Being a naturalized (foreign-born American citizen) I can understand why
both sides wrote the answers they wrote.

For the American side, most students wrote that they would think the
cashier is friendly, and would be happy. This has to do with a couple of
factors. First, general American culture encourages people calling each
other by the first name; it radiates a feeling of friendliness and
proximity. It reduces tension in nervous situations (for example: if you
are really nervous for a test, and the proctor calls you "Edgar" instead
of "Mr. Terrero", you're going to feel a lot better. "Mr. Terrero" makes
things too formal, and only adds to the anxiety.) Also, there's a
language issue. In English, there is no distinction between "you" as in
"you, my friend", and "you, Doctor Phillips." "You" addresses everyone
you are talking about. And also, to a person the sound of their name is
one of the best sounds they can hear. The fact that people address each
other by first name in the U.S. does not mean they are being impolite.

My first language is Spanish, and at least in my country of origin
(Dominican Republic) there is an important distinction between who gets
called what. If you don't know the person, one must address them by
"Senor / Senorita / Senora" (I guess those are the Spanish equivalents
of "Monsieur / Mademoiselle / Madame") and then say their LAST name.
Also, in the language, there is a strict distinction between "Tu" (Tu)
and "Usted" (Vous). This distinction encourages a higher level of
formality when addressing people. To the French students: do you feel
that language has something to do with how you address people?
Obviously, culture plays a role, but I think language does so as well.

Je ne suis pas de la mafia donc je vois pas pourquoi je serais choqué
qu'on dise mon nom.

I know this question is about first names and informality, but I can't
remember the last time I cashed a personal check with an employee at the
bank. I like the mechanized formality of the ATM. Am I an anormal
American banker? Do students on either side spend a lot of time cashing
checks at the bank? sorry to get off topic.

Je trouve aussi que le language et la culture ont des impacts sur nos
réactions dans la vie quotidienne. C'est vraiment très flagrant, la
plupart des français sont étonnés d'être appelé par leurs prénoms et
trouve cela un peu déplacé!!! Alors que vous semblez être plus "cool",
cela vous parait amical.

Je pense que si l'on comparait avec des allemands, ils réagiront encore
plus fortement que nous !!!

Pourquoi autant de différences? en france nous avons une diversité de
langage qui montre quel est le lien entre les interlocuteurs. pour le
"vous" le "tu" ... finallement on catégorise les gens pour savoir si on
emploie le tu ou le vous, si on l'appelle par le prénom... Mais dans un
cadre professionnel on se pose plus trop de question lorsque c'est des
clients anonymes c'est un usage courant.

moi non plus je ne fais pas partie de la mafia (du moins pas à ma
connaissance...) ce n'est pas pour ça que j'apprécie que quelqu'un que
je ne connais absolument pas et avec qui je n'ai pas forcément envie de
sympathiser m'appelle par mon prénom. Chez nous c'est une marque de
respect d'appeler quelqu'un par son nom à partir du moment où on ne le
connaît pas. Evidemment, s'il y a ensuite des affinités, pas de
problème. Mais l'emploi du nom n'est pas simplement censé être un détail
administratif, il est aussi une marque de bienséance.

Je suis entièrement d'accord avec toi Edgar. Je pense que tu as bien
exprimé cette différence de culture qui nous concerne. L'anglais est
beaucoup plus convivial et bien moins stricte que le français mais en
même temps beaucoup moins riche!!

En France, nous avons de grands principes tel que le "tu" et le "vous",
alors que vous, vous utilisez le "you".... bref tout ca pour dire que
tout est dans la facon de dire les choses et non sur le fait qu'on
utilise le prenom ou le nom....!!!

Oh wow, lots of interesting responses on the French side. First, the
"mafia membership" comments were pretty funny. They were funny, but I
couldn't make out why they were made. So, Henri or Delphni, can you guys
tell me why you made the joke?

