Learn how to talk to the owner of an apartment you want to rent
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Intermediate Series Season 2, Lesson 37. How to get the apartment of your dreams in Germany. Hello and welcome back to GermanPod101, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn German. I'm joined in the studio by… |
| Judith: Hello, everyone. Judith here. |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk to the owner of an apartment you want to rent. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place first one the phone and then at a German apartment to rent. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Mike and a real estate agent. The speakers are discussing business, therefore they will be speaking formal German. |
| Judith: Remember, commenting each day… |
| Chuck: And posting in the forum are two great ways to get answers. |
| Judith: Community members, Chuck… |
| Chuck: She means Judith. |
| Judith: And the staff are all ready to help. |
| Chuck: Definitely take advantage. Alright, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| D (on the phone): Casa Immobilien, guten Tag, mein Name ist Maria Schultze. |
| A (on the phone): Ja, hallo. Ich bin Mike Marshmellow. Ich interessiere mich für die Wohnung in Berlin-Mitte, die Sie inseriert haben. |
| D: Welche? Wir haben zur Zeit mehrere inseriert. |
| A: Die Wohnung in der Gartenstraße 10, 67 Quadratmeter. |
| D: Ahh, ja. Sie rufen an wegen eines Besichtigungstermins? |
| A: Ja. Wann kann ich mir die Wohnung anschauen? |
| D: Morgen früh um 10 Uhr zeige ich schon einem anderen Interessenten die Wohnung. |
| A: Das passt gut, ich werde auch kommen. Danke! |
| D: Auf Wiederhören! |
| A: Auf Wiederhören! |
| --- |
| D: Guten Morgen! |
| A: Guten Morgen! |
| D: Sie sind alleine da? |
| A: Ja. |
| D: Es ist gerade erst 10, lassen Sie uns noch fünf Minuten auf den anderen Interessenten warten. |
| A: Okay, kein Problem. |
| D: Hmm, er scheint nicht zu kommen. Also, gehen wir! |
| D: Das hier ist die Wohnung. Sie wurde gerade erst renoviert. Das hier ist die Küche, und dieses Zimmer wurde vom Vormieter als Schlafzimmer genutzt. Die Badewanne im Badezimmer kann man auch als Dusche benutzen... |
| A: Was ist mit dem Fleck an der Wand? |
| D: Hmm... das machen wir noch sauber. |
| Judith: Und jetzt langsam. Now slowly. |
| D (on the phone): Casa Immobilien, guten Tag, mein Name ist Maria Schultze. |
| A (on the phone): Ja, hallo. Ich bin Mike Marshmellow. Ich interessiere mich für die Wohnung in Berlin-Mitte, die Sie inseriert haben. |
| D: Welche? Wir haben zur Zeit mehrere inseriert. |
| A: Die Wohnung in der Gartenstraße 10, 67 Quadratmeter. |
| D: Ahh, ja. Sie rufen an wegen eines Besichtigungstermins? |
| A: Ja. Wann kann ich mir die Wohnung anschauen? |
| D: Morgen früh um 10 Uhr zeige ich schon einem anderen Interessenten die Wohnung. |
| A: Das passt gut, ich werde auch kommen. Danke! |
| D: Auf Wiederhören! |
| A: Auf Wiederhören! |
| --- |
| D: Guten Morgen! |
| A: Guten Morgen! |
| D: Sie sind alleine da? |
| A: Ja. |
| D: Es ist gerade erst 10, lassen Sie uns noch fünf Minuten auf den anderen Interessenten warten. |
| A: Okay, kein Problem. |
| D: Hmm, er scheint nicht zu kommen. Also, gehen wir! |
| D: Das hier ist die Wohnung. Sie wurde gerade erst renoviert. Das hier ist die Küche, und dieses Zimmer wurde vom Vormieter als Schlafzimmer genutzt. Die Badewanne im Badezimmer kann man auch als Dusche benutzen... |
| A: Was ist mit dem Fleck an der Wand? |
| D: Hmm... das machen wir noch sauber. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| D (on the phone): Casa Immobilien, guten Tag, mein Name ist Maria Schultze. |
| D (on the phone): Casa Real Estate, good day, my name is Maria Schultze. |
| A (on the phone): Ja, hallo. Ich bin Mike Marshmellow. Ich interessiere mich für die Wohnung in Berlin-Mitte, die Sie inseriert haben. |
| A (on the phone): Yes, hello. I am Mike Marshmellow. I am interested in the apartment in Berlin-Mitte, which you advertised. |
| D: Welche? Wir haben zur Zeit mehrere inseriert. |
| D: Which one? We are advertising several at the moment. |
| A: Die Wohnung in der Gartenstraße 10, 67 Quadratmeter. |
| A: The apartment in Gartenstraße 10, 67 square metres. |
| D: Ahh, ja. Sie rufen an wegen eines Besichtigungstermins? |
| D: Ahh, yes. You are calling about an appointment to visit? |
| A: Ja. Wann kann ich mir die Wohnung anschauen? |
