Learn how to talk about working conditions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Hello and welcome to GermanPod101. |
| Judith: This is your one stop on the internet to learn modern, authentic German. |
| Chuck: While having fun too. |
| Judith: Today we are doing an Intermediate Lesson. |
| Chuck: Please join us and improve your German. |
| Judith: In this lesson, you will learn how to talk about working conditions. |
| Chuck: Ever wanted to vent about your former boss? Now you’ll be able to do so in German. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at a German home. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Mike and his German friend, just as before. The speakers are friends, therefore the speakers will be speaking… |
| Judith: Informal German, of course. |
| Chuck: Now, before we listen to the conversation… |
| Judith: We want to ask… |
| Chuck: Do you read the lesson notes while you listen? |
| Judith: We received an email about this study tip. |
| Chuck: So we were wondering if you tried it and if so… |
| Judith: What you think of it. |
| Chuck: You can leave us feedback in the comment section of this lesson. Ok, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| D: Hast du schon gehört? Die ganzen Discounter sollen sehr schlechte Arbeitgeber sein. Eine Freundin von mir arbeitet da und muss jede Woche 5 unentgeltliche Überstunden machen! |
| A: Wirklich?? Wieso sucht sie sich nicht einen anderen Job? |
| D: Jobs sind schwer zu finden im Moment. Außerdem hat sie ein Baby, das sie versorgen muss. |
| A: Ich lasse mich jedenfalls nicht ausbeuten. Dafür bin ich nicht nach Deutschland gekommen. Meine letzte Arbeitsstelle, als Sozialarbeiter in Maine, war schon nicht so toll. Jeden Tag um 5 Uhr aufstehen, nur 5 Urlaubstage im Jahr... |
| D: Nur 5 Tage??? Hier kriegst du mindestens 4 Wochen Urlaub. |
| A: 4 Wochen, wow! Dann kann ich ja in den Urlaub fahren! |
| D: Klar! Wann warst du das letzte Mal im Urlaub? |
| A: Hmm... 2005, als ich noch Student war. Ich bin mit ein paar Freunden in den Urlaub gefahren. Wir haben uns ein Auto gemietet und sind einfach losgefahren. Die meiste Zeit haben wir in Mexiko am Strand verbracht. |
| Judith: Und jetzt langsam. |
| D: Hast du schon gehört? Die ganzen Discounter sollen sehr schlechte Arbeitgeber sein. Eine Freundin von mir arbeitet da und muss jede Woche 5 unentgeltliche Überstunden machen! |
| A: Wirklich?? Wieso sucht sie sich nicht einen anderen Job? |
| D: Jobs sind schwer zu finden im Moment. Außerdem hat sie ein Baby, das sie versorgen muss. |
| A: Ich lasse mich jedenfalls nicht ausbeuten. Dafür bin ich nicht nach Deutschland gekommen. Meine letzte Arbeitsstelle, als Sozialarbeiter in Maine, war schon nicht so toll. Jeden Tag um 5 Uhr aufstehen, nur 5 Urlaubstage im Jahr... |
| D: Nur 5 Tage??? Hier kriegst du mindestens 4 Wochen Urlaub. |
| A: 4 Wochen, wow! Dann kann ich ja in den Urlaub fahren! |
| D: Klar! Wann warst du das letzte Mal im Urlaub? |
| A: Hmm... 2005, als ich noch Student war. Ich bin mit ein paar Freunden in den Urlaub gefahren. Wir haben uns ein Auto gemietet und sind einfach losgefahren. Die meiste Zeit haben wir in Mexiko am Strand verbracht. |
| Judith: Und jetzt mit Übersetzung. |
| D: Hast du schon gehört? Die ganzen Discounter sollen sehr schlechte Arbeitgeber sein. Eine Freundin von mir arbeitet da und muss jede Woche 5 unentgeltliche Überstunden machen! |
| D: Did you hear? All those discounters are supposed to be very bad employers. A friend of mine works there and has to do 5 hours of unpaid overtime every week! |
| A: Wirklich?? Wieso sucht sie sich nicht einen anderen Job? |
| A: Really?? Why doesn't she look for another job? |
| D: Jobs sind schwer zu finden im Moment. Außerdem hat sie ein Baby, das sie versorgen muss. |
| D: Jobs are hard to find at the moment. Besides she has a baby that she must care for. |
| A: Ich lasse mich jedenfalls nicht ausbeuten. Dafür bin ich nicht nach Deutschland gekommen. Meine letzte Arbeitsstelle, als Sozialarbeiter in Maine, war schon nicht so toll. Jeden Tag um 5 Uhr aufstehen, nur 5 Urlaubstage im Jahr... |
| A: I for one don't let myself be exploited. That's not what I came to Germany for. My last workplace, as a social worker in Maine, already wasn't so nice. Getting up at 5am every day, just 5 holidays a year... |
