I use first names for almost everyone, unless I have a sense that the person I’m writing to has a strong preference for formality.
I settled on this partly because ~everyone who’s ever written to me has signed the email with their first name. I thus infer that they’d be fine with me calling them by their first name, even if we haven’t spoken before.
I also feel strange when people address me as “Mr. Gertler” in writing, and strongly prefer “Aaron” — and I’d guess that many other people feel the same way.
Yeah, coming from Luxembourg and studying in Germany, I do get the feeling that the norms differ here. I prefer first name norms though, so that’s great :)
I use first names for almost everyone, unless I have a sense that the person I’m writing to has a strong preference for formality.
I settled on this partly because ~everyone who’s ever written to me has signed the email with their first name. I thus infer that they’d be fine with me calling them by their first name, even if we haven’t spoken before.
I also feel strange when people address me as “Mr. Gertler” in writing, and strongly prefer “Aaron” — and I’d guess that many other people feel the same way.
Thanks for adding your opinion!
Yeah, coming from Luxembourg and studying in Germany, I do get the feeling that the norms differ here. I prefer first name norms though, so that’s great :)