Learn how to book an airplane ticket in German
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Judith: Hello [Ich heiße] Judith. |
| Chuck: Hi I’m Chuck. |
| Judith: [Sie hören GermanPod101.com] |
| Chuck: You’re listening to GermanPod101.com. This is the new beginner series lesson 10. |
| Judith: [Willkommen zurück.] |
| Chuck: Welcome back listeners, this is the last GermanPod101 lesson before the holidays. Tomorrow is Christmas in Germany. |
| Judith: GermanPod101 is taking a break from Christmas till after new year’s, but in the meantime you can study all the materials we have prepared for you in the learning center. |
| Chuck: Or listen to any episode you missed, or review previous ones, So Judith, what today’s lesson’s about. |
| Judith: Today we’re looking at buying a train ticket. Trains are a very convenient way to travel across Germany. |
| Chuck: Ah, yeah, they’re much faster than the states. And are quite a bit nicer too if I may add, and the stuff in more places too. |
| Judith: We’ll learn more about that later in the cultural section. For now let’s have a dialogue, as usual I’ll play a German and Chuck will be an American tourist buying a train ticket from me. |
| Chuck: Since when have you work for the train companies? |
| Judith: I don’t know, I just follow the lesson. |
| Chuck: Okay, I don’t know if I should buy a train ticket for you. we’ll see. |
| DIALOGUE |
| D: Guten Tag. |
| A: Guten Tag. Ich hätte gern eine Fahrkarte von Berlin nach Paris. |
| D: Gerne. Nur eine einfache Fahrt oder hin und zurück? |
| A: Hin und zurück bitte. |
| D: An welchem Tag möchten Sie losfahren, und wie spät? |
| A: Ich möchte am 4. Januar abends in Paris sein. |
| D: Gut. Es gibt eine Verbindung, mit der Sie um 19:05 in Paris Nord sind, reicht das? |
| A: Ja, das klingt gut. |
| D: Der 4. Januar ist ein Sonntag. Der Zug könnte voll sein. Am besten reservieren Sie sich einen Sitzplatz. |
| A: Ja, ich möchte nicht stehen. |
| D: Möchten Sie am Gang oder am Fenster sitzen? |
| A: Am Fenster. |
| D: Hier ist Ihre Verbindung. Sie fahren um 9:48 hier in Berlin los, steigen um 15:13 in Köln Hauptbahnhof um und sind dann um 19:05 in Paris Nord. |
| A: Was?? Ich muss schon morgens losfahren? Das kann ich nicht. Ich habe um 12 Uhr noch einen Businesslunch. |
| D: Die Fahrt von Berlin nach Paris dauert mindestens 9 Stunden, schneller geht es nicht. Mit dem Auto sind Sie auch nicht schneller da. |
| A: Dann muss ich wohl fliegen. Auf Wiedersehen! |
| D: Hmpf. Auf Wiedersehen! |
| Judith: Now read slowly. |
| D: Guten Tag. |
| A: Guten Tag. Ich hätte gern eine Fahrkarte von Berlin nach Paris. |
| D: Gerne. Nur eine einfache Fahrt oder hin und zurück? |
| A: Hin und zurück bitte. |
| D: An welchem Tag möchten Sie losfahren, und wie spät? |
| A: Ich möchte am 4. Januar abends in Paris sein. |
| D: Gut. Es gibt eine Verbindung, mit der Sie um 19:05 in Paris Nord sind, reicht das? |
| A: Ja, das klingt gut. |
| D: Der 4. Januar ist ein Sonntag. Der Zug könnte voll sein. Am besten reservieren Sie sich einen Sitzplatz. |
| A: Ja, ich möchte nicht stehen. |
| D: Möchten Sie am Gang oder am Fenster sitzen? |
| A: Am Fenster. |
| D: Hier ist Ihre Verbindung. Sie fahren um 9:48 hier in Berlin los, steigen um 15:13 in Köln Hauptbahnhof um und sind dann um 19:05 in Paris Nord. |
| A: Was?? Ich muss schon morgens losfahren? Das kann ich nicht. Ich habe um 12 Uhr noch einen Businesslunch. |
| D: Die Fahrt von Berlin nach Paris dauert mindestens 9 Stunden, schneller geht es nicht. Mit dem Auto sind Sie auch nicht schneller da. |
| A: Dann muss ich wohl fliegen. Auf Wiedersehen! |
| D: Hmpf. Auf Wiedersehen! |
| Judith: Now with the translation. Guten Tag. |
| Chuck: Good day. |
| Judith: Guten Tag. Ich hätte gern eine Fahrkarte von Berlin nach Paris. |
| Chuck: Good day, I would like a ticket from Berlin to Paris. |
| Judith: Gerne. Nur eine einfache Fahrt oder hin und zurück? |
| Chuck: Very well, just one-way ticket, or round trip. |
| Judith: Hin und zurück bitte. |
