Learn how to make polite suggestions and to express impatience
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Beginner series, Season 2, Lesson #23. You're So Impatient! Don't Make This Conversation Mistake in Germany! Hello and welcome to germanpod101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn German. |
| Judith: I am Judith and thanks again for being here with us for this beginner series, Season 2 lesson. |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you will learn how to express impatience in German but I am not sure if I can wait for that long. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at a German company’s offices. The conversation is between the boss and the investor. |
| Chuck:The speakers are business acquaintances. Therefore they will be speaking formal German. If you don’t already have one |
| Judith: Stop by germanpod101.com |
| Chuck: Sign up for your free lifetime account. |
| Judith: You can sign up in less than 30 seconds. |
| Chuck: Now let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Investor: Guten Tag, Frau Schulte! |
| Boss: Guten Tag, Herr Schmidt! Kommen Sie herein! |
| Investor: Ist alles bereit fürs Meeting? |
| Boss: Ja, lassen Sie mich nur noch meine Notizen holen... |
| Investor: Gut, tun Sie das. |
| Boss: Möchten Sie vielleicht einen Kaffee oder... |
| Investor: Wasser bitte. |
| Boss: Mit Eis? |
| Investor: Ohne. |
| Boss: Ja, es ist nicht sehr heiß in diesem Jahr, finden Sie nicht auch? |
| Boss: Der Sommer lässt auf sich warten... |
| Investor: Frau Schulte, ich bin nicht hier, um das Wetter zu diskutieren. Lassen Sie uns anfangen! |
| Boss: Natürlich, sofort. |
| Judith: Now it’s slowly. |
| Investor: Guten Tag, Frau Schulte! |
| Boss: Guten Tag, Herr Schmidt! Kommen Sie herein! |
| Investor: Ist alles bereit fürs Meeting? |
| Boss: Ja, lassen Sie mich nur noch meine Notizen holen... |
| Investor: Gut, tun Sie das. |
| Boss: Möchten Sie vielleicht einen Kaffee oder... |
| Investor: Wasser bitte. |
| Boss: Mit Eis? |
| Investor: Ohne. |
| Boss: Ja, es ist nicht sehr heiß in diesem Jahr, finden Sie nicht auch? |
| Boss: Der Sommer lässt auf sich warten... |
| Investor: Frau Schulte, ich bin nicht hier, um das Wetter zu diskutieren. Lassen Sie uns anfangen! |
| Boss: Natürlich, sofort. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| Investor: Guten Tag, Frau Schulte! |
| Investor: Good day, Mrs Schulte! |
| Boss: Guten Tag, Herr Schmidt! Kommen Sie herein! |
| Boss: Good day, Mr Schmidt! Come in! |
| Investor: Ist alles bereit fürs Meeting? |
| Investor: Is everything ready for the meeting? |
| Boss: Ja, lassen Sie mich nur noch meine Notizen holen... |
| Boss: Yes, just let me get my notes… |
| Investor: Gut, tun Sie das. |
| Investor: Okay, do that. |
| Boss: Möchten Sie vielleicht einen Kaffee oder... |
| Boss: Maybe you'd like a coffee or… |
| Investor: Wasser bitte. |
| Investor: Water please. |
| Boss: Mit Eis? |
| Boss: With ice cubes? |
| Investor: Ohne. |
| Investor: Without. |
| Boss: Ja, es ist nicht sehr heiß in diesem Jahr, finden Sie nicht auch? |
| Boss: Yes, it's not very hot this year, don't you think so as well? |
| Boss: Der Sommer lässt auf sich warten... |
| Boss: The summer is running late… |
| Investor: Frau Schulte, ich bin nicht hier, um das Wetter zu diskutieren. Lassen Sie uns anfangen! |
| Investor: Mrs Schulte, I'm not here to discuss the weather. Let's start! |
| Boss: Natürlich, sofort. |
| Boss: Of course, immediately. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: I think we should look at the Smalltalk in German. |
| Chuck: All right. |
| Judith: One thing is that there is considerably less Smalltalk in Germany than in the States especially in professional relationships. |
| Chuck: How is your day today Judith? |
| Judith: This would be very unusual. When you are having conference, first ask everybody about the day, about the weather or whatever. The weather talk is even uncommon among friends let’s say. |
| Chuck: Yeah Germans tend to like just to get to the point in business meetings. |
