Learn how to greet your boss politely
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to GermanPod101.com. This is Business German for Beginners, Season 1 Lesson 4 - Greeting Your German Boss in the Morning. John Here. |
| Jennifer: Guten Tag! I'm Jennifer. |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to politely greet your supervisor. The conversation takes place in the office. |
| Jennifer: It's between Linda Müller and Stefan Herzog. |
| John: The speakers are co-workers, so they will use both formal and informal German. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Linda Müller: Guten Morgen. |
| Stefan Herzog: Linda, guten Morgen. Das Wetter heute ist wunderschön. |
| Linda Müller: Sie haben Recht! Die Temperaturen sind geradezu perfekt. |
| Stefan Herzog: Eine Schande, dass wir im Büro sitzen müssen. |
| John: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Linda Müller: Guten Morgen. |
| Stefan Herzog: Linda, guten Morgen. Das Wetter heute ist wunderschön. |
| Linda Müller: Sie haben Recht! Die Temperaturen sind geradezu perfekt. |
| Stefan Herzog: Eine Schande, dass wir im Büro sitzen müssen. |
| John: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Linda Müller: Good morning. |
| Stefan Herzog: Linda, good morning. Today the weather is wonderful. |
| Linda Müller: You are right! The temperature is just perfect. |
| Stefan Herzog: It's a shame, having to work at the office! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: In the conversation, we heard a nice and simple morning greeting between co-workers. |
| Jennifer: Yes, they were both polite and relaxed, weren’t they? |
| John: I think so. What is the atmosphere like in workplaces in Germany? |
| Jennifer: It depends on the type of industry. |
| John: Oh? Can you explain the differences for us? |
| Jennifer: In a creative environment, the hierarchy is flat and everyone is on an equal level, so people would use the informal “you”, Du. |
| John: I guess that the relationships in those types of environments are more friendly. |
| Jennifer: That’s right. |
| John: How do you know how to behave and how relaxed things are? |
| Jennifer: Well, you can try and read the atmosphere, but it’s also likely that you will be told about that in the job interview. |
| John: I hope so! Then you can start your career off on the right foot. |
| Jennifer: First impressions are important! |
| John: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Jennifer: Guten Morgen [natural native speed] |
| John: good morning |
| Jennifer: Guten Morgen[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jennifer: Guten Morgen [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Jennifer: Wetter [natural native speed] |
| John: the weather |
| Jennifer: Wetter[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jennifer: Wetter [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Jennifer: wunderschön [natural native speed] |
| John: gorgeous |
| Jennifer: wunderschön[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jennifer: wunderschön [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Jennifer: Temperatur [natural native speed] |
| John: temperature |
| Jennifer: Temperatur[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jennifer: Temperatur [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Jennifer: geradezu [natural native speed] |
| John: almost |
| Jennifer: geradezu[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jennifer: geradezu [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Jennifer: Schande [natural native speed] |
| John: shame |
| Jennifer: Schande[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jennifer: Schande [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Jennifer: Büro [natural native speed] |
| John: office |
| Jennifer: Büro[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jennifer: Büro [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Jennifer: sitzen [natural native speed] |
| John: to sit |
| Jennifer: sitzen[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jennifer: sitzen [natural native speed] |
| John: And lastly.. |
| Jennifer: müssen [natural native speed] |
| John: must |
| Jennifer: müssen[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jennifer: müssen [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| John: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Jennifer: Sie haben recht! |
| John: meaning "You are right!" |
| John: What can you tell us about this? |
| Jennifer: Recht haben means “to be justified” or “to be right” and we use it when agreeing with someone. |
| John: How is the key phrase different? |
| Jennifer: Sie haben recht is more formal, and means “I agree with you.” |
| John: So it’s better for formal business situations. |
| Jennifer: Yes. You could also say Ich stimme Ihnen zu |
| John: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Jennifer: Sure. For example, you can say.. Sie haben auf jeden Fall Recht. |
| John: ..which means "You are definitely right." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Jennifer: Eine Schande |
| John: meaning "a shame". What can you tell us about this? |
| Jennifer: Schande is a strong negative word that means that something is not pleasant at all. |
| John: How do you use that in a business meeting? |
| Jennifer: You should only use it if you really need to express your disappointment. |
| John: Can you give us a scenario when it might be used? |
| Jennifer: Um, maybe if the terms of the contract are not being followed or respected by the other party. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Jennifer: Sure. For example, you can say.. Es ist eine Schande, dass die Lieferung nicht rechtzeitig stattgefunden hat. |
| John: .. which means "It's a shame that they didn't deliver the order on time." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| John: In this lesson, you'll learn how to politely greet your supervisor. Jennifer, can you give us some hints and tips for doing this? |
| Jennifer: The first thing to do, is to greet them with something like “good morning”. |
| John: How do you say that in German? |
| Jennifer: Guten Morgen! |
| John: How about at other times of the day? |
| Jennifer: You can say Guten Tag! |
| John: “Good afternoon!” |
| Jennifer: Or Guten Abend! |
| John: “Good evening!” So, now that we’ve done our basic greeting, what’s next? |
| Jennifer: I think a safe topic to include in greetings is the weather. |
| John: I suppose that is the same in any language! |
| Jennifer: That’s right. A simple sentence to start with is Das Wetter heute ist wunderschön. |
| John: “The weather today is wonderful.” |
| Jennifer: In that sentence, Das Wetter is the subject, heute is today, ist is a conjugated verb, and wunderschön is an adjective. |
| John: It seems pretty straightforward to create a sentence about the weather. |
| Jennifer: It is! Take the sentence Das Wetter ist toll. |
| John: “The weather is great.” |
| Jennifer: You can change the adjective toll, to other adjectives. |
| John: There is a list of them in the lesson notes. |
| Jennifer: If you want to talk about temperature, you should start your sentence with Die Temperaturen. This is only used to talk about degrees. |
| John: Can we have an example sentence using that? |
| Jennifer: Die Temperaturen sind hoch. |
| John: “The temperatures are high.” |
Outro |
| John: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Jennifer: Auf Wiedersehen! |
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