How (not) to address airline passengers

Ingrid Piller

How (not) to address airline passengers

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Abstract

Terms of address in intercultural communication can be a tricky business as Kimiesan pointed out recently. One would think that airlines with their international customer base and tons of market research have it all sorted out, though. Not so. For years, KLM sent me special offers addressed to “Mrs Dr Ingrid Piller.” How difficult can it be for the marketing department of an international airline to figure out that you can’t combine titles in English? (unlike say in German and presumably in Dutch, too.)

Original language	English
Specialist publication	Language on the move
Publisher	Language on the move
Publication status	Published - 30 Nov 2009

Bibliographical note

© 2018 Language on the Move. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

200401 applied linguistics and educational linguistics
200405 language in culture and society (sociolinguistics)

Access to Document

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 172 KBLicence: CC BY

http://www.languageonthemove.com/how-not-to-address-airline-passengers/Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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N1 - © 2018 Language on the Move. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

PY - 2009/11/30

Y1 - 2009/11/30

N2 - Terms of address in intercultural communication can be a tricky business as Kimiesan pointed out recently. One would think that airlines with their international customer base and tons of market research have it all sorted out, though. Not so. For years, KLM sent me special offers addressed to “Mrs Dr Ingrid Piller.” How difficult can it be for the marketing department of an international airline to figure out that you can’t combine titles in English? (unlike say in German and presumably in Dutch, too.)

AB - Terms of address in intercultural communication can be a tricky business as Kimiesan pointed out recently. One would think that airlines with their international customer base and tons of market research have it all sorted out, though. Not so. For years, KLM sent me special offers addressed to “Mrs Dr Ingrid Piller.” How difficult can it be for the marketing department of an international airline to figure out that you can’t combine titles in English? (unlike say in German and presumably in Dutch, too.)

KW - 200401 applied linguistics and educational linguistics

KW - 200405 language in culture and society (sociolinguistics)

M3 - Website contribution

JO - Language on the move

JF - Language on the move

SN - 2203-5001

PB - Language on the move

ER -

How (not) to address airline passengers

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this