Learn how to greet a stranger in German by listening to a conversation between two people on the street
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Absolute Beginner Season 2, Lesson 1. Geothe 2, Lederhosen 0. Hello, and welcome to GermanPod101.com, where we study modern German in a fun educational format. |
| Judith: So brush up on the German that you started learning long ago or start learning today. |
| Chuck: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson Judith. What are we talking about today? |
| Judith: In this lesson, you will learn how to talk to a random stranger in Germany. |
| Chuck: This conversation takes place in a German street. |
| Judith: The conversation is between Paul and Sabine. |
| Chuck: The speakers don’t know each other. Therefore, they’ll be speaking formal German. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Chuck: Entschuldigung |
| Judith: Ja? |
| Chuck: Ich suche die Goethe Schule. |
| Judith: Die Goethe Schule? |
| Chuck: Ja. |
| Judith: Ich suche die auch. |
| Chuck: Sie suchen die auch?? |
| Judith: Now slowly. |
| Chuck: Entschuldigung... |
| Judith: Ja? |
| Chuck: Ich suche die Goethe Schule. |
| Judith: Die Goethe Schule? |
| Chuck: Ja. |
| Judith: Ich suche die auch. |
| Chuck: Sie suchen die auch?? |
| Judith: Now, with the translation. |
| Judith: Entschuldigung... |
| Chuck: Excuse me. |
| Judith: Ja? |
| Chuck: Yes. |
| Judith: Ich suche die Goethe Schule. |
| Chuck: I’m looking for the Goethe School. |
| Judith: Die Goethe Schule? |
| Chuck: The Goethe School? |
| Judith: Ja. |
| Chuck: Yes. |
| Judith: Ich suche die auch. |
| Chuck: I’m looking for it also. |
| Judith: Sie suchen die auch?? |
| Chuck: You’re looking for it too? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Okay, time for some culture. Every lesson we will have a cultural point. And today, well, since we mentioned the Goethe School, I was thinking what do people associate with Germany. |
| Chuck: Rammstein! |
| Judith: Yes. Rammstein definitely, but Goethe also comes to mind. And yes, certain politicians over the past century, but apart from that on a general level, let’s see. |
| Chuck: Well, I’d say, beer comes to mind. |
| Judith: Yes, beer, and certain way of dressing like lederhosen Dirndl and concepts like being punctual, being hardworking, meticulous. |
| Chuck: Are those actually true though? |
| Judith: Yes. That’s the question. I’d say, well, about punctuality, I’d say Germans are pretty punctual and they expect you to be too as a matter of common courtesy. If you’re more than five minutes late, you should call them and apologize profusely. |
| Chuck: But working so hard, it’s not quite so, at least not being workaholics or overworking. German is one of the countries with the least amount of work hours per week. The maximum is less than 40 hours per week. But in addition, there’s a lot of public holidays. And of course you’re legally guaranteed four weeks of vacation. But I also noticed that even though they don’t over work so much as in putting a lot of overtime, they really work hard during their work hours. They joke that the foreigners work longer hours because they’re not working very hard during them. |
| Judith: It’s kind of what people do. If they can stop working immediately on upon Feierabend that’s the “end of the work day” Feierabend, then that shows that they are very efficient at working and it’s not necessary to do overtime. |
| Chuck: And how about drinking a lot of beer? |
| Judith: Yes. Germans do drink a lot of beer. Although the Czech drink even more but there are lots of Germans who drink a lot of beer, like six, seven bottles a night. Those people are influencing the statistics. Of course they are also some Germans who don’t like beer or prefer wine, but yes, statistics. |
| Chuck: I think, you know, my own answer for the wearing lederhosen part. |
| Judith: Yes. |
| Chuck: I don’t think I ever see myself on that or maybe like a special festival or something. |
| Judith: Yes. It’s very annoying for the average German. Only Bavarians or people in the south, you know, wear lederhosen. And even there, it’s only part of their folklore. It’s not something that everyone wears everyday. So that’s very annoying when I’m confronted with the stereotype like that. |
| Chuck: So every American wears a cowboy hat, right? |
| Judith: kind of like that. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall look at is? |
| Judith: Entschuldigung |
| Chuck: Apology or excuse me or I’m sorry. |
| Judith: Entschuldigung |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: ja |
| Chuck: Yes. |
| Judith: ja |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: ich |
