August 23, 2002
What if we did this in the U.S.?
I learned something cool in German class yesterday. If I offend any Germans out there, I'm sorry. This all comes from my teacher Katja.
Like most languages German has different personal pronouns for formal and informal interaction. In Germany, though, you might know someone for 20 years and continue to speak wi th the formal you ('Sie').
The only way that two adults might begin speaking to each other in the informal is after an explicit agreement. There's even a traditional ceremony for this type of agreement.
It's called a Bruderschaft trinken. Both people will hold a shot of Schnapps (or similar liquor), link arms and drink. After this they will begin to speak with each other using the informal 'du'.
If there's anything we can conclude from this, this is it: the more rigid and formal a culture is, the more people are going to drink.