As I guess, the word 'sir' is to call a man whose position is higher or whose age is older. For example like school principal (and I am a student of the school). And one day when I was watching a movie, I heard the actress playing a station employee called a man who was buying a ticket 'sir'. So I think 'sir' is also used to call a stranger.
But what I wonder is, I am learning English and there is a male teacher. And I learned that I can just call teacher his/her name. So I am kind of confused because when to use the word 'sir'. I'd like to know appropriate situations to use that word.
Only relationships between teacher-student / clerk-costomer / superior – subordinate?
Best Answer
It depends on the society you live in. As I recall, one of my clients from the US insisted that I should call him by name and not Sir. In India, almost everyone who's superior/elder to you is sir! If you don't call them sir, it's a problem!
The best thing is let that person suggest/advise you (which happens in most of the cases as it happened in my case -they themselves tell us) and you carry that on.
To be on safer side, I'd start calling him 'sir', and if he's okay, I'll carry that on. Because in the other way round, it may sound 'impolite' to those who want others to call them 'sir!'.
My answer talks about general practices in India. However, I firmly believe that in a teacher-student relationship, sir suits the best. Students call teachers 'sir, teacher, master' etc. but I haven't yet come across any student calling his teacher by name. And it is the same in case of a relationship of a salesperson/clerk to a customer.
In offices, it depends on the person being called.