Never say “never,” neither “ever.” (I think this is obvious, when it comes to language.)
In the strange mix of Central Americans and Mexicans that you find in L.A., probably you’ll find exceptions. I’ve asked quite a few, and listened to them, and have yet to find an obvious exception. It depends on where you go, and who’s married to whom. Popular media, though, plays a role in this. I’m referring to native tendencies. And generation.
The thing with “tu”. Many people do tend to favour “usted” to avoid sounding poorly mannered when talking to people not clearly younger than them. You just cannot go wrong using “usted” until you are told it is ok to use “tu”.
I have several Colombian friends, who won’t use “tu” at all. Even among of 20’somethings drinking buddies, because “tutear” is a “gay thing”. They insist on calling you “usted”, no matter how much you ask them to use “tu” and don’t look happy when you call them “tu” even if you are older and very familiar. I understand that some Central Americans are the same way.
Really? How often do you use the “tu” form in English? 
not “tu” often
Hmmm. Depends. I think most Mexicans would find the accents a bit similar between Dominicanos, Cubanos, and Boricuas.
I think that’s a good rule of thumb when visiting Mexico or in most of Latin America. “Tu” is very informal and should only be used with someone you know closely and does not mind the “tuteo.”
Ah. That’s news to me. I met some Columbians and they never seemed to have an issue using “tu” in personal conversation with Mexicans. One of my close friends is Columbian and always uses “tu” in our conversations. But. Then. He has been in communities with large Mexican population for a long while. Almost on a similar tangent, I remember seeing a Columbian soap opera in Univision where the character, a young woman talking to her mother, gets mad and she says “Pero. Estas pendeja!?” :eek: “Pendeja” is just such a dirty word in Mexico that I was surprised that in Columbia they would not censor such word. I asked my Columbian friend about it and he just laughed, “Yeah. In Columbia is not a heavy word as in Mexico. To us, it just means ‘idiot’” 
We had “la marcha de los pendejos” in Venezuela a few years ago. Where people marched declaring themselves to be “pendejos” in that they paid taxes, didn’t bribe anyone, etc.
You need to keep into consideration various regions. (Caribbean) Coastal Colombians use “tu” all the time. (Have you been to Colombia?)
My point from a few posts above 
I have been only to the border, both up north through Zulia and way down south over the Orinoco river. The Colombian friends I have are mostly Paisas or Bogotanos.
Part of me wants to laugh. The other part wants to commit seppuku.
:eek:
To wrap up this particular hijack: in situations where non-Mexicans use coger , Mexican will almost always use agarrar.
[joke] So, there was this guy with a limp [that is, he was a “cojo”]. He walked into a bar, saw a pretty young girl, and started to caress her and touch her rudely. The girl cried, “Cojo horrible!” The man replied, “Don’t worry, senorita. I’ll teach you how!” [/joke]
Nitpick: “Thou” is singular. “You” is plural. (As “thou” has fallen into disuse, and I mean almost total disuse except when quoting Shakespeare or the Bible*, “you” has taken over both roles.) Vosotros and ustedes are both plural. (IIRC from my high-school Spanish books, usted is a contraction of vuestra merced – “your grace” – and is used for formal/respectful address in both singular form, usted, and plural, ustedes.)
*Quakers have traditionally eschewed the formal-singular “you” as a Vanity – but for some reason unclear to me, they never said “thou,” but used the accusative form “thee” for both accusative and nominative purposes. I don’t think Quakers talk like that any more, anyway.
:eek:
That’s disgusting! It’s horriblemente.
Sicko.
True. Except for the fact that it is hilarious.
All I know, is it completely shocked me how many people used ‘‘tu’’ in urban Mexico. I was all set for ‘‘Ud.’’ and my host family used ‘‘tu’’ right off the bat with me. Wasn’t until I got out into the country that I started hearing ‘‘Ud.’’ a lot – Berto, my host father, used ‘‘Ud.’’ with me but his wife used ‘‘tu.’’ We had a whole conversation about it, because I was confused as hell and didn’t want to be disrespectful. I didn’t know what to do with my students either. Ended up using ‘‘tu’’ half the time and ‘‘Ud.’’ the other half, it was kind of a disaster, but nobody seemed to care either way.
And yes, I laughed at the joke.
I was punning on the fact that it should be “cojo horriblemente”.
That’s about my experience, too. Once you get to the small pueblos or to where the campesinos live, it’s tú all the time on the street. In places of business, though, Ud. is still typically the norm between customers and employees, but you’ll almost always hear tú between customers, even if they don’t know each other. If someone is obviously of the tercera edád, though, they’ll often be addressed as usted despite the setting. Superiors at work are usually still usted, but depending on the working relationship often enough reverts to tú, as least in US-owned manufacturing plants that I know about.
All of my brothers- and sisters-in-law address my parents-in-law as Ud., but I didn’t know any better when I got to know them and addressed them individually using tú, and now I feel it’s too awkward to change back. :smack:
I’m so accustomed to using tú in Mexico, I hope I don’t commit any major fauxes pas should I visit another country.
Mexicans joke (accurately) that a Colombian will even use “usted” with his dog!
Meant to add, you know, fetus it’s also my experience that in every day speech, they (Mexicans) use the adjective when the adverb is indicated. I tend to use the adverb just out of my habit of speaking proper in English, and I often come across as stilted compared to the native speakers.
I loved the joke, and and am so used to their way of speaking, that the fact the adjective was used didn’t even make me flinch.
(I used “speaking proper” in the ironic sense, thankyouverymuch.)
It’s getting more and more popular in American English, too. I happen to like adverbs quite a lot, but when I asked my last linguistics professor about it he said that we don’t really need adverbs–adjectives do the same job just fine. He has a point: even if adverbs disappear completely, English won’t be much less clear and communicative.