| Chuck: Roundtrip, please. |
| Judith: An welchem Tag möchten Sie losfahren, und wie spät? |
| Chuck: On what day would like to go and how late? |
| Judith: Ich möchte am 4. Januar abends in Paris sein. |
| Chuck: I would like to be in Paris on the evening of January 4th. |
| Judith: Gut. Es gibt eine Verbindung, mit der Sie um 19:05 in Paris Nord sind, reicht das? |
| Chuck: Good, there is a connection that would get you there at 19:05 in Paris north, is that good? |
| Judith: Ja, das klingt gut. |
| Chuck: Yeah, that sounds good. |
| Judith: Der 4. Januar ist ein Sonntag. |
| Chuck: January 4th is a Sunday. |
| Judith: Der Zug könnte voll sein. |
| Chuck: The train could be full. |
| Judith: Am besten reservieren Sie sich einen Sitzplatz. |
| Chuck: It will be best to reserve yourself a seat. |
| Judith: Ja, ich möchte nicht stehen. |
| Chuck: Yes, I wouldn’t like to stand. |
| Judith: Möchten Sie am Gang oder am Fenster sitzen? |
| Chuck: Would you like to sit in the aisle or at the window? |
| Judith: Am Fenster. |
| Chuck: At the window. |
| Judith: Hier ist Ihre Verbindung. |
| Chuck: Here’s your connection. |
| Judith: Sie fahren um 9:48 hier in Berlin los, |
| Chuck: You’ll travel at 9:48 here from Berlin. |
| Judith: steigen um 15:13 in Köln Hauptbahnhof um |
| Chuck: At 15:13 you’ll change trains at Cologne main station. |
| Judith: und sind dann um 19:05 in Paris Nord. |
| Chuck: And then you’ll be at 19:05 in Paris north. |
| Judith: Was?? Ich muss schon morgens losfahren? |
| Chuck: What, I have to already go in the morning? |
| Judith: Das kann ich nicht. Ich habe um 12 Uhr noch einen Businesslunch. |
| Chuck: I can’t do that I have a business lunch at 12 o’clock. |
| Judith: Die Fahrt von Berlin nach Paris dauert mindestens 9 Stunden, schneller geht es nicht. |
| Chuck: The trip from Berlin to Paris takes at least nine hours, it’s not possible to go faster. |
| Judith: Mit dem Auto sind Sie auch nicht schneller da. |
| Chuck: By car you also won’t get there faster. |
| Judith: Dann muss ich wohl fliegen. Auf Wiedersehen! |
| Chuck: Then I guess I’ll have to fly, goodbye. |
| Judith: Hmpf. Auf Wiedersehen! |
| Chuck: Huh, goodbye. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: So what was it that you were saying about German trains earlier? |
| Chuck: Well, it looks like we finally have a cultural point that I’m a bit of an expert on, maybe even more than you. |
| Judith: More than me? I lived here my life. |
| Chuck: Yeah, but I travel quite a lot. |
| Judith: Okay, so what would you tell people about the German train system? |
| Chuck: Let’s see, we can start with something that’s usually initially confusing, is there’s different speeds of travel, you’ve got the RB [Regionalbahn] it’s the regional train, RE [Regionalexpress] |
| Judith: The regional fast train. |
| Chuck: The IC Intercity. |
| Judith: Between bigger cities. Quite fast. |
| Chuck: ICE, Intercity Express. |
| Judith: That’s the fastest. |
| Chuck: And so you know that the smaller trains are much less comfortable, which usually not travelling very far or very fast, so they’re typically used to go between small cities or small towns. |
| Judith: Within the same area, within the same German state. |
| Chuck: Right, and the ICE could be used to go from say, Berlin to Cologne, all the way across the country. |
| Judith: Or from Hamburg to Stuttgart. |
| Chuck: You’ll even find them for example from Cologne to Amsterdam, you’re going outside of Germany. |
| Judith: Yes, or to Poland, to Vienna. Wherever you want to go. |
| Chuck: Yeah, you notice also that the IC and the ICE, well, have bar restaurants. The food’s expensive and you don’t have many options. It doesn’t taste very good, I mean. |
| Judith: It taste awful. |
| Chuck: And vegetarian option may not exist. |
| Judith: Yeah, I would suggest you avoid these. |
| Chuck: Yeah, I would also note if you’re travelling in the IC or ICE I’d say, especially if you’re travelling in the weekend, get a reservation. |
