Josquin wrote:tastyonions wrote:I would like to know the German equivalent of "On n'a pas élevé les cochons ensemble!"
I'm afraid that's quite an intranslatable idiom that has no equivalent in German. If someone felt indignated by being called "du", they would probably just say something like: "So gut kennen wir uns nun auch nicht."
A good one, thanks!
We have this in Czech, just with a small modification. "My jsme spolu krávy nepásli!" We weren't herding the cows together. Curious how many things like that are common across languages. I'd say this is likely to change. It is already a distant idea now. In a few decades, we will probably say equivalents of "We weren't playing WoW together."
It is very true the "du" can be very offensive in such a context (just like "tu" in French, "ty" in Czech, and surely others. These three languages are very similar in the formal/informal you usage). It is actually a very common and annoying sign of disrespect and it is well known as a basic tool of racists, sexists, ageists, and others, such as teachers at high school (usually the good ones use the polite form only, and thus encourage people to mutual respect). I still find it interesting, how do the anglophones deal with learning this. Some people are tolerant to foreigners messing this up, some feel offended (well, I think those living in the country for a decade should learn the langauge and basic social norms too). But do the native English speakers feel about this the same way at the receiving end, after learning of it? Do you take it more like a rational info "this person is disrespectful towards me" or does it offend you emotionally too?
Based on my experience and knowledge, I wonder why did Systematiker get the "du" treatment. Just the accent seems like a weird "reason". But people will probably never stop surprising me.
Edit: corrected a mistake so stupid I've just remembered making it two hours ago.