Learn how to introduce people and react appropriately to introductions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Hi everyone, and welcome back to GermanPod101. This is Absolute Beginner Season 3, Lesson 7 - Meeting Your German Host Family. I’m Gina. |
| Frank: Hallo! Und ich bin Frank! In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the verb “to be,” sein, in the past tense, and adjective endings. |
| Gina: This conversation takes place in a German home, between Kate and her German host family. The speakers are meeting for the first time, so they'll be using formal German. |
| Frank: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Frau Kirsch: Also, das ist Kate, unser Gast. Das hier ist mein Mann, Hans Kirsch. |
| Kate: Angenehm Sie kennen zu lernen, Herr Kirsch. |
| Herr Kirsch: Gleichfalls. |
| Frau Kirsch: Und das ist unsere Tochter, Susie. |
| Kate: Hallo, Susie. Ich bin Kate. |
| Susie: Hallo Kate! Kaffee? |
| Kate: Gerne! |
| Gina: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Frau Kirsch: Also, das ist Kate, unser Gast. Das hier ist mein Mann, Hans Kirsch. |
| Kate: Angenehm Sie kennen zu lernen, Herr Kirsch. |
| Herr Kirsch: Gleichfalls. |
| Frau Kirsch: Und das ist unsere Tochter, Susie. |
| Kate: Hallo, Susie. Ich bin Kate. |
| Susie: Hallo Kate! Kaffee? |
| Kate: Gerne! |
| Gina: Now, let's hear it with English translation. |
| Frau Kirsch: Also, das ist Kate, unser Gast. Das hier ist mein Mann, Hans Kirsch. |
| Gina: So, this is Kate, our guest. This is my husband, Hans Kirsch. |
| Kate: Angenehm Sie kennen zu lernen, Herr Kirsch. |
| Gina: Nice to meet you, Mr. Kirsch. |
| Herr Kirsch: Gleichfalls. |
| Gina: Same—And you! |
| Frau Kirsch: Und das ist unsere Tochter, Susie. |
| Gina: And this is our daughter, Susie. |
| Kate: Hallo, Susie. Ich bin Kate. |
| Gina: Hello, Susie. I'm Kate. |
| Susie: Hallo Kate! Kaffee? |
| Gina: Hello Kate! Coffee? |
| Kate: Gerne! |
| Gina: Yes, please! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Frank: Alright. Let’s discuss a bit of German etiquette that’ll be useful for when you meet people for the first time. |
| Gina: Pay attention when someone introduces him or herself to you because this will determine all future interactions with that person, in terms of the formality level of the language. |
| Frank: Yes, it'll affect whether you address them as Sie or du! So there are two options here. |
| Gina: To do this, you need to gauge the formality of the person. This includes observing body language. This will tell you if you can expect to call them by their first name anytime soon. And it should also determine your response to their introduction. |
| Frank: If he or she is a formal kind of person, your reply should involve the word Angenehm. This word is enough on its own, or you could say the full Angenehm Sie kennen zu lernen. |
| Gina: “Pleased to get to know you.” In other words, “Nice to meet you.” |
| Frank: However, to a friendly informal kind of introduction, you should reply Freut mich. |
| Gina: Literally “Makes me happy.” |
| Frank: Or Schön Sie kennen zu lernen. |
| Gina: “Nice to get to know you.” |
| Frank: You’re still using Sie at this point, unless your new acquaintance already called you by your first name. |
| Gina: To indicate that it’s okay to call them by their first name, someone might re-introduce himself and just give you his first name. |
| Frank: This happened in the dialog. Kate told Susie, Ich bin Kate. |
| Gina: “I’m Kate.” |
| Frank: Susie already knew her name, but since Kate said this, Susie knew that she was alright with just being called Kate, as opposed to Ms. Andrews. |
| Gina: You can sometimes hear this in the middle of a conversation. For example, if someone asks “How many kids do you have, Mrs. Müller? and you answer “I’m Christina.” |
| Frank: That’s a quick way to let people know that they can be less formal. This works also if you want people to use a nickname. |
| Gina: Ok. Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gina: The first word we shall see is… |
| Frank: unser [natural native speed] |
| Gina: our |
| Frank: unser [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: unser [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Gast [natural native speed] |
| Gina: guest |
| Frank: Gast [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Gast [natural native speed] |
| Frank: mein [natural native speed] |
| Gina: my |
| Frank: mein [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: mein [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Mann [natural native speed] |
| Gina: man |
| Frank: Mann [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Mann [natural native speed] |
| Frank: angenehm [natural native speed] |
| Gina: pleasant |
| Frank: angenehm [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: angenehm [natural native speed] |
