Learn phrases that you need to know when taking a taxi
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| 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 4. |
| Judith: [Willkommen] |
| Chuck: Welcome. |
| Judith: Have you ever taken a taxi? |
| Chuck: What do you mean have I ever taken--? You know I have lived in New York for a year? And I travelled around the world, I’ve taken plenty of taxis. Come on. |
| Judith: How many of the taxi drivers were actually locals, as in born and raised in the city they were driving in? |
| Chuck: Locals, let’s see, one, two-- Let’s just say higher than average percentage of immigrants doing the driving. |
| Judith: That’s the same in Germany from what I’ve seen, so it becomes doubly important to know the phrases that you’ll need for a taxi ride, because you may have to understand them even if the driver has a bad accent. |
| Chuck: You know this isn’t limited to immigrants, local taxi drivers may even speak [Hochdeutsch] I remember I had some problems with that in the south. |
| Judith: You mean southern Germany? |
| Chuck: Yeah. [Baden-Württemberg, Heilbronn] to be exact. |
| Judith: Yeah, people there are hard to understand. |
| Chuck: [Inaudible] |
| Judith: Yeah, It’s hard. So in today’s lesson, we are going to look at a typical taxi conversation, after listening to this podcast go to the website GermanPod101.com if you aren’t there already, go to the learning center and use the line by line dialogue tool to get really, really comfortable with everything that is said. Only then can you hope to understand these phrases also when a taxi driver has an accent or speaks dialect. |
| Chuck: Or speaks too really fast because in a hurry. All right, let’s get to the dialogue now. |
| DIALOGUE |
| T: Guten Abend. |
| P: Guten Abend! Ich möchte bitte zum Adlon Hotel. |
| T: Okay. Das ist ein schönes Hotel, oder? |
| P: Ja, sicher. |
| T: Woher kommen Sie? |
| P: Ich komme aus der USA. Ich wohne in New York. |
| T: Ist das Ihr erstes Mal in Deutschland? |
| P: Nein, ich komme etwa zwei Mal im Jahr hierhin. |
| T: Mögen Sie Deutschland? |
| P: Ja, ich komme gerne hierhin. |
| T: Ich liebe Deutschland. Ich komme aus der Türkei, aber ich wohne jetzt schon seit 15 Jahren in Deutschland. |
| P: Und Ihre Familie? Wohnt Ihre Familie auch in Deutschland? |
| T: Meine Frau und meine Kinder wohnen natürlich bei mir, aber meine Eltern und meine anderen Verwandten sind noch in Istanbul. Ich besuche sie natürlich. |
| P: Wie oft reisen Sie in die Türkei? |
| T: Einmal im Jahr… Sehen Sie, da ist das Brandenburger Tor. Und jetzt sind wir auch schon da. Macht 17 Euro 80. |
| P: [gives a 20 EUR bill] Stimmt so. |
| T: Vielen Dank. Auf Wiedersehen! |
| P: Auf Wiedersehen! |
| Chuck: [Und jetzt langsam] and now slowly. |
| T: Guten Abend. |
| P: Guten Abend! Ich möchte bitte zum Adlon Hotel. |
| T: Okay. Das ist ein schönes Hotel, oder? |
| P: Ja, sicher. |
| T: Woher kommen Sie? |
| P: Ich komme aus der USA. Ich wohne in New York. |
| T: Ist das Ihr erstes Mal in Deutschland? |
| P: Nein, ich komme etwa zwei Mal im Jahr hierhin. |
| T: Mögen Sie Deutschland? |
| P: Ja, ich komme gerne hierhin. |
| T: Ich liebe Deutschland. Ich komme aus der Türkei, aber ich wohne jetzt schon seit 15 Jahren in Deutschland. |
| P: Und Ihre Familie? Wohnt Ihre Familie auch in Deutschland? |
| T: Meine Frau und meine Kinder wohnen natürlich bei mir, aber meine Eltern und meine anderen Verwandten sind noch in Istanbul. Ich besuche sie natürlich. |
| P: Wie oft reisen Sie in die Türkei? |
| T: Einmal im Jahr… Sehen Sie, da ist das Brandenburger Tor. Und jetzt sind wir auch schon da. Macht 17 Euro 80. |
| P: Stimmt so. |
| T: Vielen Dank. Auf Wiedersehen! |
| P: Auf Wiedersehen! |
| Judith: Now with the translation. Guten Abend! Ich möchte bitte zum Adlon Hotel. |
| Chuck: Good evening, I’d like to please go to the Adlon Hotel. |
| Judith: Okay. Das ist ein schönes Hotel, oder? |
| Chuck: Okay, that’s a nice hotel, isn’t it? |
| F:Ja, sicher. |
| Chuck: Yeah of course. |
| Judith: Woher kommen Sie? |
| Chuck: So, where are you from? |
| Judith: Ich komme aus der USA. Ich wohne in New York. |
| Chuck: I’m from the USA, I live in New York. |
| Judith: Ist das Ihr erstes Mal in Deutschland? |
| Chuck: Is this your first time in Germany? |
| Judith: Nein, ich komme etwa zwei Mal im Jahr hierhin. |
| Chuck: No I come more or less twice a year here. |
| Judith: Mögen Sie Deutschland? |
| Chuck: Do you like Germany? |
| Judith: Ja, ich komme gerne hierhin. |
| Chuck: Yeah, I come here with pleasure. |
| Judith: Ich liebe Deutschland. |