| Judith: On the other hand, if you ask somebody how are you like if you ask a friend, that serves as a starter to hear but everything is going on in people’s lives. So don’t be surprised if you get a long answer. |
| Chuck: Many people may also answer negatively to this question especially older people who take pride in enumerating their illnesses. |
| Judith: Among friends, the news or the political situation can easily come up as a topic of discussion as well. It’s not taboo and generally you’d expect everybody to be up-to-date with the basics of current events. |
| Chuck: Let’s look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: First word [Herein] |
| Chuck: Into, in or within. |
| Judith: [Herein, herein] This is always for a movement from outside to the current location. Next word [Bereit] |
| Chuck: Ready. |
| Judith: [Bereit, bereit] Next word [Nur] |
| Chuck: Only or just. |
| Judith: [Nur, nur] Next word [Holen] |
| Chuck: To fetch or bring. |
| Judith: [Holen, holen] Next word [Kaffee] |
| Chuck: Coffee. |
| Judith: [Kaffee, Kaffee, der Kaffee] this is masculine. Next word [Wasser] |
| Chuck: Water. |
| Judith: [Wasser, Wasser, das Wasser] this is neuter. Next word [Eis] |
| Chuck: Ice or ice cream. |
| Judith: [Eis, Eis, das Eis]. This is neuter. Next word [Ohne] |
| Chuck: Without |
| Judith: [Ohne, ohne] Next word [Heiß] |
| Chuck: Hot. |
| Judith: [Heiß, Heiß] Next word [Sommer] |
| Chuck: Summer |
| Judith: [Sommer, Sommer] This is masculine [der Sommer]. Next word [Um] |
| Chuck: In order to or at a certain time. |
| Judith: [Um, um] Next word [Diskutieren] |
| Chuck: To discuss. |
| Judith: [Diskutieren, diskutieren] Next word [Anfangen] |
| Chuck: To begin. |
| Judith: [Anfangen, anfangen] And this is a vowel changing verb that also splits off the first syllable. So [Er fängt an] and past tense [Er find an] or [Er hat angefangen] |
| 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 word we look at is [Fürs] |
| Chuck: [Für das] For the. |
| Judith: [Fürs] stand for [Für das] but only when [Das] is the article. For example, [Für das Geschenk, Fürs Geschenk] This is a very common contraction in spoken German and increasingly common in writing. The next phrase is [Lässt auf sich warten] |
| Chuck: Literally has people wait for it. |
| Judith: This means that it’s still missing. It’s not on the horizon or it’s running late like [Der Sommer lässt auf sich warten] means the summer is not here yet even though everybody has been expecting it to be here by now. Now for the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: Let’s review the ways in which you can suggest something in a nice, polite way that can be used even for superiors. |
| Judith: The first way is to use the polite imperative of all verbs. If you recall, this is the same form as the conjugated [Sie] form of a verb but with the [Sie] put after rather than before the verb. So [Gehen Sie] |
| Chuck: Go |
| Judith: Instead of [Sie gehen] |
| Chuck: You go. |
| Judith: [Kommen Sie] instead of [Sie kommen] and so on. |
| Chuck: You can even add bitte but as you saw in this dialogue, it’s not mandatory particularly if you are suggesting something that is so obvious or to the person on advantage. |
| Judith: The polite imperative of [Lassen] is particularly important. [Lassen Sie uns] is the polite way of saying let’s. |
| Chuck: Note the difference too. [Lass uns] which would be the equivalent phrase when talking to a friend. |
| Judith: [Lassen Sie uns, Lass uns] You can also use [Möchten Sie] as an almost rhetoric question. Here you can add [Vielleicht] to make it more polite. |
| Chuck: That completely removes all pressure from the addressee to respond positively. |
Outro |
| Chuck: Well that just about does it for today. Don’t forget that you can leave us a comment on this lesson. |
| Judith: So if you have a question or some feedback, please leave us a comment. |
| Chuck: It’s very easy to do. Just stop by germanpod101.com |
| Judith: Click on comments. |
| Chuck: Enter your comment and name |
| Judith: And that’s it. |
| Chuck: No excuses. We are looking forward to hearing from you. See you next time. |
| Judith: [Bis nächste Woche.] |
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