Learn how to talk about an enigma
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Upper intermediate, season 1, Lesson 13. Cute German Actors Solving An Enigma. |
| Judith: Hello everyone. I am Judith and welcome to germanpod101.com |
| Chuck: With us, you will learn to speak German with fun and effective lessons. |
| Judith: We also provide you with cultural insights |
| Chuck: And tips you won’t find in a textbook. In this lesson, you learn how to talk about a puzzle or enigma in German. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at a German office. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Frank and Mrs. [Bayer]. |
| Judith: The speakers are colleagues. Therefore they will be speaking formal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jones: Frau Bayer! |
| Bayer: Ja? |
| Jones: Es gibt Neuigkeiten! |
| Bayer: Neuigkeiten worüber? |
| Jones: Na über den Betriebsausflug! |
| Bayer: Oh! Das will ich natürlich hören! |
| Jones: Ich habe eben Frau Schilling am Kopierer getroffen und sie einfach gefragt, ob sie etwas über den Ausflug wisse…. |
| Bayer: Oh, nein! Sie haben ihr doch nicht gesagt, dass ich Ihnen davon erzählt habe? |
| Jones: Nein, natürlich nicht! Ich habe ihr gesagt, dass es mein erster Betriebsausflug ist und ich deswegen neugierig sei…. |
| Bayer: Ah super….Und was hat Frau Schilling erzählt? |
| Jones: Sie sagte mir, Herr Müller habe schon die Karten besorgt und er werde uns heute Abend oder morgen im Laufe des Tages das Ziel des Ausflugs verkünden…. |
| Bayer: Oh! Und hat sie noch etwas dazu gesagt, wohin wir gehen? |
| Jones: Nein. Sie meinte, sie habe schon zu viel erzählt und werde nicht mehr dazu sagen. |
| Bayer: Schade! |
| Jones: Ja… Ich möchte gerne wissen, was es ist…. |
| Bayer: Ja, ich überlege auch schon die ganze Zeit, was die Schlümpfe wohl damit zu tun haben. |
| Jones: Ja, die Schlümpfe gehen mir auch nicht aus dem Kopf… Ich kann mich gar nicht richtig konzentrieren. |
| Bayer: Haha, wir haben nur Schlümpfe im Kopf! |
| Jones: Mrs. Bayer! |
| Bayer: Yes? |
| Jones: I have news! |
| Bayer: About what? |
| Jones: About the company outing! |
| Bayer: Oh! I'd certainly like to hear it! |
| Jones: I just ran into Mrs. Schilling at the photocopier, and I asked her if she knew anything about the outing... |
| Bayer: Oh no! You didn't tell her that I told you anything about that, did you? |
| Jones: No, of course not. I told her that it's my first company outing, and therefore I was curious. |
| Bayer: Ah, great. And what did Mrs. Schilling tell you? |
| Jones: She told me that Mr. Müller had already acquired the tickets and he would announce the destination this evening, or tomorrow during the day. |
| Bayer: Oh! and did she say anything further about where we're going? |
| Jones: No. She figured she had already said too much and wouldn't have anything else to add. |
| Bayer: That's too bad! |
| Jones: Yeah, I would like to know what it is... |
| Bayer: Yes, I've been thinking the whole time about what the Smurfs have to do with it. |
| Jones: Yeah, the Smurfs have been on my mind too...I can't concentrate properly at all. |
| Bayer: Haha, we're Smurf-obsessed! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: All right. So while we already covered German TV, how about German actors? |
| Chuck: But these verbs aren’t German actors. |
| Judith: No but they are read by German actors. |
| Chuck: Voice actors you mean? |
| Judith: Yeah. |
| Chuck: While Germany has its share of great and good looking actors, but not many are known outside of Germany. |
| Judith: Okay let’s maybe look at some of that you may have heard of. For example [Marlene Dietrich]. This is the earliest German actress to make it abroad and one of the American film institute’s best actresses of all times. She started in the blue angel. |
| Chuck: And then you can’t miss [Til Schweiger]. |
| Judith: Yeah. |
| Chuck: I guess you’d say he was a good looking male German actor. Americans mostly know him through his role in Lara Croft Tomb Raider but he really appeared in lots of contemporary German movies. I’d say to the point that he might ask if he’s starred in all of them. |
| Judith: Umm there is also Moritz Bleibtreu who is also starring in lots of the German movies. He is best known for his role in Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. |
| Chuck: I believe he was also in Run Lola Run, wasn’t he? |
| Judith: I believe so and there is Claudia Schiffer. It’s a German top model who started in Richie Rich. |
| Chuck: She was actually born in Rheinberg just a few kilometers from where Judith was born. |
| Judith: There are more awesome German actors of course but not ones that are known in the states. Just a scuff of them through German movies. |
| Chuck: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: [Neuigkeit]. |
| Chuck: Piece of news. |
| Judith: [Neuigkeit, die]. And the plural is [Neuigkeiten]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [worüber]. |
