German sie vs Sie

[SGP]

Update:
I chatted with him, and he admitted that he made a mistake. Indeed, the polite/formal Sie should be capitalized...as everyone but him knew...

In some cities, people may tend to use "du" sooner than in others. Hamburg feels to me like one of those "du"-focused places. But there is more to it. In that city, anyone could even be addressed by saying "yo, Diggah, was geht'n?". In case you would be looking for another language puzzle any day, you just might want to ask him what Diggah really means... then you could ask some others, then compare their answers...

[Kat]

Update:
I chatted with him, and he admitted that he made a mistake. Indeed, the polite/formal Sie should be capitalized...as everyone but him knew...

Don't be too hard on him , it's a very common mistake that lots of German natives make from time to time.
Pretty much like "its/it's" or "they're/their" in English.

"Dass/das" is something else that's often used incorrectly. And don't get me started on wrong imperatives -- they are all over the Internet.

[Theodisce]

It's really surprising to me that many English language series dubbed into German (for example "The Walking Dead") would have characters addressing people trying to kill them with the formal "Sie" in some extremely uncomfortable situations. I guess I would have switched to du at some point in the course of a 30 minutes long combat for my life. This is of course related to the original language. I'm curious how German native speakers see this.

[Edit.]

What really used to puzzle me were people addressing me with my first name while employing the formal "Sie". (a randomised example: "Karl, wollen Sie mitkommen?")

[Kraut]

What really used to puzzle me were people addressing me with my first name while employing the formal "Sie". (a randomised example: "Karl, wollen Sie mitkommen?")

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_Sie

[SGP]

It's really surprising to me that many English language series dubbed into German (for example "The Walking Dead") would have characters addressing people trying to kill them with the formal "Sie" in some extremely uncomfortable situations. I guess I would have switched to du at some point in the course of a 30 minutes long combat for my life. This is of course related to the original language. I'm curious how German native speakers see this.

It depends. Some might address them as "Sie" because they want keep their distance. Others might do so because of hoping that "their politeness" would cause a Last Minute Killing Attempt Stop (...). And in the case of others, again, it simply would be tragikomisch. Like desperately following their personal robotic mindset program, even if they are about to be killed.

[Edit.]

What really used to puzzle me were people addressing me with my first name while employing the formal "Sie". (a randomised example: "Karl, wollen Sie mitkommen?")

That isn't that unusual nowadays. Because of, e.g., Jeff Bezos. Y'know...the Amazon guy. AMZN addresses its German-speaking customers just like that. Also, it started to be a bit more common because of other reasons, some related to certain regions. One of those reasons is the Amerikanisierung that happens in "some" places of the German-speaking world, to some extent. Because they say "[First name], you" in English, so "it simply gotta be [Vorname], Sie" in German .

[AML]

Update:
I chatted with him, and he admitted that he made a mistake. Indeed, the polite/formal Sie should be capitalized...as everyone but him knew...

Don't be too hard on him , it's a very common mistake that lots of German natives make from time to time.
Pretty much like "its/it's" or "they're/their" in English.

"Dass/das" is something else that's often used incorrectly. And don't get me started on wrong imperatives -- they are all over the Internet.

I wasn't hard on him, but I was REALLY surprised. He's an educated guy with a Master's degree in education, AND I directly asked him about it and he confirmed the wrong approach. It was that combination of events that made this mildly shocking to me.

It's like your example of you're/your for an educated native English speaker. They might make a few mistakes, but I would expect them to realize their mistake once directly asked about it, as in: "Oh right! Woops! I can't believe I made that mistake. Of course, it should be 'you're' not 'your'." And not: "No, 'your' is definitely the contraction for 'you are'.", which is essentially what my friend did. Shocking, I say! SHOCKING!!

[Kat]

It's really surprising to me that many English language series dubbed into German (for example "The Walking Dead") would have characters addressing people trying to kill them with the formal "Sie" in some extremely uncomfortable situations.

I've never really paid attention to this, so I guess it didn't strike me as weird -- otherwise I would have noticed it. Du/Sie is not only about politeness, it's also about creating familiarity or distance and you probably don't want your mortal enemy to be your best friend.

Dubbing is always a bit tricky because you have to find a point at which two characters become familiar enough with each other to switch from "Sie" zu to "du". Since this is, of course, not addressed in the English original, you have to smuggle such a moment in somehow.

You also have a formal and an informal form of address in Polish, don't you? Im curious, since you are surprised by German dubbing practises, how do they handle this issue in Poland?

What really used to puzzle me were people addressing me with my first name while employing the formal "Sie". (a randomised example: "Karl, wollen Sie mitkommen?")

I don't encounter this much in real life. Some of our teachers used to do it (in the upper grades) to find a middle ground between a too formal/too informal form of addresss. Nowadays I mainly associate it with older people but there could be regional differences that I'm not aware of.

