Originally Posted by
Tanya934
Can someone kindly advise me whether i should say "Guten Tag" or "Gruss Gott" when greeting someone formally in the Black Forest region. In Bayern i have always used the latter and as a teenager, the former in The Black Forest.
In addition, i am seeing an old school friend for the 1st time in 14 years. Do i use "du" or "sie" as a form of address now that we are both in our 40's?
I'll be interested in the answers you receive. In my experience, the Germans are becoming less formal than in the past. I have a business colleague who I'll call Gunther Schmidt.
When I first began to work with him he ALWAYS signed corrrespondence and e-mails "Herr Dr. Schmidt". A few years ago he switched to "Gunther" one day, and never changed back, so I took the cue and started to address him as "Gunther". I thought it was because of some subtle change in our relationship.
I was VERY surprised when visiting him at his office to discover that the staff was ALSO now calling him "Gunther", when he had always been addressed much more formally in the past.
I asked, and he sort of shrugged and said "times change."