| Judith: What I find nice is that on the ICE trains you will often have electricity next to your seat or at least a radio. You can typically get like 8 different channels like on Airplane. |
| Chuck: Yeah, it’s pretty amazing, just of course don’t expect them to provide headphones for you, but if you have your own headphones for your mp3 player then just plug it right in, you can start listening to music. |
| Judith: Yes, It’s also possible to get a table so you can actually work on the train, you can put on your laptop and you may even get Wi-Fi at really, really high prices. |
| Chuck: Yeah, it’s pretty amazing when you walk through an ICE train, you just see laptop after laptop after laptop, and I think when I’ve been in France or Poland or Spain, I’ve never seen that many laptops in the train before. |
| Judith: It’s just a very convenient way to work on the train. I mean specially the ICE is going really smooth, so that you can actually like read something or work on the computer without much hassle. |
| Chuck: Yeah, even one of my friends he says he guess his best work done when in the ICE because he’s completely void of distractions, and whenever you want to break you can just look at the window to see the seen you’ll be passing by. Very nice. |
| Judith: Yeah, what I like is that it goes so smooth that I don’t get my typical motion sickness, like in a car I can’t read, but on the ICE I can read quite comfortably or even on the IC still, they’re going quite smooth, quite nicely so I don’t get this sickness. |
| Chuck: Yeah, one thing I also find interesting what you discussed about the table earlier, is often you might find family or say a friend of four people just playing a card game. I don’t think you’ve ever seen that before in another country. |
| Judith: Well, there’re also these small rooms called [Abteil] where you have a group of up to 6 people that would to travel very close sitting across from each other, otherwise you will sit in this big area the [Großraum] they call it, where there’s typically rows of two seats one after the other, so there’s occasionally a table with 4 seats around it. |
| Chuck: Germans certainly know how to travel. |
| Judith: Uh, it’s comfortable enough. |
| Chuck: Yeah, one more thing, when you’re booking your ticket look up in the regional tickets and other specials. And also if you’re travelling long distance or traveling for a while, you might be interested in getting what’s called a [Bahncard] or a discount card. |
| Judith: Yeah, with [Bahncard] you can get like 25% or 50% discount or even a 100% but this probably not worthwhile if you’re just a tourist, that like to have a 25% discount it’s very easily worthwhile if you’re say travelling three or four times a distance of Berlin to Cologne or something like that, it’s probably already worthwhile. Anyway the [Bahn] is really a nice way to get around the country, even if it’s not as fast as the plane. I think we talked enough about the culture. And now let’s go and do some vocabulary work. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: So first word for today is [Fahrt] |
| Chuck: Drive or ride. |
| Judith: [Fahrt.] |
| Chuck: Drive or ride. |
| Judith: This is feminine [Die Fahrt] and the plural is [Fahrten] |
| Chuck: Rides |
| Judith: And the next word is very similar, also from the same root, it’s [Fahrkarte] |
| Chuck: A ticket. Note this is for a ride. |
| Judith: Yes, because it’s derived from [Fahren] to ride or to drive and [Karte] is like a card or a map even. [Fahrkarte] so it’s also feminine, because it’s [Die Karte, die Fahrkarte] and the plural [Fahrkarten] |
| Chuck: Tickets. |
| Judith: Next [Losfahren] |
| Chuck: To start driving or riding. |
| Judith: Yes, keep in mind [Fahren] can be driving or riding in somebody else’s car. Or riding the train or anything. |
| Chuck: I notice you won’t want to use [Reiten] which is also ride but it-- you’ll get funny looks because that only means to ride horses. |
| Judith: Yes, or elephants, or camels, but you go the idea. |
