Episode 10: How to address people in Germany

<p><strong>Dear Madam, how do I address people in Germany?</strong></p> <ul> <li>Sehr geehrte/r vs. Liebe/r</li> <li>Sir/Madam or Damen und Herren?</li> <li>Hallo or Hi?</li> <li>Du or Sie?</li> <li>Firstname? Lastname?</li> </ul> <p>Do you also find the issue of addressing people correctly in Germany really confusing?</p> <p>Believe me - you are not alone in this!</p> <p>With businesses operating globally and increased global networking through social media, even Germans are not sure anymore how to address people in Germany. On LinkedIn, you will often find posts and discussions initiated by German business people, where they ask their network about their opinion wether to address strangers on LinkedIn with "Du" or "Sie" or in which style it is appropriate to create their posts.</p> <p>Even the hashtag #gerneperdu was created to indicate that people welcome being addressed in the less formal manner. It can be used in posts and message or e-mail signatures.</p> <p>So if native German speakers are not entirely sure anymore how to address people in their own language, how on earth are international people supposed to know?</p> <p>I have been asked to create a Podcast Episode about this for weeks, but have been putting it off so far. Even for me it was difficult to come up with some helpful suggestions or even rules for this.</p> <p>Nevertheless, I feel I have succeeded in this new Episode of the Empower to Grow Career Podcast, to guide you with personal advise and some general tips.</p> <p>You will learn:</p> <ul> <li>A very simple applicable rule &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;to instantly know how to address someone</li> <li>Some differences about formal &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and informal writing</li> <li>How to transfer this to your &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;cover letters and LinkedIn networking strategy</li> </ul> <p>And of course, I will also share how I prefer to be addressed.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Please let me know if you found this advise helpful or if there is anything more that you