| Chuck: I. |
| Judith: ich |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: suchen |
| Chuck: To search or look for. |
| Judith: suchen |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: der / die / das |
| Chuck: The, masculine, feminine and neuter. |
| Judith: der / die / das |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: Schule |
| Chuck: School. |
| Judith: Schule |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: auch |
| Chuck: Also or too. |
| Judith: auch |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: Sie |
| Chuck: You, formally. |
| Judith: Sie |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Chuck: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Judith: The first word we’ll look at is „Sie“ |
| Chuck: You, formally. |
| Judith: There is a notion of formality in German just like in French, Spanish, Italian and other languages. If you’re addressing somebody by their family name, then you should also call them „Sie“, and use the corresponding form of the verbs. |
| Chuck: If you’re addressing someone by their first name, you’ll usually use another pronoun called „du“. The formal address is the default in German, unless you’re talking to children or people who explicitly ask you to switch to an informal address. As a foreigner you do well to address everybody as „Sie“ initially. |
| Judith: We’ll cover this in more detail later. And the other thing I wanted to talk about is „die“, „die“ is one of the German words for “the” and, yes, we’ll cover all the different words and their purpose in the next lesson. But for now, I’d like you to remember that anything meaning „the“ can also mean “that” in German. So when Sabina says, „Ich suche die auch“, she means “I’m looking for that as well.” „Die“ becomes a short way of saying „die Goethe Schule“. Once the word „die Goethe Schule“ has already been mentioned, then „die“ is enough to refer back to it. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The grammar focus of this lesson is regular verb conjugation part one. |
| Judith: This is your very first German lesson. So we shall not overwhelm you with grammar. Today there is just one thing to note; that is, when we give you a verb, that is an action word in the vocabulary section, it will end in “EN" this form is called the infinitive like “to be” as suppose to am, are, is, or the like. It’s the form that you’d expect to find in a dictionary. |
| Chuck: For example, if you wanted to translate let’s say, “he has kids” to German, and you wanted to know what “has” is in German, you wouldn’t expect to find an entry for “has” in a bilingual dictionary, instead there’s an entry for “have,” that’s the infinitive. In German it always ends in “EN.” |
| Judith: That doesn’t mean that verbs will always end in “EN" though. When the subject of a sentence, the person doing something is „ich“ . |
| Chuck: I. |
| Judith: Then a German verb will drop the “N” and the ending that remains is “E.” For example suchen. |
| Chuck: To search. |
| Judith: Ich suche |
| Chuck: I search. |
| Judith: When the subject of a sentence is „Sie“. |
| Chuck: You, formally. |
| Judith: Then the verb retains its original ending though. And for other subjects there are other endings, much like in Spanish, French, Russian or other European languages. |
| Chuck: Could you give us more examples? |
| Judith: Of course singen. |
| Chuck: To sing. |
| Judith: ich singe |
| Chuck: I sing. |
| Judith: Sie singen |
| Chuck: You sing. |
| Judith: trinken |
| Chuck: To drink. |
| Judith: ich trinke |
| Chuck: I drink. |
| Judith: Sie trinken |
| Chuck: You drink. |
| Judith: finden |
| Chuck: To find. |
| Judith: ich finde |
| Chuck: I find. |
| Judith: Sie finden |
| Chuck: You find. |
| Judith: existieren |
| Chuck: To exist. |
| Judith: ich existiere |
| Chuck: I exist. |
| Judith: Sie existieren |
| Chuck: You exist. |
Outro |
| Chuck: That’s just about does it for today. Attention perfectionists, you’re about to learn how to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Judith: Listen and review audio tracks. |
| Chuck: Increase fluency in vocabulary fast with this short effective audio tracks. |
| Judith: Super simple to use. Listen to the German word or phrase. |
| Chuck: Then repeat it out loud in a loud clear voice. |
| Judith: You’ll speak with confidence knowing that you’re speaking German like the locals. |
| Chuck: Go to GermanPod101.com and download the review audio tracks right on the lessons page today. I hope you like the start of our series. Let us know. And see you next week. |
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