| Chuck: Well, unless you have an elephant ticket, I don’t know. |
| Judith: So the word is [Losfahren. Losfahren.] |
| Chuck: To start driving or riding. |
| Judith: And [Los] splits off and it means the start of the action, for example also [Losgehen] to start going. Ah, okay, next [Wie spät.] |
| Chuck: How late, or could also be used for what time. |
| Judith: Yeah, so simply when [Wie spät.] |
| Chuck: How late. |
| Judith: Next [Morgens] |
| Chuck: In the morning. |
| Judith: [Morgens.] |
| Chuck: In the morning. |
| Judith: Similarly [Abends.] |
| Chuck: In the evening. |
| Judith: [Abends. Abends.] |
| Chuck: In the evening. |
| Judith: [Next. Verbindung.] |
| Chuck: Connection. |
| Judith: [Verbindung, Verbindung.] |
| Chuck: Connection. |
| Judith: This is feminine [Die Verbindung.] and the plural is [Verbindungen.] |
| Chuck: Oh, I have to interject here, one of my favorite German words I saw on a windows computer, it’s [Remotedesktopverbindung] one word, all put together. |
| Judith: I would probably put dashes in-between. |
| Chuck: Well, Microsoft doesn’t seem to think so. |
| Judith: Okay. Next word [Er reicht.] |
| Chuck: It’s enough. |
| Judith: [Es reicht.] |
| Chuck: It’s enough. |
| Judith: It’s an expression. Next [Voll.] |
| Chuck: Full. |
| Judith: [Voll.] |
| Chuck: Full. |
| Judith: Spelled with a V. |
| Chuck: VO to be exact. |
| Judith: Next [Sitzplatz.] |
| Chuck: A seat or a space, notice it literally means sitting place. |
| Judith: Yes, [Platz] alone is place or even square in the city, and [Sitz] is the seat. This word is masculine [Der Sitzplatz] and the plural is [Plätze] or [Sitzplätze.] |
| Chuck: Seats. |
| Judith: Next [Gang.] |
| Chuck: Isle. |
| Judith: [Der Gang.] |
| Chuck: The isle. |
| Judith: And plural [Gänge]. Next [Fenster] |
| Chuck: Window. |
| Judith: [Fenster, Fenster.] |
| Chuck: Window. |
| Judith: This word is neuter [Das Fenster] and the plural is the same [Fenster.] |
| Chuck: The windows. |
| Judith: Next [Umsteigen.] |
| Chuck: To change, as in to change trains or airplanes etc. |
| Judith: [Umsteigen, umsteigen.] |
| Chuck: To change, trains for example. |
| Judith: Yeah, [Steigen] alone means to rise or to go up and [Um] splits off [Umsteigen.] |
| Chuck: You’ll also often hear [Aussteigen] to get out. |
| Judith: Yes or [Einsteigen] to enter some kind of transport. Next [Mindestens] |
| Chuck: At least. |
| Judith: [Mindestens.] |
| Chuck: At least. |
| Judith: Very useful word. Next, [Schnell.] |
| Chuck: Fast or quickly. |
| Judith: Or quick, it can be an adjective. [Schnell.] |
| Chuck: Fast or quick. |
| Judith: And the last word for today, [Fliegen.] |
| Chuck: To fly. |
| Judith: [Fliegen, fliegen.] |
| Chuck: To fly. |
| Judith: Okay, do you have any questions about these words? |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Chuck: Yeah, I’m not sure, we had [Fahren] and [Fahrt] what is [Fahrt] exactly? |
| Judith: [Fahrt] well, as we said, it’s a ride or a drive for example you might say [Die Fahrt dauert zwei Stunden.] |
| Chuck: The ride will last two hours. |
| Judith: Or as a nice wish you can say [Gute Fahrt!] |
| Chuck: have a good trip. |
| Judith: Yes, or have a good drive. Okay, any other words? |
| Chuck: Let’s pick a long one, see, [Verbindung.] |
| Judith: Yes, [Verbindung] connection, for example you might ask [Gibt es eine Zugverbindung zwischen Berlin und Moskau?] |
| Chuck: Is there a train connection between Berlin and Moscow. |
| Judith: Yes, and in this case the answer would be, yes there is. |
| Chuck: Yeah, I was quite surprised I was reading at the Berlin train station one day and I looked up when I saw, what? A train going to Moscow? And I looked up for-- and later I looked online I saw it’s a 24 hour train travel. |
| Judith: Yeah. |
| Chuck: Just can’t imagine being on a train that long. |
| Judith: Well, Russians probably can. Anyway [Verbindung.] |
| Chuck: So, it’s an adventure. [Abenteuer] |
