German Culture Thread

Yep. Fräulein ist just a very old-fashioned term at this point - people simply stopped using it.

Fräulein is just a very condescending word nowadays...it's along the same line of a teen or a young boy being called "boy!!!" instead of his name.

Wait, so to Germans today, it became impolite to differentiate between single and married women?

Fräulein is - in its structure - a diminutive of Frau (woman). If you're asking if using a diminutive towards unmarried women is impolite today, then yes, it is.

edited 29th Aug '17 10:24:32 AM by DrunkenNordmann

So, what do Germans say now? Is it just Frau?

Yes. It's not like someone's marital status actually has any relevance in formal conversation anyway.

edited 29th Aug '17 10:25:20 AM by DrunkenNordmann

Yes. And why not? We don't have a word to indicate a man is married either.

Nowadays many woman even keep their surname after marriage.

It shouldn't be viewed as odd. There's a similar problem in English (although German is way ahead on this score), with 'Miss' and 'Mrs' being viewed as intrusive and gender-unequal (given that 'Mr.' applies to both married and unmarried men). That's why the term 'Ms' has become popular. 'Miss' and 'Mrs' are starting to die out.

edited 29th Aug '17 2:03:23 PM by Wyldchyld

Are there any particular trends, habits or tendencies in German culture (including quirks in the German language) that could help in constructing pet names? I'm trying to figure out a plausible cutesy nickname that Asuka Langley Soryu's mother (both characters are Japanese-descended German citizens whose first language is German) could use when talking to said daughter during her early childhood; I was thinking of basing it on Asuka's most outsanding character traits, namely that she's a redhead with a feisty personality and has solar associations (heck, I wouldn't be surprised if "sunny" was an adequate descriptor for little Asuka's personality prior to her going through the less happy part of her childhood).

There is a tendency to add the diminutive...meaning adding a "-chen".

On other German culture news...have I ever mentioned how much we like the Biathlon? And how much fun it is to see our team luge?

edited 15th Feb '18 5:43:19 AM by Swanpride

Speak for yourself, it's not exactly universal...

Countries whose athletes win internationally at a sport tend to like that sport. Positive feedback loop.

OK, so "Rötchen" is one possible pet name to us. Incidentally, would the correct diminutive form of Sonne ("Sun") using -chen be Sönnchen? That's what the usage notes on Wiktionary say, at least.

"Mein kleiner Sonnenschein" (my little sunshine) is also something parents call their daughters from time to time. There is also the suffix -lein as alternative for -chen, though that doesn't really work with "Rot" or "Sonne".

In Low German there is also -ken which could become "Rötken" and "Sönneken". Though I think we don't know which part of Germany Asuka lived in, that woould only fit if she came from North Germany.

edited 15th Feb '18 6:19:52 AM by Kiefen

Sönnchen works....using a colour in it sounds weird.

And it is not just the positive feedback. I don't really care about most of the ski sports, but Biathlon is always exciting because you can look at the shootings and get an idea how well someone does. It also makes the competition exciting...in a lot of sports, it is pretty much clear who will win, but in Biathlon an upset is always possible. So far only half of the competitions have been won by the most likely candidate.

How about "Mein kleiner roter Sonnenschein" (My little red sunshine)?

Stranger than the English equivalent "Little Red"?

Thanks for the correction.

edited 15th Feb '18 7:56:24 AM by MarqFJA

Gets a bit clunky, and it's 'roter'.

Too long...Germans are prone to create neverending words, but not to using whole sentences just for a nick name.

... Is it really that long? It doesn't seem much different from "My little red sunshine" in English.

It has more syllables and doesn't quite go off the tongue the way the english phrasing does, since Germans have the tendency to finish the words properly, at least when they speak High German. And English speakers are used to string words together to describe something...Germans aren't, they tend to connect the words to one big word if possible. Or make up a new word.

edited 15th Feb '18 10:48:46 AM by Swanpride

That's clunky for English pet names. English pet names tend to be short otherwise they're weird. Although... I find pet names weird and a littler Americanised, so perhaps I'm not the best judge.

Fat rat stuck in manhole rescued by firefighters in Germany

What really gets me is why the Guardian decided this was frontpage worthy.

I am pretty sure I've seen such things in the news in Germany before...

This article amuses me greatly.

That Germany would report on it, okay, but that the Guardian of all the news which come out of Germany decided that the rat was the most newsworthy one is kind of a head scratcher.

And now they added a video report. Honestly?

Edited by Swanpride on Feb 27th 2019 at 4:52:33 AM