You or you or you?

A little grammar discourse for Sunday!

If you've studied a language that's not English, you're probably familiar with the idea with social registers. For some reason English doesn't do it —or lost it in some stage of evolution — but languages like Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and so on have different ways to refer to someone depending on social status. Whether you say "Do you want to go?" to your best friend or to the president, the word you use for "you" will be very different, because of this difference in register.

Let's complicate this a bit. These distinctions are totally culturally constructed. For example, in some cultures, this division is very simple: virtually everyone gets the informal. What we learned in high school Spanish is that people older or with more authority, use formal register. This is the word Usted. Peer level or less, use informal. This is the word tú. It's simple and never really a big concern. However, in some oriental cultures this distinction can make or break a relationship, so I was careful to pay it attention in Costa Rica.

Let's muddle things a bit more. Here in CR, my family virtually always uses Usted (formal register). Jorgito the 2-year-old is Usted, the dogs on the street are Usted. However, outside of the family, when people want to be informal (read: in University interactions) the Ticos use a new word: vos. This is essentially the same meaning as tú, only with different conjugations and all that. And of course, it was totally unfamiliar. It's a Latin American thing and so not really taught in my KU classes. I mean, imagine learning a new word for "you" in English? It totally throws off your groove.

My strategy initially was to call everyone Usted and be done with it. Now a few months in, I feel like a total goof in a group while everyone's throwing around the vos and I'm still stuck in my formal Spanish register. I think I'm about ready to make the switch over to vos. Let today, October 30, mark this transition.

Wish me luck!