If we talk about personal preferences, I literally don’t expect anyone on the face of the Earth to call me Mr. Dzhugashvili (let’s say that was my surname). As far as I’m concerned, anyone can call me themapleleaf. This includes any child, as I don’t think children owe their elders more respect than their elders owe them.
You can call me Mister, Sir, or Mr. Dzhugashvili if you don’t know I’m called themapleleaf and in some situations when you really don’t know me and it’s customary (you’re a judge and I’m in your courtroom, you write me a formal letter for the first time), but I’d rather you not once we get to making proper introductions.
If we talk about what I simply expect to happen, well, were I back in Canada, I would expect to be called themapleleaf by most people except in the case above, including my boss - and probably to refer to them by their first names too in this day and age. I’ve spent most of my adult life outside Canada, and have had only four office jobs when in Canada, none lasting more than 6 months, and in all but one, I recall addressing everyone and all my superiors by their first names, including the owner of the company at the last job – and he was quite a douchebag by the way. The only exception was I think my highest superior, the head of a Quebec government agency, during a summer job, I recall calling him “Monsieur A.” – but I had extremely little contact with him. I think my colleague, another student, did refer to him by his first name.
I wanted to be a teacher in Canada but failed twice to be accepted to teachers’ college due to high demand (in 2001 and 2002). I had a number of teaching-related experiences where I volunteered in classrooms with kids ranging from 7 to 18. IIRC, the teacher introduced me as “themapleleaf” in most of those classrooms, but in at least one (a mixed Grade 2 / 3 class), the teacher (a competent but strict older lady) introduced me as “Mr. Dzhugashvili”, and that’s how the students called me in each class.
I didn’t think about it much at the time, but were I to be a teacher in North America, I think I would prefer to be addressed as themapleleaf by my students (it wouldn’t be a deal breaker but I would prefer it.) If I requested that, though would it be allowed? Would I have trouble with the school if I did that?
I now live in the Czech Republic, where (as in the Swiss example above), there is still a strong distinction between formal and informal forms of address. In government offices or at the doctor’s, they would never use your first name; this would be considered very bad form (I don’t agree with this, I’m just saying it’s how things are done). Moreover, if you’re not on a first name basis with someone, you always use the “plural you” when addressing a person. That is, you say “vy” to them (as in “vous” in French or “Sie” in German), not “ty”, the singular you. At work, practice varies from workplace to workplace. In more liberal white-collar enterprises (and typically in blue collar jobs) everyone says “ty” to each other across the company hierarchy (it may be even official company policy), but in the average company, there is no policy about it and typically closer colleagues agree on using the singular “ty” while colleagues who don’t know each other well keep using “vy”, (nowadays normally with the first name but there are exceptions) unless the “socially superior” (e.g. significantly older) colleague offers the use of the singular “ty” and it is considered very bad form to offer the use of the singular “you” to your boss, though many bosses will offer it nowadays.
Being from a Serbian immigrant family and multilingual, I have been familiar with this singular / plural dichotomy since early childhood. I disapprove of this custom, viz what I wrote below on a diferent thread:
I don’t wish to be addressed by the “plural you” by anyone in any language, but as things stand in the Czech Republic, if you request the use of the singular you in most places (cafes, restaurants, shops, etc.) with certain specific exceptions, people will be consternated, if not insulted. The established custom I am up against is very strong. Interestingly, there are places where this is no longer the case. In Spain, for example, it’s common to be addressed as “tu” instead of the more formal “el” nowadays, and last year I experienced this in person on a vacation to Basque country. Moreover, when me, my American friend, and his Basque friend crossed the border into Bayonne, Southern France, the Basque friend made a point of deliberately addressing the young French waiter with “vous” to show him respect – and the waiter calmly responded “I prefer ‘tu’”. Except in certain kinds of business, this would be unthinkable for a waiter or shop assistant to do in the Czech Republic.
BTW, as an English as a second language teacher in the Czech Republic, I mostly work with adults. On the occasions when I have had a child student, we were always on a first-name basis (as is common among language teachers from the West here, often even if they work in a public school, which I don’t – I cooperate with language schools).