Learn how to ask for directions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: This is Newbie Series Lesson 11. |
| Judith: [Willkommen zurück]. |
| Chuck: Welcome back listeners. Glad you’re still with us for this 11th lesson. Well, Judith, what’s today’s topic? |
| Judith: Well, Lena and Michael are on their way to meet each other, but then Lena gets stopped on her way unexpectedly. |
| Chuck: Oh wait, oh wait. You mean like the police stopped her for possession of dangerous love-inducing drugs, right? |
| Judith: No, nothing as crazy as that. It’s simply that a tourist is asking her for directions. |
| Chuck: But are you sure Lena’s the right person to ask? I mean I heard you shouldn’t ask women for directions. |
| Judith: Stop spreading such nonsense. |
| Chuck: Because then we men would lose out on the fun or hours of searching. Let’s listen to the dialogue. |
| Judith: There’s one little problem. |
| Chuck: What’s that? |
| Judith: We are fresh out of German speaking Americans and that guy is supposed to be a tourist. |
| Chuck: I think I can handle the role of an American tourist in Germany. So I’ll play the part since Michael doesn’t appear in this dialogue. |
| Judith: Alright. Let’s go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| M: Entschuldigung, könnten Sie mir bitte helfen? Ich suche das Hofbräuhaus. |
| F: Das Hofbräuhaus? Das ist in München. |
| M: Ich komme gerade vom Flughafen. Wie komme ich zum Hofbräuhaus? |
| F: Gehen Sie zum Flughafen und fliegen Sie nach München. |
| M: Oh danke. |
| Judith: Now read slowly. |
| M: Entschuldigung, könnten Sie mir bitte helfen? Ich suche das Hofbräuhaus. |
| F: Das Hofbräuhaus? Das ist in München. |
| M: Ich komme gerade vom Flughafen. Wie komme ich zum Hofbräuhaus? |
| F: Gehen Sie zum Flughafen und fliegen Sie nach München. |
| M: Oh danke. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| Judith: Entschuldigung, könnten Sie mir bitte helfen? |
| Chuck: Excuse me, could you please help me? |
| Judith: Ich suche das Hofbräuhaus. |
| Chuck: I am looking for the Hofbräuhaus. |
| Judith: Das Hofbräuhaus? |
| Chuck: The Hofbräuhaus? |
| Judith: Das ist in München. |
| Chuck: That’s in Munich. I am coming right from the airport. |
| Judith: Wie komme ich zum Hofbräuhaus? |
| Chuck: How do I get to the Hofbräuhaus? |
| Judith: Gehen Sie zum Flughafen. |
| Chuck: Go to the airport. |
| Judith: Und fliegen Sie nach München. |
| Chuck: And fly to Munich. |
| Judith: Oh danke. |
| Chuck: Oh, thanks. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: Now let’s have a closer look at what was said. First the vocabulary. The first word is Entschuldigung. |
| Chuck: Excuse me. |
| Judith: Entschuldigung. |
| Chuck: “Excuse me.” It literally means “apology”. |
| Judith: I’ll say it slowly for you. Ent-schul-di-gung. Entschuldigung. Next, bitte. |
| Chuck: Please. |
| Judith: bitte. |
| Chuck: Please. |
| Judith: Next, helfen. |
| Chuck: To help. |
| Judith: helfen. |
| Chuck: To help. |
| Judith: It’s really similar to the English. Now, a very common phrase that you should absolutely learn is [Entschuldigung, bitte helfen Sie mir]. |
| Chuck: Excuse me, please help me. |
| Judith: Next word is suchen. |
| Chuck: “To search” or “look for”. |
| Judith: suchen. |
| Chuck: “To search” or “look for’. |
| Judith: suchen. suchen. Next, gerade. |
| Chuck: Just. |
| Judith: gerade. |
| Chuck: “Just” as in “I just came from the airport”. |
| Judith: [Ich komme gerade vom Flughafen] That brings us to the next word: vom. |
| Chuck: “From the” or “of the”. |
| Judith: vom. These are the combination of [Von] and [Dem]. [Vom] and in the phrase you also saw Flughafen. |
| Chuck: Airport. |
| Judith: Flughafen. |
| Chuck: Airport. |
| Judith: [Flughafen, Flug] means “flight” and [Hafen] means “harbor”. A harbor for flights. And what do you do at the airport? Well, for example fliegen. |
| Chuck: To fly. |
| Judith: fliegen. |
| Chuck: To fly. |
| Judith: This is a similar root as [Flug]. Just the vowel changed. Alright. |
| CULTURAL INSIGHTS |
| Chuck: But I'm a bit confused. Judith, what is the Hofbräuhaus? |
| Judith: You don’t know it? |
| Chuck: No, what it is? I live in Berlin, you know, not in Munich. |
| Judith: Well, I thought it was one of the things that every American has heard of or most Americans. The Hofbräuhaus is, of course, a very famous beer hall in München, Munich. I always call it München, why would you rename cities? Anyway, this Hofbräuhaus is really, really popular with tourists. |