| A: Yes. When can I have a look at the apartment? |
| D: Morgen früh um 10 Uhr zeige ich schon einem anderen Interessenten die Wohnung. |
| D: Tomorrow morning at 10 I am already showing the apartment to another interested party. |
| A: Das passt gut, ich werde auch kommen. Danke! |
| A: That's good, I will come as well. Thanks! |
| D: Auf Wiederhören! |
| D: Goodbye! |
| A: Auf Wiederhören! |
| A: Goodbye! |
| --- |
| D: Guten Morgen! |
| D: Good morning! |
| A: Guten Morgen! |
| A: Good morning! |
| D: Sie sind alleine da? |
| D: You are here alone? |
| A: Ja. |
| A: Yes. |
| D: Es ist gerade erst 10, lassen Sie uns noch fünf Minuten auf den anderen Interessenten warten. |
| D: It only just turned 10, let's wait another five minutes for the other interested party. |
| A: Okay, kein Problem. |
| A: Okay, no problem. |
| D: Hmm, er scheint nicht zu kommen. Also, gehen wir! |
| D: Hmm, he doesn't seem to be coming. So, let's go! |
| D: Das hier ist die Wohnung. Sie wurde gerade erst renoviert. Das hier ist die Küche, und dieses Zimmer wurde vom Vormieter als Schlafzimmer genutzt. Die Badewanne im Badezimmer kann man auch als Dusche benutzen... |
| D: This is the apartment. It has just been renovated. This is the kitchen and this room was used by the previous tenant as a bedroom. You can use the bathtub in the bathroom as a shower as well… |
| A: Was ist mit dem Fleck an der Wand? |
| A: What about this stain on the wall? |
| D: Hmm... das machen wir noch sauber. |
| D: Hmm... we'll clean that still. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Ok, this is not particularly German specific but I think you may want to know the steps to renting an apartment. |
| Chuck: That’s right. Perhaps the first time living in Germany is actually the first time not living with your parents. |
| Judith: And there may be some changes in here to what you’re used to. |
| Chuck: That’s right. So I’d say one way to start is by looking for an apartment ad in the local newspaper, a local bulletin board or on the internet. |
| Judith: Yes. Once you found a suitable apartment, contact the person who put it up. If this is an individual, you’re in luck because you won’t have to pay a brokerage fee and you may also be able to make deals such as keeping some of the previous tenant’s furniture. |
| Chuck: The companies will generally insist that people clean out absolutely everything and they’ll charge brokerage fees unless the apartment is hard to rent out. |
| Judith: Then make an appointment to see the apartment. Think of all the questions you may want to ask about the apartment or the renting conditions beforehand because it’s considerably easier to get answers during a tour than on the phone afterwards. |
| Chuck: If you like the apartment, visit the owner, agree on a date when you can move in, sign the paperwork and pay the security deposit, between finding the right apartment and being able to move in there’s usually more than 10 days. |
| Judith: There may even be months if the previous tenant hasn’t moved out yet or if the apartment needs to be professionally cleaned or repainted. If you want to move in more quickly, you may come to the agreement that you will do the cleaning or repainting in exchange for not having to do it when you move out. |
| Chuck: Yeah, I’d say that you need to give yourself at least a month. Well, three weeks at the minimum to be able to find a place and move in. |
| Judith: The day you get your key to the apartment, the janitor will note the state of the apartment in very many words, describing each flaw. It may not be what you want to hear at that point but you should help him be very precise and find everything that’s not up to par because, when you move out, his description will be what your apartment will be measured against. |
| Chuck: So if there’s, for example, a flaw in the floor tiling and he doesn’t put it in the description, the apartment owner will just assume that you created that flaw and make you pay for the fix. |
| Judith: After the janitor’s gone, you can move in your things. |
| Chuck: Now just bring your apartment contract to the citizen office or the foreigner’s office and have them note your change of residence. |
| Judith: Don’t forget to bring your contract. |
| Chuck: And your passport. So let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: First word, [Immobilie]. |
| Chuck: “Property” or “real estate”. |
