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From: kmo@ptsfa.UUCP (Ken Olsen)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Don't mention it
Message-ID: <393@ptsfa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Dec-84 18:04:03 EST
Article-I.D.: ptsfa.393
Posted: Fri Dec  7 18:04:03 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Dec-84 02:12:18 EST
References: <11800001@acf4.UUCP> <17428@lanl.ARPA>
Organization: Pacific Bell, San Francisco
Lines: 18

> > When Alan Turing was in the U.S. in the late thirties he wrote home
> > complaining of Americans' speech habits.  Among the things that annoyed
> > him was the reply "you're welcome" to "thank you."
> > What was he used to hearing instead?
> 
> He was probably used to some variation on 'it was nothing' or 'don't 
> mention it' (I don't remember the appropriate response in german). 
> I recall a discussion about 'you're welcome' in a german class though.
> It appears that it sounds egotistical or pompous to non-americans.  I
> always thought 'it was nothing' sounded a bit pompous, but it's all 
> a matter of upbringing I guess.

			(umlaut)
			   ^
Auf Deutsch:	"Danke [schon]." . . . . . ."Bitte [sehr]."

Ken Olsen
{ihnp4,ucbvax,cbosgd,decwrl,amd70,fortune,zehntel}!dual!ptsfa!kmo