Re: THEORY: The fourth person

Andreas Johansson wrote:

>Quoting Carsten Becker <post@...>:
>
>
>
>>While reading the mails that I wanted to read but couldn't manage to
>>read up to now ...
>>
>>From: "Henrik Theiling" <theiling@ABSINT.COM <mailto:theiling@...>>
>>Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2004 2:52 AM
>>Subject: Re: THEORY: The fourth person
>>
>>[snip]
>>
>> > Dutch 'men' is also replaced by 'jou'/'je' in most circumstances (like
>> > English) and German 'man' is only a bit behind im time: I'm probably
>> > part of the last generation to use 'man' -- modern usage is 'Du' as
>> > well.  I hate it, but I probably can't stop 'Du' from being misused in
>> > such a way.
>> >
>> > **Henrik
>>
>>Well, everyone around me also uses "man", and I'm about 15 years younger
>>than you (I guess). I could almost hate people for saying "du" instead
>>of "man". It hurts my grammatical sense and my ears as well. I also find
>>this use of "du" kind of unfriendly towards adults you're not familar
>>with or people you've respect of (like teachers e.g.), who should be
>>definitely referred to as "Sie".
>>
>>
>
>Among the German students I meet - twenty-somethings, pretty much all of them -
>both _du_ and _man_ are used, but _man_ appears to be the commoner one.
>
>Personally I use them interchangeably in speech, but stick to _man_ in writing.
>
>
>
Well, as a non-native speaker, I've only been taught 'man', with no
mention of 'du' being allowed.  Is this an anglicism, or an independant
development?