Learn what you can expect for lunchtime in Germany
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 |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Intermediate Season 4, Lesson 8 – “Participate in a Business Lunch in German” |
| Judith: Hi, my name is [Judith] and I’m joined here by Chuck. |
| Chuck: Hello everyone and welcome back to GermanPod101.com |
| Judith: What are we learning today? |
| Chuck: In this lesson you’ll learn how to gossip about a former workplace. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at a Cuban restaurant in Berlin. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Joe and [Anke] |
| Judith: The speakers are friends therefore they’ll be speaking informal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| J: Ich hatte mal Arbeit als angestellter Übersetzer bei einer Firma in Washington. |
| A: Wirklich? Es gibt nicht so viele angestellte Übersetzer, oder? |
| J: Stimmt. Die Firma war auch echt komisch. Ich nenne keine Namen, aber... das Büro war in einem halb abgerissenen Gebäude und alles war heruntergekommen, aber wir sollten trotzdem im Anzug zur Arbeit kommen. |
| A: Hattet ihr feste Arbeitszeiten? |
| J: Ja, wir waren schon jeden Tag von 9 Uhr morgens bis 6 Uhr abends im Büro, egal ob es Aufträge gab oder nicht. Es war schrecklich. |
| A: Ja, das kann ich mir vorstellen. Wenn man nichts zu tun hat, ist die gefühlte Zeit viel länger. |
| J: Außerdem gab es keine Restaurants in der Nähe des Büros, nur eine Kantine, und das Essen da schmeckte immer wie gekochtes Papier. |
| A: Äääh. Da nehme ich mir dann doch lieber einen Snack mit und esse abends erst richtig. |
| J: In Amerika ist das sowieso normal. Wir essen oft nur einen Snack zu Mittag. Trotzdem. Der Kaffee aus der Kantine war auch schrecklich. |
| A: Hatte diese Arbeit denn zumindest ein Gutes? |
| J: Ja. Ich habe dadurch viele Leute kennengelernt... |
| A: ... und die geknüpften Kontakte helfen dir heute als Freiberufler. Du kriegst sicher viele Aufträge auf diesem Weg, oder? |
| J: Genau. |
| A: Nicht schlecht. |
| J: I once worked as a salaried translator at a company in Washington. |
| A: Really? There aren't so many salaried translators, right? |
| J: That's right. The company was also really weird. I won't name any names, but... the office was in a half torn-down building and everything was rundown, but despite that we still had to wear a suit to the office. |
| A: Did you have set working hours? |
| J: Yes, we were in the office every day from 9am to 6pm....., regardless of whether there were tasks to do or not. It was horrible. |
| A: Yes, I can imagine. When you have nothing to do, time seems to go slower. |
| J: Besides that, there were no restaurants near the office, only a company cafeteria, and the food there always tasted like boiled paper. |
| A: Ugh, then I'd rather take a snack along and eat a proper meal in the evening. |
| J: In America that's normal anyway. We often just eat a snack at lunch. Anyway. The coffee from the cafeteria was also horrible. |
| A: Was there at least something good about this job? |
| J: Yes. I met many people there. |
| A: ... and the contacts you made there help you today as a freelancer. You certainly get a lot of jobs this way, right? |
| J: Exactly. |
| A: Not bad. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chuck: I’m hungry. Let’s talk about German lunch! |
| Judith: Well, as you can guess it’s not just a snack typically, lunch is the biggest meal of the day in Germany. |
| Chuck: For many German families, it’s the only time of the day where they have warm food. |
| Judith: Because breakfast and dinner are just bread normally or maybe yogurt or Muesli. |
| Chuck: Note that the lunch is only one dish, which contains meat, [stipple] and vegetables. I noticed when I went to a cafeteria in university it was pretty much some kind of meat with some kind of sauce on it, some kind of salad and then maybe some kind of potatoes. That’s pretty much what we had every day. |
