what?"[/QUOTE]

Well, Raymott, as a native speaker and VIP member it is precisely your job to systematically debunk the belief that any utterance from the mouth (or fingers) of a
native speaker is gospel truth. When no grammar book seems to help, we all turn to the Net and when that too seems to fall short of our expectations, as is often the case, you are (thank God) always ready to step in and lend a helping hand. :-D

 

[Barb_D]

I have two high school students. Neither of them would call one of their teachers "Teacher" except in a joking way. They use their names. If it were a substitute teacher and they forgot the name, it would be something like "Mr. ... uhhh..." and sub would remind her of his name. Younger children who have a harder time remembering names in the beginning of the year may call their teacher "Teacher" for the first few days. After that, it's back to Mr. Smith or Miss Jones or Mrs. H or whatever.

 

[Raymott]

Well, Raymott, as a native speaker and VIP member it is precisely your job to systematically debunk the belief that any utterance from the mouth (or fingers) of a
native speaker is gospel truth. When no grammar book seems to help, we all turn to the Net and when that too seems to fall short of our expectations, as is often the case, you are (thank God) always ready to step in and lend a helping hand. :-D

Yes, I take your point. I'm not sure I'd agree with the job description you've given me though.
Maybe I was reacting to your claim that seeing something on the net that goes against what you were taught "confirms the opposite". It confirms nothing except that someone has typed it on the web. But, more importantly, instead of just using the number of examples Google gives, you should look for authoritative pages.
I guess you realise that there are now two or three more examples of "excuse me teacher" on Google just from your thread? Yes, Google also collects and presents all the bad English produced by students (and teachers, sometimes) here on UsingEnglish.

 

[Tdol]

no grammar book seems to help, we all turn to the Net and when that too seems to fall short of our expectations, as is often the case, you are (thank God) always ready to step in and lend a helping hand. :-D

Have you used a language corpus for such searches? These are huge bodies of language that are designed to be searched for language analysis. Here are two good ones:

BNC (The British National Corpus)
COCA (The Corpus of Contemporary American English)

 

[wace]

Thank you Tdol. Next time, I'll try using the ones you suggested!