| Judith: [Immobilie, Immobilie] This word is feminine and the plural is [Immobilien]. Next, [Sich interessieren]. |
| Chuck: “To be interested” or “to interest”. |
| Judith: [Sich interessieren, sich interessieren] You use this word with [Für]. Next, [Inserieren]. |
| Chuck: To put an ad in the paper. |
| Judith: [Inserieren, inserieren] Next, [Besichtigen]. |
| Chuck: “To tour” or “inspect”. |
| Judith: [Besichtigen, besichtigen] Next, [Interessent]. |
| Chuck: “Interested person” or “interested party”. |
| Judith: [Interessent, Interessent] This word is masculine and the plural is [Interessenten]. Next, [Renovieren]. |
| Chuck: To renovate. |
| Judith: [Renovieren, renovieren] Next, [Vormieter]. |
| Chuck: Previous tenant. |
| Judith: [Vormieter, Vormieter] This word is masculine and the plural is the same. Next, [Nutzen]. |
| Chuck: To utilize or employ something. |
| Judith: [Nutzen, nutzen] Next, [Badewanne]. |
| Chuck: Bathtub. |
| Judith: [Badewanne, Badewanne] This word is feminine and the plural is [Badewannen]. Next, [Dusche]. |
| Chuck: Shower. |
| Judith: [Dusche, Dusche] feminine, and the plural is [Duschen]. Next, [Fleck]. |
| Chuck: “Stain”, “spot” or “mark”. |
| Judith: [Fleck, Fleck, der Fleck] and the plural is [Flecken]. Next [Wand]. |
| Chuck: Wall. |
| Judith: [Wand, Wand, die Wand] and the plural is [Wände]. Next, [Sauber]. |
| Chuck: Clean. |
| Judith: [Sauber, sauber] |
| 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 [Besichtigungstermin] |
| Chuck: Viewing appointment. |
| Judith: A combination of [Besichtigen]. |
| Chuck: “To tour” or “inspect”. |
| Judith: And [Termin]. |
| Chuck: Appointment. |
| Judith: And then there’s the question of whether to use [Nutzen] or [Benutzen]. [Benutzen] is the more common way to say “to use”, but [Nutzen] is “to use” with an extra meaning of drawing an advantage from something. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: So this is a continuation of our series on German word order. Today we shall look in depth at objects. |
| Judith: The default play is for dative objects, that is indirect objects, is right after the verb and accusative objects go right after. As in [Ich gebe dir ein Geschenk]. |
| Chuck: “I give you a present” or “I give a present to you”. However, this default place is already upset if there’s something other than the subject at the beginning of the sentence. As [We learned] before, the verb is always in second place in the sentence. And this means that the subject will have to make due with the place right after the verb. |
| Judith: The object or objects then follow right after the subject, in fourth place. For example, [Deshalb gebe ich dir ein Geschenk]. |
| Chuck: “That’s why I'm giving you a present.” If there are two objects in a sentence, one indirect and one direct, it’s also customary to place adverbials in between. If you want to mention a time, a place or a way of doing things, put it between the one object and the other. |
| Judith: For example, [Ich gebe dir morgen auf der Arbeit überraschend ein Geschenk]. |
| Chuck: “I will unexpectedly give you a present tomorrow at work.” Another matter is when people decide to move objects on their own for emphasis. The two most attention grabbing parts of a German sentence are the very beginning and the very end. If the most important part of the sentence is the object, there’s nothing preventing you from putting it at the beginning. |
| Judith: You could say [Dir gebe ich morgen ein Geschenk]. |
| Chuck: I will give you a present tomorrow. |
| Judith: [Oder, Dein Geschenk gebe ich dir morgen.] |
| Chuck: “I will give your present tomorrow.” As you read a lot of German or speak it a lot with native speakers, these kind of changes in word order will start to come up naturally. Until then, pay a lot of attention to how Germans phrase things. |
Outro |
| Chuck: That just about does it for today. Premium Members, use the Review Track to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Judith: Available in the premium section of the website… |
| Chuck: The Learning Center… |
| Judith: And through iTunes via the Premium Feed… |
| Chuck: The review track gives you vocabulary and phrases followed by a short pause so you can repeat the words aloud. |
| Judith: The best way to get good fast. |
| Chuck: Okay, see you next week! |
| Judith: Bis nächste Woche! |
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