Catamighty (champagnesheik) wrote in linguaphiles,
Catamighty
champagnesheik
linguaphiles

Spanish honorifics: to or not to ?

Being a native speaker of a language that no longer has honorifics, I'm not very skilled at the politics of deference. I'm never quite sure when I should be calling someone Usted.

I'm about to go abroad to Spain next week and have been emailing with the resident director of the program. I assumed that his title would confer some authority upon him, so I've been Usteding him in my emails to him. However, his response left me really confused. First, he saluted me with querido, which strikes me as very familiar, and continued to tutear me. He then signed the email with un fuerte abrazo, which strikes me as SUPER familiar. So my question is: are these signs of solidarity, a go-ahead for me to tutear him? Or should I continue Usteding him?

I'm already worried about how to address my host family, too! If English still had a T/V distinction this wouldn't be so difficult.
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