#ah yes the intricate rituals of German pronouns

[salvadorbonaparte]

German has two levels of formality mostly expressed by pronouns and verbs. The textbook I teach German with exclusively uses formal language to refer to the students. However, I'm in my mid 20s and most of my students are just a few years younger than me. As the teacher I then had the right to "offer" informal language to them and luckily they were okay with that.