| D: Nur 5 Tage??? Hier kriegst du mindestens 4 Wochen Urlaub. |
| D: Just 5 days??? Here you will get at least 4 weeks of vacation time. |
| A: 4 Wochen, wow! Dann kann ich ja in den Urlaub fahren! |
| A: 4 weeks, wow! Then I can go on holidays! |
| D: Klar! Wann warst du das letzte Mal im Urlaub? |
| D: Of course! When was the last time you were on holidays? |
| A: Hmm... 2005, als ich noch Student war. Ich bin mit ein paar Freunden in den Urlaub gefahren. Wir haben uns ein Auto gemietet und sind einfach losgefahren. Die meiste Zeit haben wir in Mexiko am Strand verbracht. |
| A: Hmm... in 2005, when I was still a student. I went on holidays with a couple friends. We rented a car and just drove away. We spent most of the time in Mexico on the beach. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Is this true? Is it possible that in the states you only get five days of vacation? |
| Chuck: Yeah, absolutely. There’s actually no required amount of time for vacation. |
| Judith: No required amount. You mean they could actually like not give me any? |
| Chuck: Yeah, it’s actually the only country among first world countries like that. |
| Judith: Yeah, I can only imagine. Well, the dialogue already told us that in Germany you typically get four weeks or more because that’s the legal guaranteed amount. By law you’re required to get at least four weeks of movable holidays. |
| Chuck: And just think, one in four Americans don’t get any vacation days a year. |
| Judith: Amazing. I find that hard to believe. I mean, when are you going to relax from your job and you know do taxes or go on vacation or celebrate a birthday or… |
| Chuck: Well, I hear people are losing jobs pretty fast so I guess between jobs. |
| Judith: Amazing. So, in addition to the four weeks of movable holidays, they’re also 9 to 13 non-movable public holidays. I say 9 to 13 because the exact amount depends on the state. If you’re in a catholic state or a protestant or a mixed state, this will influence what kind of religious holidays are recognized. And as for sick days, you typically don’t have to worry about running out of them either. They’re not counted from your vacation days or, you know, when you’re sick, you’re sick. |
| Chuck: Yeah. Also keep in mind here that it’s pretty much impossible to be out of health insurance. In fact, it’s actually illegal, right? |
| Judith: Yeah. And the money for the insurance goes straight out of your salary and your employer contributes half. So if you’re employed then you don’t even have to worry about it. And if you’re not employed then your health insurance is covered by the state, and of course if you’re freelancing you have to pay for it for yourself, but there’s no option of not having it. And, of course, if you have a family and they don’t work then they’re covered by the working parents’ health insurance. That way everybody’s covered. |
| Chuck: It sounds good. |
| Judith: If you’re an employee it’s also impossible to opt out of the national pension system. |
| Chuck: Yeah, as a freelancer you’re responsible for that yourself. |
| Judith: Yeah, as a freelancer you can decide how you want to take care of your old age. But as an employee, the state decides it for you. |
| Chuck: So let’s take a look at the vocabulary for the lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: First word is [Wieso]. |
| Chuck: Why? |
| Judith: [Wieso, wieso] Next, [Mindestens]. |
| Chuck: At least. |
| Judith: [Mindestens, mindestens] Next, [Unentgeltlich]. |
| Chuck: Unpaid. |
| Judith: [Unentgeltlich, unentgeltlich] Next, [Überstunde]. |
| Chuck: Overtime hour. |
| Judith: [Überstunde, Überstunde] Next, [Außerdem]. |
| Chuck: Besides. |
| Judith: [Außerdem, außerdem] Next, [Versorgen]. |
| Chuck: “To supply” or “support”. |
| Judith: [Versorgen, versorgen] Next, [Ausbeuten]. |
| Chuck: To exploit. |
| Judith: [Ausbeuten, ausbeuten] Next, [Dafür]. |
| Chuck: For that. |
| Judith: [Dafür, dafür] Next, [Arbeitsstelle]. |
| Chuck: “Position” or “workplace”. |
| Judith: [Arbeitsstelle, die Arbeitsstelle], this word is feminine. Next, [Urlaub]. |
| Chuck: “Vacation” or “holiday”. |
| Judith: [Urlaub, der Urlaub], this word is masculine. Next, [Mieten]. |