| Chuck: I love Germany. |
| Judith: Ich komme aus der Türkei, aber ich wohne jetzt schon seit 15 Jahren in Deutschland. |
| Chuck: I come from Turkey, but I’ve lived for 15 years in Germany. |
| Judith: Und Ihre Familie? |
| Chuck: And your family? |
| Judith: Wohnt Ihre Familie auch in Deutschland? |
| Chuck: Does your family also live in Germany? |
| Judith: Meine Frau und meine Kinder wohnen natürlich bei mir, |
| Chuck: My wife and my kids of course live with me. |
| Judith: aber meine Eltern und meine anderen Verwandten sind noch in Istanbul. |
| Chuck: But my parents and other relatives are still in Istanbul. |
| Judith: Ich besuche sie natürlich. |
| Chuck: I visit them of course. |
| Judith: Wie oft reisen Sie in die Türkei? |
| Chuck: How often do you travel to Turkey? |
| Judith: Einmal im Jahr |
| Chuck: Once a year. |
| Judith: Sehen Sie, da ist das Brandenburger Tor. |
| Chuck: See that, there’s the Brandenburg Gate. |
| Judith: Und jetzt sind wir auch schon da. |
| Chuck: And now we’re also already there. |
| Judith: Macht 17 Euro 80. |
| Chuck: That will be 17.8 Euros. |
| Judith: Stimmt so. |
| Chuck: Keep the change. |
| Judith: Vielen Dank. Auf Wiedersehen! |
| Chuck: Thank you very much, goodbye. |
| Judith: Auf Wiedersehen! |
| Chuck: Goodbye. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: So, Chuck, what do you say? Is this about the conversation you’d have expected? |
| Chuck: Yeah, especially since I actually wrote the dialogue this week. Yeah, you can get here the very authentic taxi experience from the times I’ve travelled in Germany. Even before I know German that well. You find it’s quite easy to have a nice conversation like this with the driver. Because they’re bored from driving people around all day. |
| Judith: Yeah. And they might tell you something like this that they come from Turkey and lived here for long time? |
| Chuck: Yup. |
| Judith: There’re really lots of Turkish people in Germany. I mean, Germany has seen a lot of immigration ever since 1945, it’s not a country of immigration, it’s not like the states where everybody has immigration background. Maybe like 10 or 15% of Germans have immigration background like parents or grandparents who came from another place but there’re a lot of recent immigrant, for example, that large groups of Italians, Greeks, from the Yugoslavs, people from Eastern Europe, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Americans. |
| Chuck: Americans. |
| Judith: Yes. |
| Chuck: Right now, however the Turkish are the largest group. They make up 2.1% of the German population, and stick out the most. I guess you can say that the loudest. |
| Judith: Ah, not necessarily the loudest but you’ll notice, I mean, well, let’s think for example that Asians will stick out the most in a country of Caucasians but in fact Asians are very well integrated in the German society. For example, my school class and the ones in the grades above and below me there were always like two Koreans or Chinese or Japanese in the class. And it was like no difference at all, but if there were like a Turkish girl or several Turkish boys, you’d always notice because they would stand apart, they would not be a part of the class, and they would like might be not really speak German, not be able to follow. It’s really a problem that there’re so many Turks that came at the same time, and they have formed neighborhoods that are predominantly Turkish and they really form a different subculture. |
| Chuck: Even have to say the average Germans experience with Turks is by ordering kebab from the nearest Doner kebab shop, wouldn’t you say? |
| Judith: Oh, yes, that’s definitely become part of German culture, Doner kebabs, just like belly dancing. You know for middle age women, they like to go to belly dancing course at the local evening class school. |
| Chuck: Nice. |
| Judith: It is German culture, but that doesn’t mean that Turks themselves are integrated. I mean, there’re some that are, but very often they are separate group. |
| Chuck: Yeah, it really depends. I’ve also heard about things like Turkish daughters not being allowed to date German guys and stuff like that too. |
| Judith: That can be problems. The main problem is really the language. If you live in an area where there’s really 60 - 80% Turkish population then you don’t learn German. You don’t need German until you go to university, and by that time it’s too late. |
| Chuck: And they can also be, as ironically there seems some of the even more conservative Turks in that moving here. |
