September 04, 2004

How 'Sie' and 'Du' Can Wreck Your Ego

Part of my job is to talk to young, pretty and ambitious boys and girls who are rich or at least very famous because they won some competition where other young boys and girls weren't as pretty and in consequence never got famous. Nor rich. Anyhow, those who obviously won the game are getting younger and younger. With an accidental teenage pregnancy two of those I was talking to today could be my kids. They were as well-mannered as if they were my kids.

Usually, these interviews are very casual because most of us are kind of young(er). It's all this informal German "Du" and using the first name instead of the formal and polite "Sie" and "Mrs. Soandso" - which you use when you talk to old and older people or adults you don't know. I came in, they all shook my hand, introduced themselves (which I find extremely polite, because they know that I know their names). We sat down at the table and one of them said: "Möchten Sie sich nicht zwischen uns setzen?" (Wouldn't you like to sit between us?)

I went home and dug out an old tape I recorded when - ah - I - ah - was - hm - their age? Does anybody remember Dan Hartman's "We Are The Young"?

I should have moved to an English speaking country.

Posted by novala at September 4, 2004 09:17 PM
Comments

this made me think of the werner lansburgh book "dear doosie" (in czech, it's "dear vittie")...

while it's true than in english, we skip the whole "you" dilemma, we do have the first name/last name basis.
i thought i was old the first time someone addressed me by my last name. now i *know* i'm old, because i get a bit huffy when people i don't know address me by my first name, particularly in a business context. whippersnappers!

Posted by: anne at September 6, 2004 02:00 PM

I've just started a graduate program in German in the United States. We all speak English most of the time, and we are all on a first name basis. However, since some of "us" are Professors and what not, when we speak German, we say Sie. Thus it can happen that you speak to two German professors using Sie, and then refer to a third professor by her first name. A bit odd, but it seems to work.

Posted by: Anne Beryl at September 15, 2004 12:25 AM

I once worked in an agency where the boss referred to us by our first names plus "Sie" and vice versa. But usually it's first name and "Du" or Herr/Frau plus "Sie".

Posted by: novala at September 15, 2004 05:41 PM