| Chuck: About what. |
| Judith: [worüber]. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: [Wetter]. |
| Chuck: Weather |
| Judith: [Wetter, das]. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: [besorgen]. |
| Chuck: To obtain or procure. |
| Judith: [besorgen]. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: [Lauf]. |
| Chuck: Run, or a course. |
| Judith: [Lauf, der] and the plural is [Läufe]. |
| Chuck: Next |
| Judith: [Ziel]. |
| Chuck: Destination, goal or target. |
| Judith: [Ziel, das] And the plural is [Ziele]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [verkünden]. |
| Chuck: To announce or proclaim. |
| Judith: [verkünden]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [konzentrieren]. |
| Chuck: To concentrate. |
| Judith: [konzentrieren]. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Chuck: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Judith: The first phrase is [Im Laufe des Tages]. |
| Chuck: So it’s that expression meaning in the course of the day. |
| Judith: [Im Laufe des Tages]. You see it’s a set expression because the E at the end of the [Laufe] would not normally be used. If it was a regular German word, you say [Im Lauf] like he dropped something [im Lauf] while running but [im Laufe des Tages]. Then the next thing I want to look at [die ganze Zeit]. |
| Chuck: All this time. |
| Judith: Yeah literally the whole time but [die ganze Zeit] all this time. And there is a funny phrase we saw [Die Schlümpfe gehen mir nicht aus dem Kopf]. |
| Chuck: The smurfs not leaving my head or I can’t get this smurfs out of my head. So I can’t stop thinking about these verbs. |
| Judith: And similarly, there is an expression [nur] something [im Kopf haben]. |
| Chuck: To always think about this or always do this. For example, I’d say it’s pretty common to say [Dieser Junge hat nur Flausen im Kopf] this boy has nothing but crazy ideas. |
| Judith: And in the dialogue we saw [nur Schlümpfe im Kopf haben] to always think about [smurfs or always, well not always [smurfs] but you get the idea. It can mean both. |
| Chuck: The focus of this lesson is the usage of conjunctive forms. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: And I will let you know how to form the conjunctive 2 and the conjunctive 1 and even the form with [würde]. Let’s talk about when to use each. |
| Chuck: The conjunctive is most often used in reported speech. That is when someone is telling what someone else has said. |
| Judith: And according to typical grammar rules and what a German teacher will tell you, you are supposed to first try the conjunctive 1. However the conjunctive 1 is very likely to be the same as the present tense form and if they are not distinguishable, then you are supposed to use the conjunctive 2. The conjunctive 2 is also preferred when you yourself want to distance yourself from what has been said. For example, if you don’t believe it. |
| Chuck: Do you have an example of that? |
| Judith: Yeah let’s say its 8 PM and Peter is calling Claudia. He says [Es tut mir leid. Ich bin spät dran, aber ich komme definitiv noch]. Okay so he is saying he is definitely coming tonight but at 9 PM there is Mike asking Claudia whether Peter is still going to come. So Claudia says [Ja, er sagte, dass er heute Abenddefinitiv noch komme] and [komme] is the conjunctive 1 because Claudia still believes so but then at 10 PM there is Andy asking Claudia if Peter is still going to come and Claudia says, [Ich weiß nicht. Er sagte zwar, dass er definitiv noch käme, aber das war vor zwei Stunden]. So he said that he would come but it was two hours ago. So [käme] expresses the doubt, the conjunctive 2. |
| Chuck: When Claudia was first asked, she used the conjunctive 1. |
| Judith: [Er sagte, er komme noch]. |
| Chuck: But an hour later, she is not convinced anymore and uses conjunctive 2. |
| Judith: [Er sagte, er käme noch]. In colloquial spoken German, [Er sagte, dass er definitiv noch kommen würde] is commonly heard as well. |
Outro |
| Chuck: So in case of doubt, you can fall back on the word forms. Just try to avoid them in writing and you might want to avoid them when talking to a strict definitive of the German language because some German teachers ears hurt when they hear that. That just about does it for today. Okay some of our listeners already know about the most powerful tool in germanpod101.com |
| Judith: Line by line audio. |
| Chuck: The perfect tool for rapidly improving listening comprehension. |
| Judith: By listening to lines of the conversation again and again. |
| Chuck: Listen till every word and syllable becomes clear. |
| Judith: Listen to the dialogue in bite size sentences. |
| Chuck: And understand it all. |
| Judith: Try the line by line audio at germanpod101.com. |
| Chuck: Leave us a comment while you are there. See you later. |
| Judith: [Bis nächstes Mal]. |
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