| Chuck: Sounds like quite a good thing to know if I'm going to go there to celebrate Oktoberfest this year. |
| Judith: No, the Oktoberfest does not take place in the Hofbräuhaus. It’s in the [Wiesn], but it’s ok. Anyway, the Hofbräuhaus is very popular with tourists. And, unfortunately, some tourists think that Bavaria is all of Germany but there is a lot else. |
| Chuck: For example, you have the area of Germany I used to live in, near [Heidelberg], and [Heidelberg] for example is a very historical city and it has the biggest castle in Europe. |
| Judith: Or you could go to the area that I come from, the [Buzzling Ruhr] area. Or the nice landscapes and cycling paths of [Niederrhein]. As you can see in the first audio blog, the very first one, about my hometown, [Kamp-Lintfort]. [Kamp-Lintfort] is located right between those two big areas of metropolitan rural area and the nice landscapes of the [Niederrhein]. |
| Chuck: Or you could come visit us in Berlin. It’s interesting because it has a bit of a small town feel, while it also has a metropolitan feel. So having lived in New York, I can find pretty much everything here that I would really want there. And it’s also very inexpensive, so you can have all the metropolitan experiences, like exotic restaurants at reasonable prices. |
| Judith: It’s really amazing. I love Berlin. Before I could never imagine living anywhere else, but Berlin is really cool. And then, of course, you have all of Eastern Germany, for example also [Dresden]. [Dresden] is of course famous for the [Frauenkirche], the [Zwinger], the [Semper] Opera House. There’s a lot to see there, yet I don’t see it on a lot of tourist sites. |
| Chuck: Then the north there’s Hamburg and [Kiel]. |
| Judith: And Germany has islands in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. If you want to go sea-bathing, you can do that in Germany too. And so on, and so on, there’s a lot of places in Germany to see besides Bavaria. Let me phrase that in German actually. Man könnte in Deutschland viel besuchen. |
| Chuck: One can visit a lot of things in Germany. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: Let’s talk about the “could” in there. In German, the equivalent of “could” is könnte. The forms are ich könnte. |
| Chuck: I could. |
| Judith: Du könntest. |
| Chuck: You could. (informally) |
| Judith: Sie könnten. |
| Chuck: You could. (formally) |
| Judith: The forms are parallel to the ones of möchte. You’ll probably recognize them. |
| Chuck: And it’s used the same way too. |
| Judith: A very useful phrase to make a polite question is könnten Sie bitte? |
| Chuck: Could you please? |
| Judith: For example, könnten Sie bitte kommen? |
| Chuck: Could you please come? |
| Judith: Or könnten Sie bitte übersetzen? |
| Chuck: “Could you please translate?” But if you need a German translation, you can try our forum. |
| Judith: Yes, and sometimes even I am around on the forum answering questions. |
| Chuck: And occasionally you might catch me there too. How about we go over that dialogue again? |
| Judith: Sounds like a plan. |
| Chuck: Entschuldigung, könnten Sie mir bitte helfen? Ich suche das Hofbräuhaus. |
| Judith: Das Hofbräuhaus? Das ist in München. |
| Chuck: Ich komme gerade vom Flughafen. Wie komme ich zum Hofbräuhaus? |
| Judith: Gehen Sie zum Flughafen und fliegen Sie nach München. |
| Chuck: Oh danke. |
| Judith: Think he will fly to Munich now? |
| Chuck: I don't know. You know, he might also prefer to take a train. |
| Judith: Yes, the Düsseldorf airport also functions as a major train station. All the fast trains go through there. |
| Chuck: And if I'm not mistaken, there is even a direct train from Dusseldorf airport to Munich, even though they’re about five hours apart. |
| Judith: Yeah, it’s really convenient. |
| Chuck: Anyway, I think there’s a train heading home for me sometime soon. |
Outro |
| Judith: Ok, let’s call it quits for today. We made enough progress. |
| Chuck: Be sure to tune in again next time. |
| Judith: And before that, be sure to practice what you learned today using the Learning Center. |
| Chuck: See you next week. |
| Judith: [Bis nächste Woche]. |
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