| Judith: Yes, because Turkey is a very modern country, and they separate the church and state very strictly. For example in the public schools, the girls are not allowed to wear head cuffs, and in Germany they are allowed. |
| Chuck: Of course, it’s also interesting when you’re in Turkey and you hear the calls to prayer five times a day. I remember that waking me up at 2 o’clock in the afternoon like, what’s going on outside. |
| Judith: Waking you up at 2 o’clock in the afternoon? |
| Chuck: Jet lag, sure. |
| Judith: Okay, let’s look at some of the vocabulary. |
| Chuck: All right. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: First word is really, really easy. [Hotel ] |
| Chuck: This means dog. |
| Judith: No. [Hotel] |
| Chuck: Okay, hotel. We’ll do it the boring way. |
| Judith: Yeah. |
| Chuck: And actually tell them what it actually means. |
| Judith: This is neuter [Das Hotel] |
| Chuck: The hotel. |
| Judith: Next [Wohnen] |
| Chuck: To live or inhabit. |
| Judith: [Wohnen, wohnen] |
| Chuck: To live or inhabit. |
| Judith: [Woher] |
| Chuck: Where from? |
| Judith: [Woher] |
| Chuck: Where from? Notice this is one word. |
| Judith: Yes. [Erster] |
| Chuck: First. |
| Judith: [Erster] |
| Chuck: First. Previously seen [Erst] |
| Judith: That’s a different word. It’s the adverb, first you have to do this and then you can do something else. |
| Chuck: Ah, Okay. |
| Judith: [Mal] |
| Chuck: Time or times. |
| Judith: [Mal] |
| Chuck: Time or times. Note this means how many times you do something not an amount of time. |
| Judith: Yes. And this is neuter so [Das Mal] and the plural is still [Mal], and you can say like [Einmal, zwei mal, drei mal]. We will discuss this further later. Next [Jahr] |
| Chuck: Year. |
| Judith: [Jahr] |
| Chuck: Year. If you’re a board game fan you’ve heard of [Spiel des Jahres] game of the year. |
| Judith: Yes. This word is neuter, [Das Jahr] and the plural is [Jahre] |
| Chuck: Years. |
| Judith: Next [Hierhin] |
| Chuck: To here. |
| Judith: [Hierhin] |
| Chuck: To here. As in come to here to as in hearing something with my ears. |
| Judith: Yes. Next [Türkei] |
| Chuck: Turkey. |
| Judith: [Türkei] |
| Chuck: Turkey. And note that means the country not the animal. |
| Judith: And a person from Turkey would be [Türke] |
| Chuck: A Turk. |
| Judith: Next [Seit] |
| Chuck: Since. |
| Judith: [Seit] |
| Chuck: Since. |
| Judith: Next [Familie] |
| Chuck: Family. |
| Judith: [Familie] |
| Chuck: Family. |
| Judith: [Die Familie] and the plural is [Familien] |
| Chuck: Families. |
| Judith: Next [Natürlich] |
| Chuck: Of course, natural. |
| Judith: [Natürlich, natürlich] |
| Chuck: Of course, or natural. Can also be naturally, right? |
| Judith: Yes, there’s no difference between adjectives and adverbs in German. Next [Eltern] |
| Chuck: Parents. |
| Judith: [Eltern, Eltern] |
| Chuck: Parents. |
| Judith: This word is always plural. Next [Das stimmt] |
| Chuck: That’ right. |
| Judith: [Das stimmt] |
| Chuck: That’s right. It’s a very common word that you should really know when come to Germany. |
| Judith: Yes. |
| Chuck: It’s not a word, it’s a phrase. |
| Judith: It’s derived from the verb [Stimmen] which only has this meaning for the third person singular [Das stimmt], if you say [Ich stimme] this would be, I vote. |
| Chuck: Or [Ich stimme zu] is I agree, right? |
| Judith: Yes, that’s [Zustimmen] that’s a different verb. |
| Chuck: Yeah. All right, before I confuse them too much we will go to the next word. |
| Judith: Okay. [Anderer] |
| Chuck: Other. |
| Judith: [Anderer] |
| Chuck: Other. |
| Judith: And last word for today [Verwandter] |
| Chuck: Relative. |
| Judith: [Verwandter, Verwandter] |
| Chuck: Relative. But note when you usually hear this you’ll hear the plural. |
| Judith: [Verwandte] |
| Chuck: Relative, so just drop the R at the end. |
| Judith: [Verwandte] is also the feminine word, if you have a female relative. |
| Chuck: Ah, you’re going to confuse them. |
| Judith: No. At least I hope that you’re not going to be confused. If you are, please leave me a note and I’ll try to be, I don’t know, more clear. |
| Chuck: Yeah, right, you did. Not me, her, her, her. |
| Judith: I like feedback, I’m not afraid of it. |
| Chuck: I’m afraid they might have liked my translation of hotel. Can we look at word usage now? |
| Judith: Sure, which word would you like me to explain? |
| Chuck: All right, how about [Mal]? |
| Judith: [Mal] time, yes. You can say [Einmal] is like once, and [Zwei mal] is twice. [Einmal] is built as one word, and [Zweimal] and the rest you have to separate. So [Zwei mal] is twice [Drei mal] and so on. And you might hear somebody say for example, [Ich hab dir schon hundert mal gesagt]. |
