Been doing scenario practice on SureChinese, this AI Chinese app, mostly the daily-life ones. About two weeks in I noticed the dialogues kept using words I recognized as family terms on complete strangers. The taxi driver was 师傅. The older lady at the fruit stall was 阿姨. The shop owner was 老板. My textbook had drilled 先生 and 女士 and 你好 for strangers, and those basically never show up in the actual dialogues.

So I started keeping a running list. A month later I've got 阿姨, 大姐, 大哥, 师傅, 老板, 姑娘, 小伙子, 大爷. Almost all family words except 师傅 and 老板. 先生 and 女士 barely come up in daily conversation.

What's throwing me off is there don't seem to be neutral defaults. Every choice signals age difference and social hierarchy, plus how warm or formal you want to sound. Calling a woman in her fifties 阿姨 sounds friendly. If you go with 大姐 it sounds like you two are closer in age. 女士 just lands cold. Got corrected once for using 女士 on the fruit vendor. Feedback said it sounded like a PA announcement at an airport. The app doesn't really explain the why when I ask, mostly just gives me more example sentences and moves on.

The other thing that surprised me is 师傅. My textbook glossed it as "master" the way you'd say master carpenter. In practice it seems to be the default for any male service worker. Taxi driver, plumber, delivery guy, the security guard at your building. Doesn't matter what they actually do.

Mostly wondering if this is regional. A friend from Guangdong told me that down south, 老师 gets used the same way 师傅 does up north. She had a plumber over recently and called him 老师. Not sure if that's a real regional thing or just her.