@xueny brought up a question regarding addressing a woman as 太太。 I have been told that, first, this is considered rude ...
————It is absolutely not rude,but it can be used depends on situation. 太太 is a bit formal if you used in modern day and it's actually more popular used in the early 20 centry in China to call the wife of some rich people。 so, if you wanna call a lady respectively which is a friend or ralative, you can call her (surname) +(aunt or sister), it depends on the age. Besides, you can call her as your wife or friends do who is the relative of her, like 姑姑（sister of father），姨（sister of mother）etc. Although you are not the real relatives. Take yours for instance——These people are NOT related to me. They are actually my wife's brother's fiancee's parents (that's 4 degrees of separation), so I just treat them as friends.——in China， we don't call people only depending on their age but the 辈分（position in the family hierarchy maybe）like a grandpa has the same 辈分 with grandma ，that is to say because it is the fiancee's parent which is the same 辈分with your wife and her brother’s parents， and you are equal to your wife‘s 辈分，that means they have the same 辈分 as your parents in-law。（your parents、yourwife's parents and the fiancee's parents are the same position in family herarch）so you should call them 叔叔（uncle）阿姨，which sound much more like a family member in future。 If you use 先生 or 太太， it likes a stranger speaking which more common in offical situation.
I don't know if I explain it clearly, if you guys have any questions about Chinese please contact me with msn Shiligs@hotmail.com. It is my pleasure to answer as long as I know.
Posted on: What's Your Surname?
June 13, 2009 at 5:55 AM------tvan says
10 hours ago
@xueny brought up a question regarding addressing a woman as 太太。 I have been told that, first, this is considered rude ...
————It is absolutely not rude,but it can be used depends on situation. 太太 is a bit formal if you used in modern day and it's actually more popular used in the early 20 centry in China to call the wife of some rich people。 so, if you wanna call a lady respectively which is a friend or ralative, you can call her (surname) +(aunt or sister), it depends on the age. Besides, you can call her as your wife or friends do who is the relative of her, like 姑姑（sister of father），姨（sister of mother）etc. Although you are not the real relatives. Take yours for instance——These people are NOT related to me. They are actually my wife's brother's fiancee's parents (that's 4 degrees of separation), so I just treat them as friends.——in China， we don't call people only depending on their age but the 辈分（position in the family hierarchy maybe）like a grandpa has the same 辈分 with grandma ，that is to say because it is the fiancee's parent which is the same 辈分with your wife and her brother’s parents， and you are equal to your wife‘s 辈分，that means they have the same 辈分 as your parents in-law。（your parents、yourwife's parents and the fiancee's parents are the same position in family herarch）so you should call them 叔叔（uncle）阿姨，which sound much more like a family member in future。 If you use 先生 or 太太， it likes a stranger speaking which more common in offical situation.
I don't know if I explain it clearly, if you guys have any questions about Chinese please contact me with msn Shiligs@hotmail.com. It is my pleasure to answer as long as I know.