Lately quite a few companies have switch to adressing their customers with "du" and I really don't like that. I've always viewed it as an attempt to copy Ikea who started this trend. While it works for Ikea because they are selling the "du" as part of their whole Scandinavian image, I resent it when other companies do it. It feels impolite, like they are not taking you serious as a customer. They are trying to create a fake familiarity that makes me uncomfortable.

Edited: Typo

[Theodisce]

It's really surprising to me that many English language series dubbed into German (for example "The Walking Dead") would have characters addressing people trying to kill them with the formal "Sie" in some extremely uncomfortable situations.

I've never really paid attention to this, so I guess it didn't strike me as weird -- otherwise I would have noticed it. Du/Sie is not only about politeness, it's also about creating familiarity or distance and you probably don't want your mortal enemy to be your best friend.

Dubbing is always a bit tricky because you have to find a point at which two characters become familiar enough with each other to switch from "Sie" zu "du". Since this is, of course, not addressed in the English original, you have to smuggle such a moment in somehow.

You also have a formal and an informal form of address in Polish, don't you? Im curious, since you are surprised by German dubbing practises, how do they handle this issue in Poland?

Creating distance, sure. I guess it makes a lot of sense in some situations. What strikes me are more the instances where, for example, two guys would lay on the ground trying to stab each other to death while employing "Sie". I guess at that point I would have switched to "du" . So what strikes me is this kind of situation rather than the whole concept. That brings me to your question about the way it is handled in Polish to which I really have no answer, since I hadn't been watching TV (be it Polish or foreign) since 2008 or so. Then I would limit my Polish content to a bare minimum and it was only relatively recently that I have been reconverted to watching movies and series to make my language learning more effective. So I really have no idea how those issues are addressed in Polish, apart from the fact that they would normally use the voice-over translation (a horrible solution you only get accustomed to by massive exposure).

[SGP]

It's really surprising to me that many English language series dubbed into German (for example "The Walking Dead") would have characters addressing people trying to kill them with the formal "Sie" in some extremely uncomfortable situations.

I've never really paid attention to this, so I guess it didn't strike me as weird -- otherwise I would have noticed it. Du/Sie is not only about politeness, it's also about creating familiarity or distance and you probably don't want your mortal enemy to be your best friend.

Just as Kat said, calling some "du" is also about removing (some) distance (of some kind). As for "how much distance would be removed, and what kind of distance?", a whole book could be written on that subject. #seriously

Lately quite a few companies have switch to adressing their customers with "du" and I really don't like that. I've always viewed it as an attempt to copy Ikea who started this trend. While it works for Ikea because they are selling the "du" as part of their whole Scandinavian image, I resent it when other companies do it. It feels impolite, like they are not taking you serious as a customer. They are trying to create a fake familiarity that makes me uncomfortable.

If I was a Big Biz Ad Advisor, I just might struggle a lot with that matter. Because the Duzen can contribute to the overall sales a lot (if it works), but the same applies to the Siezen as well. And they are mutually exclusive. Because obviously, you can't call someone "du" and "Sie" at the same time. A certain shopkeeper immediately switched to the "du" when talking to me (and I really don't mind), but then that person started to call me "Sie" once again, something like a minute later. So I said, "Du hast bereits zum Du gewechselt". The answer? "Entschuldigung"...

And if Dieter Bohlen [*] would be running a shop, he would Duz all of his customers.

Side-note only: To Duz is a reverse Denglisch verb, meaning to call someone "du". It is derived from its German counterpart "jemanden duzen". #TheSchelmStrikesBack

[*] "Der Pop-Titan". A very famous/infamous/whatever German "music person". He once got sued because of Duzing a policeman. Some consider this as offensive. Then the judge said "not guilty", because Dieter Does Duz Die Leute [**]. He addresses everyone with "du", no matter if he knows them or not.

[**] Leute: people.

[SGP]

Creating distance, sure. I guess it makes a lot of sense in some situations. What strikes me are more the instances where, for example, two guys would lay on the ground trying to stab each other to death while employing "Sie". I guess at that point I would have switched to "du" . So what strikes me is this kind of situation rather than the whole concept.

If you ask three different persons about "Du vs. Sie" in detail on two different days or in two different situations, you could get up to six responses in total.

In the past, I paid some visits to a particular Baumarkt. Something like a hardware / home improvement / DIY store. More than one person simply called me "Sie". Another one immediately switched to the "du", but when I asked him what this is about, he denied having done so. And yet another person called me "du" from the very beginning. At this time, I wasn't too familiar either with that Baumarkt Mentality of (sometimes) saying "du" in the very first conversation even. It is very uncommon in a great multitude of (other) shops. So I somehow objected. Then he told me in a rather rude way that it simply is being done like this here, period. Whatever. But what I am trying to say is that it is very difficult (if not impossible) to come up with a "du vs. Sie" formula that everyone agrees on. Some may be offended because of not being "gesiezt, because this is simply way too impolite and invasive", while others may be offended because of "the unnecessary and artificial distance by not being geduzt".