| Chuck: I’ve already told you 100 times. |
| Judith: Yes, or common phrases is also, [Zum ersten Mal] for the first time. |
| Chuck: All right, how about [Woher]? |
| Judith: [Woher] careful, the accent is on the second syllable [Woher kommst du?] |
| Chuck: Where are you from? |
| Judith: [Woher kennst du ihn?] |
| Chuck: From where do you know him? |
| Judith: Yes, pretty straightforward. |
| Chuck: And [Hierhin ] |
| Judith: [Kommst du oft hierhin?] |
| Chuck: Do you come here often? |
| Judith: Yes, careful, you must not say [Hier] there, you can’t say [Kommst du oft hier?] you have to say [Hierhin, Hier] is the location here, [Hierhin] is the direction. |
| Chuck: Sounds to me like someone is trying to pick someone up there. |
| Judith: Well, it’s a very useful phrase. |
| Chuck: All right. Well, instead of [Zeit] how about we do [Seit]. |
| Judith: Ah, okay. Yeah, this is very important for you, [Seit] |
| Chuck: Since January he’s in New York. |
| Judith: Yes, so this what be the meaning of since, but you can also use it in the meaning of for [Ich warte schon seit 5 Stunden.] |
| Chuck: I’ve been waiting for five hours. |
| Judith: Yes, and notice, for either one, there’s no perfect tense in German. We say [Seit Januar ist er in New-York] it’s still present tense. |
| Chuck: That’s cool, to know how to learn, or remember those past tense forms, we need to talk about that stuff. |
| Judith: Now if you mean since January he had been in New York, and now he’s back. Then you would use past tense in German. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| Judith: So, Chuck [Seit wann bist du in Deutschland] |
| Chuck: [Ich bin seit 3 Jahren in Deutschland.] |
| Judith: [Seit 3 Jahren, wow.] |
| Chuck: Yeah, so I said I’ve been since three years in Germany. It’s actually a very common mistake you will hear Germans make. And I’ve even beaten myself once. |
| Judith: Yeah, it gets hard when you hear German so often then you may start adopting the Germans mistakes in English. |
| Chuck: Yeah. |
| Judith: It’s just another reason to speak German to the German and English to the English. |
| Chuck: Yeah, at least I didn’t say I’m going to drive with the bus to meet ourselves. |
| Judith: That’s other errors that come from German. All right, let’s listen to the dialogue one more time and then we’re done for today. |
| Chuck: All right, sounds good. |
| T: Guten Abend. |
| P: Guten Abend! Ich möchte bitte zum Adlon Hotel. |
| T: Okay. Das ist ein schönes Hotel, oder? |
| P: Ja, sicher. |
| T: Woher kommen Sie? |
| P: Ich komme aus der USA. Ich wohne in New York. |
| T: Ist das Ihr erstes Mal in Deutschland? |
| P: Nein, ich komme etwa zwei Mal im Jahr hierhin. |
| T: Mögen Sie Deutschland? |
| P: Ja, ich komme gerne hierhin. |
| T: Ich liebe Deutschland. Ich komme aus der Türkei, aber ich wohne jetzt schon seit 15 Jahren in Deutschland. |
| P: Und Ihre Familie? Wohnt Ihre Familie auch in Deutschland? |
| T: Meine Frau und meine Kinder wohnen natürlich bei mir, aber meine Eltern und meine anderen Verwandten sind noch in Istanbul. Ich besuche sie natürlich. |
| P: Wie oft reisen Sie in die Türkei? |
| T: Einmal im Jahr… Sehen Sie, da ist das Brandenburger Tor. Und jetzt sind wir auch schon da. Macht 17 Euro 80. |
| P: Stimmt so. |
| T: Vielen Dank. Auf Wiedersehen! |
| P: Auf Wiedersehen! |
| Judith: Well, he made it to the hotel safely and just in time too, because I just noticed it started to rain outside. Rainy days are perfect to study German. |
| Chuck: Yeah, almost as good as having a snowstorm outside I’d say. Because you’re going to stay in, and can’t do much outs, so remember this winter, we’re giving you a lot more exercises to practice your German when you’re stuck inside. So the new exercises can be found in a section beta expansion questions and the learning center. They really work for this lesson as well as the previous ones, but if you’re in Australia or somewhere else southern the equator, then you’re free to do this too. Just take your iPod with you outside. |
| Judith: Yes, or your iPhone or a laptop or print the exercises, there’s always ways to practice your German. |
Outro |
|---|
| Chuck: Or even, don’t miss next week's lesson, we teach you more and more authentic German you can use right away. See you soon. |
| Judith: [Bis bald.] |
Comments
HideChristmas markets will start appearing by the end of November. Are you planning to go see them? Have you seen them before?