| Judith: Yeah, sounds about right for German food. Dessert is common too, but many families would only have an appetizer, soup or salad before the main meal at restaurants. |
| Chuck: Germans commonly drink water, [Apfelschorle] that is apple juice mixed with mineral water or juice with lunch. So it’s more common with younger people as beer and wine are typically kept for later meals. Well, that is unless you’re in the South, I know when moving out to eat when I lived in [Heilbronn], my boss would quite often have a nice big half liter or [Hefeweizen] or weak beer for lunch. |
| Judith: Yeah. In the South, beer is an acceptable beverage at any time of the day. |
| Chuck: Also notice liquid bread. |
| Judith: Before starting to eat, you must wish everyone [Guten Appetit], however praying before the meal is optional. Only some people do it. |
| Chuck: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: The first word we shall see is? |
| Judith: [anstellen] |
| Chuck: “To employ” or with [sich], “to get in line” or “to act as if”. |
| Judith: [anstellen, anstellen] and [an] splits off. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [komisch] |
| Chuck: “Strange, weird” or “funny”. |
| Judith: [komisch, komisch] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [herunterkommen] |
| Chuck: “To come down” or “run down”. |
| Judith: [herunterkommen, ] and the [herunter] splits off. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [trotzdem] |
| Chuck: “Despite that” or “anyway”. |
| Judith: [trotzdem, trotzdem] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Anzug] |
| Chuck: “Suit”. |
| Judith: [Anzug, Anzug] and the plural is [Anzüge] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Fest] |
| Chuck: “Solid”. |
| Judith: [Fest, Fest] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Auftrag] |
| Chuck: “Assignment” or “task”. |
| Judith: [Auftrag, der Auftrag] and the plural is [Anzüge] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [morgens] |
| Chuck: “In the morning”. |
| Judith: [morgens, morgens] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [schrecklich] |
| Chuck: “Awful” or “terrible”. |
| Judith: [schrecklich, schrecklich] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [sich vorstellen] |
| Chuck: “To imagine” or “to introduce oneself”. |
| Judith: [sich vorstellen, sich vorstellen] and the [vor] splits off. |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [Kantine] |
| Chuck: “Company cafeteria”. |
| Judith: [Kantine, Kantine] and the plural is [Kantinen] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [sowieso] |
| Chuck: “Anyway”. |
| Judith: [sowieso, sowieso] |
| Chuck: Next? |
| Judith: [kriegen] |
| Chuck: “To receive”. |
| Judith: [kriegen, kriegen] |
| 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 phrase we’ll look at is [es gab] |
| Chuck: “There was”. |
| Judith: This is the past tense of [es gibt] |
| Chuck: “There is”. |
| Judith: And for those who don’t remember [hatte] |
| Chuck: “Had”. |
| Judith: Is the past tense of [haben] |
| Chuck: “To have”. |
| Judith: Next, there’s the word [dadurch] |
| Chuck: “Through that”. |
| Judith: Yes. You’ll notice that the [da] at the beginning usually means “that” so, “through that”. Then, there’s [ein Gutes] |
| Chuck: “When good thing”. |
| Judith: The “es” of this means that it’s neutral, like a thing, “one good thing”. [Ein Gutes] And finally, the expression [auf diesem Weg] |
| Chuck: “This way”. |
| Judith: I think none of these were particularly difficult today. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The focus of this lesson is the past participle. |
| Judith: Participles are forms of verbs that can be used like adjectives or adverbs. In English, an example of such a participle could be “torn down” in the phrase “This torn down building”. |
| Chuck: This sentence clearly shows the verb “to tear down” has been turned into something resembling an adjective and the meaning is passive. The building isn’t tearing down anything, somebody else is tearing down the building. |