| Judith: Yeah, [Abenteuer, Verbindung] is a connection, it does not have to be like a connection by train, for example also police might ask [Gibt es eine or gibt es irgendeine Verbindung zwischen den Verdächtigen?] |
| Chuck: Is there a connection between the accused, no, alleged? |
| Judith: Suspects [Verdächtig] suspicious, and [Der Verdächtige] is the suspect. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| Judith: And another word, maybe I should explain the word of [Voll] |
| Chuck: Sure. |
| Judith: well, typical question [Ist das Glas halb voll oder halb leer?] |
| Chuck: Ah, yeah we have this in English too, is the glass half full or half empty? |
| Judith: Yeah, so [Voll] and [Leer] is the pair that you should remember. |
| Chuck: Those German philosophers. |
| Judith: Or you could say [Der Zug ist am Wochenende immer voll.] |
| Chuck: The train is always full on the weekend. |
| Judith: Yes, or very often the case. Maybe one more word, can you think of any? |
| Chuck: [Er reicht.] |
| Judith: Yes, [Es reicht.] it’s enough, but it’s a verb [Reichen. Hier hast du 6 Euro für das Kino, reicht das?] |
| Chuck: He has 6 Euros for the Cinema, is that enough? |
| Judith: [Nein, es reicht nicht. Ich brauche mindestens 8 Euro.] |
| Chuck: No, it’s not enough I need at least 8 Euros. |
| Judith: Yeah, prices have gone up. |
| Chuck: Okay, [Reicht das für diese Lektion?], is that enough for this lesson? |
| Judith: [Hmm, ich denke schon.] I guess so. |
| Chuck: Yeah, Holiday’s now [Feierabend und Ferien. Was machst du in den Ferien?] What do you do in the holidays? |
| Judith: [Ich besuche meine Familie und Freunde und ich werde Sprachen üben.] I’m visiting my family and friends and I go practice languages. |
| Chuck: [Klingt gut.] Sounds good. Not quite surprised, sounds like you’re always practice your languages. |
| Judith: It’s fun what do you expect. |
| Chuck: I bet you’re previewing all the podcasts of all the other languages of the language pod series. |
| Judith: I may not get through them, there’s so many of them. |
| Chuck: Right, well anyway I say we review this dialogue one more time and then it’s off to enjoy the Christmas and all the other holidays from other religions to be politically neutral. |
| Judith: Okay, here goes the dialogue. |
| D: Guten Tag. |
| A: Guten Tag. Ich hätte gern eine Fahrkarte von Berlin nach Paris. |
| D: Gerne. Nur eine einfache Fahrt oder hin und zurück? |
| A: Hin und zurück bitte. |
| D: An welchem Tag möchten Sie losfahren, und wie spät? |
| A: Ich möchte am 4. Januar abends in Paris sein. |
| D: Gut. Es gibt eine Verbindung, mit der Sie um 19:05 in Paris Nord sind, reicht das? |
| A: Ja, das klingt gut. |
| D: Der 4. Januar ist ein Sonntag. Der Zug könnte voll sein. Am besten reservieren Sie sich einen Sitzplatz. |
| A: Ja, ich möchte nicht stehen. |
| D: Möchten Sie am Gang oder am Fenster sitzen? |
| A: Am Fenster. |
| D: Hier ist Ihre Verbindung. Sie fahren um 9:48 hier in Berlin los, steigen um 15:13 in Köln Hauptbahnhof um und sind dann um 19:05 in Paris Nord. |
| A: Was?? Ich muss schon morgens losfahren? Das kann ich nicht. Ich habe um 12 Uhr noch einen Businesslunch. |
| D: Die Fahrt von Berlin nach Paris dauert mindestens 9 Stunden, schneller geht es nicht. Mit dem Auto sind Sie auch nicht schneller da. |
| A: Dann muss ich wohl fliegen. Auf Wiedersehen! |
| D: Hmpf. Auf Wiedersehen! |
Outro |
|---|
| Chuck: All right, that’s it. So I guess soon we’ll be taking our train travels for the holidays, but we will be right back with you after January 5th for the new lessons. |
| Judith: And meanwhile review the old ones and make sure you train everything, then you will be ready to move up to the next level even. |
| Chuck: We wish you happy holidays and all the best for new year. |
| Judith: Yeah, and I hope your new year’s resolution involves doing more for your German. |
| Chuck: Definitely, I’m sure mine will be. |
| Judith: Yeah, right. |
| Chuck: Anyway, see you soon. |
| Judith: [Bis bald.] |
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