| Chuck: To rent. |
| Judith: [Mieten, mieten] Next, [Los]. |
| Chuck: A prefix for the start of an action. |
| Judith: [Los, los] Next, [Strand]. |
| Chuck: Beach. |
| Judith: [Strand, der Strand], this word is masculine. Next, [Zeit verbringen]. |
| Chuck: To spend time. |
| Judith: [Zeit verbringen, Zeit verbringen]. |
| 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 or phrase we’re looking at is [Los]. |
| Chuck: Hey, wait. I’ve seen that word before. It’s used with a lot of verbs, isn’t it? It marks that the action is only just starting. |
| Judith: For example, [Losgehen] or [Losfahren]. |
| Chuck: Both mean “to get going”. |
| Judith: [Losfliegen] |
| Chuck: To start flying. |
| Judith: [Losschwimmen] |
| Chuck: “To start to swim”. Well, you get the idea. |
| Judith: And now, for a phrase that came up in the dialogue - [Die ganzen Discounter sollen sehr schlechte Arbeitgeber sein]. |
| Chuck: Literally, “All those discounters shall be very bad employers”. |
| Judith: You can already see that the word [Sollen] is used in a new word here. In German, we use [Sollen] in the sense of “supposed to be”. So [Die ganzen Discounter sollen sehr schlechte Arbeitgeber sein] means… |
| Chuck: “All those discounters are supposed to be very bad employers”. How about another example? |
| Judith: [Der Zug soll um 6 Uhr ankommen]. |
| Chuck: The train is supposed to arrive at 6 o’clock. |
| Judith: You can say this, for example, if you read this in the time table but you think that the train might be delayed. |
| Chuck: Now you can guess how to say “The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow”. |
| Judith: [Das Wetter soll morgen schön sein.] This is a very common thing to say. Now let’s look at the grammar for today. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: Today we’ll look at the [Perfekt], the German perfect tense. This tense is used when you’re talking about the past. It’s almost exclusively in spoken German. |
| Judith: To form the [Perfekt], you would typically use a form of [Haben] and then put the past participle of the verb that you actually meant to use. For example, [Ich habe gesehen]. |
| Chuck: I’ve seen. |
| Judith: [Du hast gehört]. |
| Chuck: You’ve heard. |
| Judith: [Er hat gesagt]. |
| Chuck: He’d said. |
| Judith: If you understood our explanations about the past participle in the previous two lessons, this should be relatively easy now. |
| Chuck: There are some verbs that use [Sein] instead of [Haben]. You may recognize this from Spanish, French or Italian which also have the split between “be” and “have” as auxiliaries. |
| Judith: In German, the verbs that use [Sein] are mostly verbs of motion. For example, [Kommen] which goes [Ich bin gekommen]. |
| Chuck: I’ve come. |
| Judith: [Ich bin gegangen] |
| Chuck: I’ve gone. |
| Judith: [Ich bin geflogen] |
| Chuck: I’ve flown. |
| Judith: And so on. |
| Chuck: Since the past participle can be regular and the perfect tense can be formed with either [Sein] or [Haben], it is best if you learn the corresponding forms whenever you’re studying vocabulary. |
| Judith: That’s why we add this information as a note to every verb. If you see [Weak] verb there, this means that the verb is boringly regular in all aspects. But if you see a list of forms instead, the verb is not quite regular. It might change its vowel, it might have an irregular participle, it might use [Sein] for the Perfekt. For example, for the verb [Lesen] you will see [Er liest, Er las, Er hat gelesen]. |
| Chuck: He reads, he read, he has read. |
| Judith: The second form there, [Er las], is the perpetuated past tense which we’ll cover later. For now just make sure you understood the perfect tense. |
Outro |
| Chuck: Oh that just about does it for today. |
| Judith: Ready to test what you just learned? |
| Chuck: Make this lesson’s vocabulary stick by using lesson specific flashcards in the Learning Center. |
| Judith: There’s a reason everybody uses flashcards. |
| Chuck: Yeah, they work. |
| Judith: They really do help memorization. |
| Chuck: You can get flashcards for this lesson at… |
| Judith: GermanPod101.com. |
| Chuck: Ok, thank you very much for listening, see you next time. |
| Judith: Bis nächstes Mal! |
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