| Frank: gleichfalls [natural native speed] |
| Gina: same, same to you, and you |
| Frank: gleichfalls [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: gleichfalls [natural native speed] |
| Frank: Tochter [natural native speed] |
| Gina: daughter |
| Frank: Tochter [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: Tochter [natural native speed] |
| Frank: so [natural native speed] |
| Gina: so |
| Frank: so [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Frank: so [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase we’ll look at is... |
| Frank: kennenlernen . |
| Gina: “to get to know” |
| Frank: It's made up of two verbs, kennen, meaning "to know", and lernen, meaning "to learn". And the particle "zu" is often used in between the two parts when the phrase means "to get to know you". |
| Gina: Can you give us an example? |
| Frank: Es ist schön Sie kennenzulernen. |
| Gina: "It's nice to get to know you." in a formal way. |
| Frank: Nice. And the next phrase is gleichfalls. |
| Gina: “same to you” |
| Frank: This is an idiom that can’t be translated literally. It means, “I wish you the same.” or “I think the same.” For example, if someone tells you Angenehm dich kennenzulernen! or “Nice to get to know you!”, you should reply with Gleichfalls. |
| Gina: meaning “Likewise” or “You too!” What’s the next word? |
| Frank: Mediziner. |
| Gina: Yes, this one is a great example of a word for a profession in German that changes according to gender. |
| Frank: So if I were a doctor, I would say ich bin Mediziner. |
| Gina: And if I were a doctor, How would I say? |
| Frank: ich bin Medizinerin. |
| Gina: Can you hear the difference, listeners? You add the ending “-in” to the end of the noun to indicate that it’s a female doctor. |
| Frank: So, Mediziner versus Medizinerin. This same rule applies to many professions in German. |
| Gina: Okay, now let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Frank: In this lesson, we’ll continue discussing the irregular verb sein. |
| Gina: and also possessive pronoun and adjective endings. |
| Frank: In this lesson, we're going to look at another form of the verb sein in German. We'll look at a past tense form, which is the simple past tense. |
| Gina: Here’s a tip, listeners; there are two types of past tense in German, the imperfect and the perfect past tense. |
| Frank: To remember the simple past tense, just remember it only consists of one past participle, which is the past tense conjugation of sein itself. |
| Gina: That’s right, and it can be directly translated into English as “I was”, “you were”, “he was”, and so on. |
| Frank: Exactly! |
| Gina: Now let’s go through them quickly! |
| Frank: Ich war |
| Gina: “I was” |
| Frank: Du warst |
| Gina: “You were” informal. |
| Frank: Er war |
| Gina: “He was” |
| Frank: Sie war |
| Gina: “She was” |
| Frank: Es war |
| Gina: “It was” |
| Frank: Wir waren |
| Gina: “We were” |
| Frank: Sie waren |
| Gina: “They were” |
| Frank: Ihr wart |
| Gina: “You were” plural. |
| Frank: Sie waren |
| Gina: “You were” formal. |
| Frank: Okay, let’s move on to the next topic for this lesson. |
| Gina: In German, possessive pronouns and adjectives change depending on the gender of the noun that follows. |
| Frank: So we say mein Mann |
| Gina: “my husband” |
| Frank: meine Frau |
| Gina: “my wife” |
| Frank: unser Sohn |
| Gina: “our son” |
| Frank: unsere Tochter |
| Gina: “our daughter.” |
| Frank: In short, we use mein for masculine and neutral nouns and meine for feminine and also plural nouns. |
| Gina: So when there’s a feminine noun or when there’s more than one thing, you’ll see the ending “E”. |
| Frank: We have more information in the lesson notes about the verb conjugation for sein and German adjective changes, so be sure to check them out! |
Outro |
| Frank: Listeners, can you understand German TV shows, movies or songs? |
| Gabriella: How about friends and loved ones? conversations in German? |
| Frank: If you want to know what's going on, we have a tool to help. |
| Gabriella: Line-by-line audio. |
| Frank: Listen to the lesson conversations Line-By-Line, and learn to understand natural German fast! |
| Gabriella: It's simple really. |
| Frank: With a click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation. |
| Gabriella: Listen again and again, and tune your ear to natural German. |
| Frank: Rapidly understand natural German with this powerful tool. |
| Gabriella: Find this feature on the lesson page under Premium Member resources at GermanPod101.com. |
| Gina: That’s all for this lesson! |
| Frank: Wir hoffen, euch hat diese Lektion gefallen. We hope you enjoyed it! Tschüss! |
| Gina: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. Bye! |
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