Marie-Elisabeth: I thought your comments about the German reactions were
really interesting. Do you really think they react stronger than you
guys? You guys seem to be very sensitive about the naming issue.
However, at the same time, the French responses weren't as negative as I
thought. An equal number of you said that "it's OK" or "it doesn't
matter" than those of you who got a heart attack about the issue.

Either way, to sum this up, I will stick to my hypotheses that the
reactions are greatly affected by the language and cultural differences.
However, I will add one more clause. In class today (or, I guess,
yesterday), we discussed how a lot of the reactions came down to how
much we know the person addressing us. For the French, the less you know
the person, the more uncomfortable they will feel when someone else
addresses them by first name. For Americans, it doesn't matter as much.

Oh wow, lots of interesting responses on the French side. First, the
"mafia membership" comments were pretty funny. They were funny, but I
couldn't make out why they were made. So, Henri or Delphni, can you guys
tell me why you made the joke?

Marie-Elisabeth: I thought your comments about the German reactions were
really interesting. Do you really think they react stronger than you
guys? You guys seem to be very sensitive about the naming issue.
However, at the same time, the French responses weren't as negative as I
thought. An equal number of you said that "it's OK" or "it doesn't
matter" than those of you who got a heart attack about the issue.

Either way, to sum this up, I will stick to my hypotheses that the
reactions are greatly affected by the language and cultural differences.
However, I will add one more clause. In class today (or, I guess,
yesterday), we discussed how a lot of the reactions came down to how
much we know the person addressing us. For the French, the less you know
the person, the more uncomfortable they will feel when someone else
addresses them by first name. For Americans, it doesn't matter as much.

I think the English language has something to do with it. Like you guys
stated before, in English people use "you" whereas in France there is
"tu" and "vous" depending on who you talk to. And although I think maybe
the 2 languages affect the different levels of formality, I don't think
that that is the only reason. I think that another reason is that maybe
the american attitude is more causal and laid back in general. for
example, here, at MIT, a lot of professors ask you to call them by their
first name. I think that makes you probably less intimidated by the
professors. But to get back to my point, in England, for example, people
tend to use professor, Sir, etc in a more formal situation.

To respond to Lauren's question, If I don't already have direct deposit,
I like to cash it with a teller, maybe because I get a more personal and
human feel to the action, but mostly because I like to get a validation
that my check was cashed, and that it's all taken care of from that
point....I guess you could say that I really don't trust the ATM to do
my cashing-of-check....I'm scared it might eat it, or something.

To add a retrospect to Edgar's comments: I've worked in bilingual
customer service before (Spanish and English), and I was actually
trained to call the clients by their first name, even if the person was
a Spanish speaker. I found overall that when you did that, the person
did feel more comfortable, and would joke around with you more,
especially those who spoke Spanish. This I wouldn't have expected,
coming from a mostly Mexican region where, like you said, it is more
polite to address the person by Seńor(=Monsieur), or something of the
like. I did, however, address them by usted(=vous). But the point is,
these people live in the US, which means they have most probably been
exposed to the US' level on informality, so most of them found it
perfectly fine to be called by their first name. Perhaps if I was to
have worked in Mexico, or France for example, they would not have been
as receptive.

What's funny about this situation is that it really is a product of the
language. However, French has not really made any significant changes in
the past 200 years, while English has. We used to have formal and
informal words, Thee, Thou, Thine, etc. For some reason, however, we
abandoned them. Some people argue that English is worse off now, because
we have lost that politeness. Of course, there are arguments against
that. I, for one, would have been offended if a bank teller called me by
my first name. We may not use thee and thou anymore, but another way of
expressing respect is by using Mr. and Ms. Whenever I meet someone whom
I do not know, I refer to them as sir, ma'am, Mr. and Ms.

Actually I met Keith Foulke the other night (Boston Red Sox pitcher who
won the World Series last week) and although everyone knows his first
name, when I adressed him I said "Mister Foulke." Am I the only American
who still believes in this kind of chivalry?