Affectionate Greeting

A young woman this morning called me 'Papa'. I said, as a matter of interest: "To think that when I was a young man, the children called me kleinbaas." She said: "I'm so sorry! In our culture, 'Papa' is a mark of affection! It is a mark of respect!" I said: "I know." She said: "I do not mean that you are an old man! You are not old. Not yet!" OBSERVATION: In her (Xhosa) culture, people routinely greet each other with affectionate terms, as one might speak to one's closer family members in mine. As soon as they greet someone in my culture, it is typically with more formal terms.