Help in Studing English

["TRAN CONG ICH" <congich@sonnet.ru>]

Hi all,

Could anybody tell me how to know it is a man or a woman by his/her name(by
First name and by Last name). E.g when you reply a letter from a stranger
what should you write: Dear Mr. or dear Madam? I always feel difficulty to
decide. In Russian names, it seems to be easy and there is a common rule,
in general. E.g: Tatiana, Natasha, Olga...are exactly a girl's names ;
Victor, Oleg, Colia...are exactly boy's names. Zaitsev is a man's family
but Zaitseva is a woman. Is there any rule in others, especially in
American or Western names?. I've asked my English teacher about it but he
doesn't know.
BTW, by style of letter writing one can know it is from a man or woman. Can
anyone share about it?

However, sometime confusion by name is funny too.

> >Ba'c A'ng na`o cha'n tha^.t, sao la.i go.i to^i la` anh. Cha(?ng nhe~
chi? co' 
> >anh mo+'i dduoc va`o Forum na`y tho^i sao. hay co' ye^u tinh ra^u xanh
na`o 
> >cha(.n co^?ng...
> 
>         To^i nghi~ cha('c Thu.c Anh hie^?u la^`m ba'c A'ng 
> ro^`i. Ba'c a^'y referred to "Anh" la` te^n, kho^ng la` title 
> dda^u. Te^n "Thu.c Anh" thi` dde.p tuye^.t ro^`i. Hi`nh nhu+ 
> co' ca^u "thu.c nu+~ anh hu`ng" trong tie^'ng VN mi`nh ... 
> va` ca^u na`y ddu'ng vo+'i Thu.c Anh la('m!

Thanks and good luck
TCI