Hello Max,
Thank you for getting back to us. 👍
Judith pronounces it the way the majority of Germans would say it and
it is very close to the written form. Chuck on the other hand has picked up
a local version from the area where he lived. It is probably not bad to hear both
in order to understand that Germany has a fair number of local dialects. For your studies, however,
you should focus on trying to say it Judith's way. 😉
If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us again.
Kind regards,
Reinhard
Team GermanPod101.com
I am enjoying the material! I do wonder though why Chuck and Judith pronounce the "-ich" sound differently? Are both acceptable? Or is one preferred and the other tolerated from non-native speakers? Thanks for your help!
Hi Dara,
Thank you for some good questions.👍
Yes, you can say it and everyone will understand. However, grammatically
correct would be "Ich reise in die USA." and "Ich reise in die Türkei."
Interestingly enough, those are two exceptions. For most countries "nach"
is fine, like "... nach Spanien, ... nach Italien, ...nach Frankreich, ... nach Indonesien,
... nach Japan."
As to your second question, the English translation might make it a bit clearer:
Is this "your" first time in Germany?
If you wanted to use "Sie", you'd have to change the sentence to
"Sind Sie das erste Mal in Deutschland?"
If you have any further questions, please let us know.
Kind regards,
Reinhard
Team GermanPod101.com
Hello! Ich habe 2 Fragen: Das erste ist: Kann ich sagen: ich reise nach USA oder Turkei und ob ich nicht sagen kann, dann waruum und welche auch andere Lande das gleiche wie USA?
Das zweite ist: was ist ihr in "Ist das ihr erstes mal" ? Warum haben Sie nich gesagt Sie ?
Hallo Judith
Danke. Aber Deutsch Grammatic ist so kompliziert! Mit Geschlecte, "cases" und alles! Ich speche auch Franzözich und Spanisch. Die sind nicht so kompliziert!
Oh Ja. Der Taxifahrer sagt "der Türkei" und Chuck Sagt "die USA". Normalerwise sagt man Deutchland oder Großbritannien ohne artikel. Wann muss man die artikel mit der Landname haben. Oder muss man es Land bei Land lernen.
Liebe Grüße
Richard
Ja, "Ich möchte bitte zum Adlon Hotel" sagt man normalerweise, aber "Ich möchte bitte zum Adlon Hotel gehen (go) /fahren (drive) /gefahren werden (be driven)" ist auch okay.
"meine" benutzen wir für feminine Wörter. Das System ist kompliziert, deshalb unterrichten wir es nach und nach. (by and by)
Liebe Grüße,
Judith
Zwei fragen für diese „podcast“.
Erste, ist es normal „Ich möchte bitte zum Adlon Hotel“ ohne farhen oder gehen zu sagen? Ich werde normalerweise „Ich möchte bitte zum Adlon Hotel fahren“ sagen. Ist das auch korrekt?
Zweiter, „mein“ und „meine“, in eine fruhe podcast wir hatte „mein“ für „my“. Hier hatte wir „meine“. Ist das „e“ für das geschlecht oder? Aber hier haben wir meine für „das“ und „der“ wörter.
Ich hoffe dass diese verständlich Deutsch ist.
Tschüs
Richard
Weihnachten? Bah, Humbug!