> Dear Sir,
In Finnish culture is this considered a generic term of address? From the write up it seems like the author knew that Joyce K. Reynolds was on the IANA but still addressed the email to “Dear Sir”.
In Finnish culture is this considered a generic term of address? From the write up it seems like the author knew that Joyce K. Reynolds was on the IANA but still addressed the email to “Dear Sir”.
If writing this in Finnish you'd normally use something very close to "Dear Mr Reynolds".
At school I was taught to use "Dear Sir or Madam" or "To whom it may concern" but neither of those sound natural, they're just learned. If writing for a Finn, I just start with "Hei" ("Hey") (in fact that has lead me to start emails in English with just "Hey" as well). I may have used some other formality once or twice in my life when it was required for school or such matters but not as an adult.
So it may be that they were out of their element when writing that email and just put the first thing that came to their mind.
English "hey" is said when someone is annoyed. "Hey you! Stop that!"
TL;DR I use "hey" as a greeting.
[en-gb native]
I blame the US TV series "Friends" for that.
Curiously the OED doesn't (yet) have this greeting sense.
Interesting, neither does my (more liberally accepting than Oxford) 2016 Collins. I've certainly been using it as an informal greeting since '00s.
I don't know if I got it from Friends, it wouldn't have occurred to me, but I did start watching it around that time so it's certainly plausible.
I certainly wouldn't say 'Hey IANA, please reserve me port 22' any more than I would sign off 'kthxbye'.
[also en-gb native]