formal-languageidiomatic-language
During a self-introduction in class, Jan said, "Hi my name's Jan Wayne. My friends call me Jan."
I want to write these sentences down formally, but I don't know how to.
I mean I don't know whether it is a formal way to introduce oneself to other people by saying
"Hi my name's Kitty XXX. My friends call me Kitty."
While you can do things with good manners, it is rare to direct someone to do so in imperatives. Unless addressing children, it is not required to remind people to be polite— a person with good upbringing has good manners out of habit; an poorly raised person cannot tell the difference, anyway.
This may reflect a difference of cultural perception, but I think more likely that it is simply a poor translation from Japanese. A search on "smoke with good manners" mostly returns results from Japan. Considerate would be the more idiomatic adjective to use to remind people to think of others, so a similar campaign in an English-speaking city might be please be a considerate smoker or please be considerate when smoking, phrasings which are common in such signs.
When speaking generally of politeness, consideration, and other positive social behavior, good manners are something you have, not something you do (as with one's habits or one's nature). Someone with good manners may be said to be well-mannered, and someone without good manners is ill-mannered; it is more usually expressed that someone has good manners, than that they do something with good manners.
- Tell me the meeting date.
This is not at all polite. There is no pretense of it being polite; it's an instruction.
- Please tell me the meeting date.
- Tell me the meeting date, please.
Slightly more polite, but still not generally polite. It's still obviously a directive, an instruction, and since your boss objected to it, they probably found it impolite, but given what you've written, they probably understand you're not a native speaker of English and as such aren't very familiar with formality, etc.
- Can you tell me the meeting date?
This is now a request, and it's more polite than sentences 1, 2, and 3.
- Please, can you tell me the meeting date?
- Can you tell me the meeting date, please?
This is even more polite.
- Could you tell me the meeting date?
More polite than sentence 4, a little less polite than sentence 6.
- Please, could you tell me the meeting date?
- Could you tell me the meeting date, please?
More polite than sentence 6.
That's not to say there aren't other ways to put it (even more, or less politely). I merely considered some likely alternatives while keeping the rest of the sentence fixed. Keep in mind that politeness may depend on other factors, such as context, familiarity, tone, more than simply on the content of your sentence.
Anyway, in a more formal email, I'd go with something like sentence 9 or, in general, with other such constructions:
- Could you please tell me if there's a possibility...
- I wonder if you could possibly...
- Would you mind if...
Best Answer
Are you sure the name isn't supposed to be Janet Wayne? It's strange to say "My friends call me Jan" when that's her actual first name. Normally that pattern is used for abbreviations or nicknames, but people would call her Jan by default.
In general, I suggest not using "My friends call me X". It's not always clear whether the person you're speaking to counts as a friend or wants to be a friend. Context, can help, but some people (like me) find it a bit intimidating. You can use "You can call me X" or "I go by X" instead. This is just my opinion; the phrase is definitely correct idiomatic English.
I don't think the first sentence is necessarily informal in the sense of being potentially rude. For instance, if you were meeting the CEO of an American company face to face, it would be fine. Still, there are some changes you can make to fit various circumstances.
When addressing a group, as in a lecture or presentation, it helps to add a few syllables to make your words easier to hear:
Alternately, you can just use the abbreviated name to begin with:
When meeting someone face to face, you can add an extra sentence:
Saying "It's nice to meet you" will make more of an impression than the grammar you use.
Formality depends as much on culture as it does on language. You might get a better answer if you tell us who you're introducing yourself to. Americans? Brits? Australians?
UPDATE: In the question, you asked about introducing yourself. If you tell someone "My name is Jan Wayne", they'll call you Jan. You don't need to say "My friends call me Jan". What else would they call you? "My friends call me X" is normally only used with shortened names and nicknames. You could also use it to ask someone to call you Jan instead of Ms. Wayne, but that's less common.
If your legal name is different from what people call you, then it makes sense:
Sometimes people use their middle name instead of their first name:
or:
But it would be weird to say: