Students, and learners of language in general, are aware of structural differences between languages such as English and German. Pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary are the usual levels of language which students engage with and they learn about the specific characteristics of these in the foreign language, here English. But what about the rules which govern language use? This is the area of pragmatics which has become a very vibrant research field in recent years. It is time for this to take its rightful place in the curricula for English in schools and universities. The present talk will first offer a brief introduction to pragmatics and then examine in detail how this level of language is manifested in English and German highlighting the differences between the two languages with reference to terms of address and politeness in language.