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| Intonation and tone can make a great difference as in any language. My big mistake was putting emphasis on the "Sie" to make sure i was being polite. That is until it was pointed out to me by a native speaker, that the way i said "Sie" to a shop assistant sounded haughty and demanding. Needless to say I've softened my Sie's since. | |
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Thanks for the tip
. I will try to avoid the same trap.
I ask because japanese, for e.g., is not a tonal language, and intonation is only significant to a minimal degree. Also with many of the shop sales staff I´ve encountered being quite curt with short, flat intonation (and no smile), I thought it was perhaps standard and acceptably polite.
Would you say females are more "sing songy" and polite with their intonation than males? Having only been here for a short time I haven't picked up what's general yet...
...And getting quality talk time with recently introduced swiss people, let alone a wide range of them) is not the easiest thing
.