h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Du (darf ich du sagen?) hast dich gerade bei den Deutschsprechern gemeldet, prima! Wir haben da einige Threads, komm einfach mal vorbei!

Und nicht vergessen: laut BBC-Regeln muss alles übersetzt werden...


You (can I say you to you) just registered with the German speakers, great! We have several threads, jsut come by.

And don't forget, BBC rules mean we have to translate everything...

Klar darfst du du zu mir sagen - ist einfacher so. Ich glaube, in deutschen Internet-Foren duzen sich die Leute auch, alles andere finde ich jedenfalls komisch...
Ich werde mir die Threads bald ansehen, aber jetzt muss ich arbeiten.

Of course you can say du to me - it's easier this way. I think people say du to each other in German forums as well, anything else seems strange to me...
I'll have look at the threads soon, but now I've got to work .

Stimmt, aber man sollte erstmal fragen, manche Leute reagiren darauf sehr aggressiv. Ich muss auch gleich los zur Arbeit.

youR'e right, but one should ask first, some people react agressively. I have to go to work soon too.

Yeah, it's true, some people do feel offended when someone says "du". Others (mostly thirtysomethings, I suppose) feel flattered when they're addressed like that, as the person they are talking to might be assuming they are younger than they actually are...
The point is, you can never tell how people are going to react, even as a native speaker I sometimes feel unsure about the Sie-or-Du question.
That's just another reason to envy English-speaking folk.

yes, I especially feel unsure with people my own age who work in shops and things And since I started working for one of my profs, the first semesters always say "Sie" to me, even though I'm only a year above them!

But actually, English speakers all say "Sie", "Du" would be "Thou"

I do have some problems at uni as well.... And even the profs seem to be confused: There's one who calls me by my first name + sie, one who uses the surname + du, another who calls everyone by their first name + du (she's been teaching at primary school for too long) and quite a few who use the surname + sie. I hope things will get easier once I'm *grown up*.

No, I think it'll get worse, as all of society seems to be changing due to the American influence

And who wants to grow up anyway?

I meant it in the way that some day I'm going to be a wise old lady and I will be entitled to call everyone "Du" . I hope the Americans won't interfere with that.
But that's not going to happen in the next few decades. So I'll settle for the confusion and the fun that can arise from it (when I was about 5 years old, someone from a French-speaking country talked to me in German and called me "Sie", which somehow made me feel very proud)...

A little kid asked me recently whether I had grandchildren does that mean I can say "Du" to everyone now? My cousin does, but for him it's Weltanschauung.

Kids, eh. But being out for dinner with your parents and the waiter asking your dad if you're allowed to drink alcohol leaves you feeling as well, when you've just turned 21.

My cousin had the opposite problem, having to carry ID at 12 to prove she was young enough to pay kids' prices!

How'S life? Which bit of Germany are you from if I may ask? You do seem to know about our decidouous elephants...

Well, when the elephant fell out of the monorail I was living in NRW, in a village near Bonn. Later on my family moved to Berlin, where I finished school. Then, two years ago I decided to go to Rostock for studying. At the moment I'm hoping to get accepted at either of the universities in Berlin to continue studying there....
What about you, how did you end up in Wuppertal?

Loooong story... I was actually born in Bavaria, but I've moved quite often since then. Went to 12 schools in 13 school years! I mainly ended up in Wupp because my family was living near here at the time I started.

But are you sure you were living here when it happened? That was 60 years ago this month!

Was it? I remember there was something about it in the papers , about 15 years ago. Anyway, I was a small child at the time and I suppose I mixed things up...

Could be, they mention it every few years. I think it died about 15 years ago, they might have run a story then.

Must be something like that. Oh well, I really got *a lot* of things wrong when I was a child.
Anyway, would you mind if I put you on my "friends-list"?

no prob, I'll reciprocate the favour And that's what childhood is all about, isn't it?

How are you?
Me, well, I ought to be working... There's just something that draws me back to this place. So much more interesting over here.

I know the feeling! Luckily I have a massive sunburn that prevents me from wrking, just typing is annoying enough