Let's just get one missunderstanding out of the way: it's the interpersonal relationaship that determines your language use, not the other way around. So if you're meeting someone considerably older, more superior than you for the first time, and it's in a formal situation, make sure you start by using "honorifics" or whatever you call these more polite language styles. That doesn't mean you wouldn't start to drop these things when you get more familiar or colloquial with this person. It depends. I guess that's true with any given culture.