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Problematic Pronouns: "Du" and "Sie"
It all began when we were 16. Life as a full-time teenager can be confusing at times, but the start of the 11th grade brought on yet another hurdle to our already baffling teenage lives: From then on, the teachers greeted us with the formal German you-form "Sie", as opposed to the informal "Du". From one day to the next, they had instantly turned us into adults, two years before we were officially destined to this privilege. From this day on, too, school classes were an amusing affair, with teachers varying constantly from "Du" to "Sie", or attempting to avoid the choice by adopting more elaborate, but rather awkward forms of address.
The German personal pronoun problem is a daily stumbling-block for Germans and foreigners alike. The rules may sound simple, but are not always as simple to apply: Under-18-year-olds can be addressed with "Du", but anyone who at least appears older, should be spoken to with "Sie". "Du" is the usual form of address among students, including elderly students, who are generally quick to offer fellow scholars a friendly "Du". The informal you-form is also used by friends, at the local sports club, at parties, in pubs and other locations frequented by young people.
The days when children said "Sie" to their grandparents and parents are thankfully over, but "Sie" is still a must when addressing shopkeepers or university professors. Whether or not the formal tone is dropped lies alone in the hands of the eldest and more distinguished of conversation partners.
Nevertheless, these "simple" rules still cause confusion in a country where the "Sie" and "Du"-rules belong to a child´s elementary upbringing - and in a country, where the wrong address can, at times, be fatal: The case of a
zoo-keeper, who was fired because he had addressed his boss, the zoo-director, with "Du" too often, is still present in the minds of the German people.
However, many Germans still regard a formal address as a confirmation of their authority, and the issue is therefore not to be taken too lightly. Nevertheless, the whole "Du"/"Sie"-business is often seen as a rather irritating, and superfluous affair in modern Germany, and many Germans envy their Anglo-Saxon counterparts with their simple "you".
In politics, however, "Du" and "Sie" is still popular, especially as a way of expressing friendship - or distance - symbolically. Helmut Kohl and the former Russian President Boris Yeltsin for instance, adopted the "Du"-form, a step which Cnancellor Gerhard Schröder and President Vladimir Putin have not attempted yet. However, Helmut Kohl was not only famous for his close friendship with colleagues around the world, but also for his mediocre English. Rumour has it that he once addressed Magaret Thatcher, the former British Minister, with the words: "You can say you to me".
Klaus Dahmann
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| Further Information
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The German Coffee Hour - a virtual meeting point where you can learn German in a relaxed environment.
www.dw-3d.de
The on-line learning forum "German as foreign language" at the study college at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne offers various tasks for visual and audio comprehension in the InterNet.
www.stk.fh-koeln.de/...
Explanations regarding the "deutschen Rechtschreibung" (new German language changes)
www.canoo.net/...
The Tandem Agency offers free tandem conversation partners to help learn German.
www.slf.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/...
The "Language-Exchange", is a search machine for language partners
www.speak2speak.com
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