One of the weirdest things for Americans learning German is to know how to say “you.” Like a number of languages, German has a formal and informal way of saying you, i.e. the informal “du”, and the Formal “Sie.” Americans have an aversion to acknowledging social distinctions, which spills into you we think about those we talk with.
I started learning German in 1987 after marrying a German. It has been a slow haul for my German learning—mostly in the company of family, and friends of my wife. …