| Judith: In German, this past participle is normally formed by adding a “ge” before the third person singular, that is the “he, she, it” present tense form of the verb. For example, you have [sagen] |
| Chuck: “To say”. |
| Judith: [Er sagt] |
| Chuck: “He says”. |
| Judith: And the participle is [gesagt] |
| Chuck: “Said”. |
| Judith: With the [ge] at the beginning, [gesagt], “ge”. Then, another example [kochen] |
| Chuck: “To cook”. |
| Judith: [Er kocht] |
| Chuck: “He cooks”. |
| Judith: [gekocht] |
| Chuck: “Cooked”. |
| Judith: [fühlen] |
| Chuck: “To feel”. |
| Judith: [Er fühlt] |
| Chuck: “He feels”. |
| Judith: [gefühlt] |
| Chuck: “Felt”. |
| Judith: [knüpfen] |
| Chuck: “To knit”. |
| Judith: [Er knüpft] |
| Chuck: “He knits”. |
| Judith: [geknüpft] |
| Chuck: “Knitted”. |
| Judith: [Lernen] |
| Chuck: “To learn”. |
| Judith: [Er lernt] |
| Chuck: “He learns”. |
| Judith: [gelernt] |
| Chuck: “Learned”. There are also regular forms. One [precarity] though is for verbs with prefixes. |
| Judith: If there’s a non-separable prefix, one that would normally not split off, then we don’t add any “ge” for the participle. The participle remains the same as the third person singular form, like [verschicken] |
| Chuck: “To send”. |
| Judith: [verschicken] |
| Chuck: “He sends”. |
| Judith: And the participle is also [verschickt] |
| Chuck: “Sent”. |
| Judith: [besichtigen] |
| Chuck: “To visit”. |
| Judith: [Er besichtigt] |
| Chuck: “He visits”. |
| Judith: [besichtigt] |
| Chuck: “Visited”. |
| Judith: [besetzen] |
| Chuck: “To occupy”. |
| Judith: [Er besetzt] |
| Chuck: “He occupies”. |
| Judith: [besetzt] |
| Chuck: “Occupied”. If the verb has a prefix that would normally split off, the rules is that the past participle consists of first prefix and then the “ge” and then the rest of the participle that we’ve already seen. |
| Judith: So, the “ge” actually it went in the middle of a word. Something like [angesagt], like you go [ansagen] |
| Chuck: “To announce”. |
| Judith: [ansagen] |
| Chuck: “He announces”. |
| Judith: [Er sagt an] |
| Chuck: “Announced”. |
| Judith: [abholen] |
| Chuck: “To pick up”. |
| Judith: [Er holt ab] |
| Chuck: “He picks up”. |
| Judith: [abgeholt] |
| Chuck: “Picked up”. |
| Judith: [aufwecken] |
| Chuck: “To wake up”. |
| Judith: [Er weckt auf] |
| Chuck: “He wakes up”. |
| Judith: [aufgeweckt] |
| Chuck: “Woken up”. |
| Judith: In this lesson’s dialogue, we saw two such form [heruntergekommen] and [abgerissen] |
| Chuck: In this case, there’s the additional problem is that these verbs are irregular. The participle of [kommen] is [gekommen]. |
| Judith: And for [reißen] |
| Chuck: “To tear”. |
| Judith: The participle is [gerissen] |
| Chuck: Students of German typically learn these forms by heart. |
| Judith: Just like students of English have to learn that the irregular participle of “to tear” is “torn” and the participle of “wake” is “woken”. |
| Chuck: The only bright side is that all derived words also use the same regular forms. You learn them once and you reuse them a lot. |
| Judith: For example, once you know that the participle of [kommen] is not [gekommt] but [gekommen], you also know that it should be [hingekommen, zurückgekommen, angekommen] and [heruntergekommen] and so on. |
Outro |
| Chuck: Well that just about does it for today! |
| Judith: Listeners! Do you know the powerful secret behind the rapid progress? |
| Chuck: Using the entire system! |
| Judith: Lesson notes are an important part of the system. |
| Chuck: They include a transcript and a translation of the conversations. |
| Judith: Key lesson vocabulary. |
| Chuck: And detailed grammar explication. |
| Judith: Lesson notes accompany every audio or video lesson. |
| Chuck: Use them on the site or on your mobile device or print them out. |
| Judith: Using the lesson notes with audio and video media will rapidly increase your learning speed. |
| Chuck: Go to GermanPod101.com and download the lesson notes for this lesson right now! We’ve said a lot of stuff today. Review this lesson again sometime and see you soon! |
| Judith: [Bis bald!] |
Comments
Hide