Duzen and Siezen

[feuervogel]

When I learned German, I was taught always to use Sie to strangers, professors, doctors, and pretty much everyone. It's the polite form of "you". The rules surrounding its use aren't terribly complicated, really, and it's generally speaking better to be safe and use Sie when in doubt, especially if you're unfamiliar with German social norms. (I don't claim to be an expert, but I've lived there, so I've got some experience in the matter.) (wikipedia on German T-V distinction)

At Uni Marburg, the professors called the students Herr/Frau Lastname and used Sie. And naturally the students called the professors Sie and used the appropriate title (Herr Doktor Knochel, maybe with a Professor stuck in there somewhere, I forget.) The students all called each other Du.

I've also noticed that in German-language posts on the internet (DW, mainly), people use Du. It's casual and friendly and familiar, because, hey, we're all friends on the internet, right?

There used to be a ritual called Brüderschaft trinken (drinking brotherhood) wherein people would drink together and switch from Sie to Du. It's much rarer than it used to be.

So I emailed my renter the other day, and I used Sie. (Because I didn't want to presume familiarity, and I have no idea how old she is, and that sort of thing. See above re better safe than rude.) I got her reply a few minutes ago, and she used Du, so I'll reply back to her with Du.

Comments

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

My approach was always simplest: I use Sie with everyone, and if a native speaker wants to use du, I'll du likewise, so to speak.

I'm sure I mentioned the confusion a discussion about this caused at one point, when I was talking with a classmate at JC about a TA from Marburg...

Classmate: "Are you du-ing Elke?"
Me: "Well, yeah, I'm du-ing her. It was weird at first, but since she made the first move, I figure it's OK."
(female) Classmate: "Yeah, I've been du-ing her too."
Non-German-speaking Bystander: *increasingly bewildered look leading into spit-take*

[feuervogel]

Yeah, that's my strategy.

I don't think I heard that story before, but that's hilarious!

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

Seems like the last time it came up was in deutsche_kultur, that might be why I thought I'd mentioned it. But, yeah, it's the sort of situation you couldn't engineer if you tried, and it never even occurred to us what it might sound like till we saw the reaction. ;)

[feuervogel]

You're probably right, though once a post has gone off my front page, I don't follow it as much. And that generally happens within 24 hours.

And yeah, there's no way you could have set that up more perfectly. That's just amazing.

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

I tend to forget posts unless I reply to them. Even things on my front page don't get read twice unless they're very interesting indeed or I'm quite bored.

[beth_leonard]

Maybe she thinks of you as a young student? I'm the type that I'd use Sie until told otherwise, but maybe it is all du on the internet. I'm about out of German pop culture to know.

--Beth

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

What I've learned of Spanish, the you form behaves this way as well.