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Weird? Pretty much.

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Dina:
Hi Regen!
Well, the computer is still hanging on, we will see...
Today at worked from home, so no problems (it is in the lab that I am having trouble. I will probably tell you more tomorrow). So yes, today was a better day.

Congratulations about the redecoration! Sometime those sort of things are so tiresome that we are lazy, but almost always it is worthy, because a day of exhaustion gives you a lot of days with a better quality of life. Still, it is needed to take the resolution of facing the tiring day, which is not easy. I found that sometimes I have more trouble resolving doing something than actually doing it. It's the stress of worrying about how bad is going to be.

Today I was reminded of our conversations about the German polite form, because hubby has begone learning a little German with Duolingo, just for fun, you know. And he told me than Germans were too strict about the polite form, that you should not use it with people you do not know, like shop owners and the like. Or people you are not quite familiar with.  So I went check some of your old posts, Regen. I remember your general feeling was that everyone, especially Harry, were more polite on the German translation than in the original.

Regenbogen:
Hi, Dina. Tell your hubby to have fun. No sarcastic meaning, just because I've been told, that German is difficult to learn, and I think they are correct. At some point it is better to learn by doing, meaning talking to people or if not possible reading stories.

About the polite form: it is difficult, but to be on the safe side he should just assume to use it with everyone except children. The other person will either respond the same way, then you continue to use it until you both agree to refer to "du" in the future. Or the other person tells you right away that if it is OK with you too they would rather use the familiar form.

It is not only polite to say "Sie" to another person, but it also shows you respect them as either your equal or your superior.

For example children should assume that every grown up is to be called "Sie" except their own parents or relatives.
Very young children mostly don't do that yet, and it is seen as cute, but they learn eventually.


So you say "Sie" to people older than you, and people higher ranking than you.
This is a must.
In this case it is possible to change to the familiar form, but only if the older or higher ranking person tells you so. Never the other way around. This would be presumptuous.

You say "Sie" to people you don't know just to be polite and to give them respect. Including younger people.

Younger people or teenagers:
(Except it it's your friend's child whom you have known since childhood)
Talking to a teenager you say "Sie" at first. Then it depends on the situation.
(more to situations below).

When nut sure:
If the other person introduces themselves with their last name you use the polite form.
If the they introduce with their first name it is safe to say "du".
In thr second case: If you are the one who doesn't want to use the familiar form in this case, it is within your rights to tell the person, thanks but I'd rather use " Sie".

Situations:

# just meeting someone for example in the bus.
You would usually use "Sie" with a person you don't know, especially if it is a chance meeting and you don't intend to meet again on purpose.

# Example: people sharing a hobby and meeting in a group.
Someone would bring it up, like: I would propose that we all say "du" as we will be together for a long time. Does anyone not agree. And if there should be someone not agreeing everyone else would use the polite form for him or her but not to each other. It's about personal preferences that should be respected.
 
#meeting one of the Weird People in real life. ;D
I would totally consider you to be addressed with the familiar form, not because I don't respect you, but because you feel so familiar by now.

# following example: me meeting Dina's hubby.
Hubby could say "du" to me, even if we don't know each other, because Dina and I are familiar. Of course it would be nice, if he told me who he is first, so I'll not be confused by a strange man jumping up and down from joy of meeting me, lol.

So meeting a friend's partner in life, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, you would use the familiar form.


...
Oops! This was more text than expected. Sorry for that, lol.

@Dina. If your hubby has any questions, feel free to ask me per private message. I'll try to help, if I can. 
I am still learning Spanish. It's almost a year now. Duolingo doesn't do a lot if grammar exercises. I think I will look for a grammar book or something. A small list of regular and irregular verbs and their forms.
And I have a book with children's stories in Spanish on my kindle, because I hope they might be not so difficult to read someday. 

Regenbogen:
Yay, it's me again. I just decided to start a new post, because the last one was so long (sorry again) and this doesn't really have to do with the topic.

I'm just being curious.
I noticed, Duolingo seems to like apples, lol. Almost every language I started introduced apples as one of their first fruit. Except Klingon. Maybe Klingons don't eat fruit, and possibly there just are no apples because they are native to earth. Or it could be, that they are not important, because there is no use for them in combat, lol. Or it could be, because I didn't continue. Maybe the next lesson would have had apples.

@Dina: Are there apples in the first German lessons?

Dina:
Hello Regen!
Sorry it took me long to answer! My work keeps being difficult and I was just not in the mood to come here.

It is so interesting all what you said about German! Thanks for the offering about German. Hubby says Apples are not in the first lesson, which is wine, milk, water, coffee and bread. He is in unit 2 and no apples, but there are oranges. Instead, apples are in the first lesson of Irish, which he had been spying a little too.

If you have any questions about Spanish you can ask me (PM if you like) but hubby also told me that if you want you can add him as your friend in duolingo and ask him for any doubts. Up to you, of course.

If you can, tell me a couple of names of the children stories of your book in Spanish. I am curious.

I totally would expect you all to use the familiar forms if we were talking in Spanish. The lack of that difference in English is so complicated to translate! If I was reading a book written in Spanish, there is probably a point with one character would suggest the other to drop the formal ways, or the character would begin speaking in a familiar form and the reactions of the other character, or their own inner thoughts, would be interesting. It could be a significant thing. But when translating English, how to do it? The characters could not address the thing themselves! I suppose that is why your translators have Harry being polite with everyone.

In other topics, my boss went to my job yesterday for the first time since the pandemics. He have been in France from april  to july. I have seen him at the entrance of his building near the end of this March for the first time since February 2020 because he had to sign some papers. Then he went to do a temporal exchange in France. And since he came back he could not come because he was isolated due to his wife having COVID. She is also a transplanted person, so they take a lot of care and my boss tries to stay at home as much as he can. Of course, we talked by Zoom and other ways, but it was nice to see him. He brought some French chocolates and I was pleased to see he is still ok with washing his own cup after we all shared a coffee (I did and serve the coffee).
We miss the mate drink, but we are not there yet. I do not know if I told you about the mate drink, which is a very Argentinian thing, also super popular in Uruguay and a little less in Paraguay and Brazil. As it is a shared drink, is not suitable for pandemic times.

Fcrate:
Hello people! It's been a while, but I've been busy, and all my free time is taken up by watching the government contractors who are installing the sewer system in our village like a hawk. They keep working recklessly and ruining a lot of things. They even destroyed 4 of the trees that I placed around the perimeter of the farm (1 lemon, 2 pomegranates and one citrus). I guess with no government supervision, the contractors can do what they like. I hate it when people destroy trees, even though I know we're in the country side and there is a lot of green, I always get a feeling of loss when someone pulls down a tree.

--- Quote from: Regenbogen on August 30, 2022, 10:48:57 AM ---I sort of redecorated our living room.

--- End quote ---
Words every man dreads to hear. :D
Also congratulation on your daughter's first solo excursion into the city. Don't worry about her missing a couple of stops. I used to do that all the time (still happens sometimes) but mostly because I was reading something, or inventing a different story arc for something I've read (if I didn't have a book with me).
@Dina: Sorry about your troubles, I hope your work in the lab goes smoothly from now on. And may your computer live to be 30 years old, become a working relic and take up lots of space in your cabinet because you don't have the heart to throw it away, and too lazy to sell it as scrap.

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