"automatically: penfairy  Throwback to the time my poor German teacher had to  explain the concept of formal and informal pronouns to a  class full of Australians and everyone was scandalised and  loudly complained ""why can't I treat everyone the same?"" ""  don't want to be a Sie!"" ""but being friendly is respectful!  ""wouldn't using du' just show I like them?"" until one guy  conceded ""I suppose maybe l'd use Sie with someone like the  prime minister, if he weren't such a cunt"" and my teacher  ended up with her head in her hands saying ""you are all  banned from using du until I can trust you  Cdeflare  God help Japanese teachers in Australia.  languageoclock  if this isnt an accurate representation of australia idk what is  derinthemadscientist  Australia's reverse-formality respect culture is fascinating. We  don't even really think about it until we try to communicate or  learn about another culture and the rules that are pretty  standard for most of the world just feel so wrong. I went to  America this one time and I kept automatically thinking that  strangers using 'sir' and 'ma'am' were sassing me.  Australians could not be trusted with a language with  ingrained tiers of formal address. The most formal forms  would immediately become synonyms for 'go fuck yourself  and if you weren't using the most informal version possible  within three sentences of meeting someone they'd take it to  mean you hated them.  hollowedskin  100% true.  the difference between ""scuse me"" and ""excuse me"" is a  fistfight  Source: penfairy  Stay awake at FUNSubstance.com AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE OUI OUI OUI"