In High Contrast Episode 13, you really hit a note with me on the subject of gender recognition.

I live in Israel and Hebrew is a gender specific language. Even nouns have a gender let alone words that refer to people.

For example a car is female a computer is male.

Thankfully we are less formal over here and I do not need to say ma’am or sir to anyone in daily life.

The word “sorry” is gender neutral. It’s not as polite as “excuse me”, but can serve well enough. However the word “you” is gender specific. “At” = female “Ata” = male.

So a sentence like:” I’m sorry can you please help me…”, Is still loaded with gender.

German is also gender specific, but at least when it comes to plural you can use “Sie” witch is actually also the polite way to approach someone you don’t know.

In Hebrew, even the plural of you is gender specific, “Aten” = female, “Atem” = male.
However unless all the people you’re addressing are female, it is customary to use the male version of plural “you”. (It’s an ancient language after all).
So in most cases when approaching more than one person you’re probably safe using “Atem”.

I try to sound people out by saying “Shalom” (Hello) first in an attempt to prompt them to say Shalom back to me and reveal their identity or at least their gender.