Learn how to describe where something is located
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: This is Newbie Series Lesson 10. |
| Judith: [Willkommen zurück]. |
| Chuck: Welcome back. I'm glad you joined us for another Newbie lesson. |
| Judith: In the Newbie lessons, you will learn authentic German that will prove invaluable on your next trip to Germany. |
| Chuck: Or Austria or Switzerland, of course. |
| Judith: As always, be sure to check out the Learning Center for tools and reference material related to this lesson. |
| Chuck: Alright, so let’s cut to the chase. What’s today’s topic? |
| Judith: Today we will be learning to describe where something’s located. It’s extremely important to know when getting or giving directions. |
| Chuck: Alright, sounds good. Let’s listen to the dialogue. |
| Judith: I will play Lena, Chuck is playing Michael. They’re still on the phone and they just agreed on a time to meet at the café Antabli tomorrow. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Lena Wagner: Wo ist das Café Antabli eigentlich? |
| Michael Schmidt: Schulstraße 13 am Rhein. |
| Lena Wagner: Ich kenne nur den Burgplatz. |
| Michael Schmidt: Geh das Rathausufer entlang. Auf der rechten Seite ist dann die Schulstraße. Das Café ist zwischen dem Rhein und dem Museum. |
| Lena Wagner: Okay danke. Also bis morgen, 18 Uhr. Komm nicht zu spät. |
| Michael Schmidt: Ok, 18 Uhr. Bis morgen. |
| Judith: Now read slowly. |
| Lena Wagner: Wo ist das Café Antabli eigentlich? |
| Michael Schmidt: Schulstraße 13 am Rhein. |
| Lena Wagner: Ich kenne nur den Burgplatz. |
| Michael Schmidt: Geh das Rathausufer entlang. Auf der rechten Seite ist dann die Schulstraße. Das Café ist zwischen dem Rhein und dem Museum. |
| Lena Wagner: Okay danke. Also bis morgen, 18 Uhr. Komm nicht zu spät. |
| Michael Schmidt: Ok, 18 Uhr. Bis morgen. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| Judith: Wo ist das Café Antabli eigentlich? |
| Chuck: Where is the Café Antabli in fact? |
| Judith: Schulstraße 13 am Rhein. |
| Chuck: Schulstraße or School Street 13 on the Rhine. |
| Judith: Ich kenne nur den Burgplatz. |
| Chuck: I only know the Castle Square. |
| Judith: Geh das Rathausufer entlang. |
| Chuck: Go along the City Hall Shore. |
| Judith: Auf der rechten Seite ist dann die Schulstraße. |
| Chuck: On the right side is the Schulstraße. |
| Judith: Das Café ist zwischen dem Rhein und dem Museum. |
| Chuck: The café is between the Rhine and the museum. |
| Judith: Okay danke. |
| Chuck: Okay thanks. |
| Judith: Also bis morgen, 18 Uhr. |
| Chuck: So until tomorrow, 6 o’ clock. |
| Judith: Komm nicht zu spät. |
| Chuck: Don’t come too late. |
| Judith: Okay 18 Uhr, bis morgen. |
| Chuck: “Ok, 6 o’clock. Till tomorrow.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chuck: So, nice. This meeting is finally taking shape. And with these directions, Lena can’t miss the café. |
| Judith: Let’s have a closer look at what was said now. First, the vocabulary. First word is wo. |
| Chuck: Where. |
| Judith: wo. |
| Chuck: Where. |
| Judith: Next, eigentlich. |
| Chuck: “Actually” or “in fact”. |
| Judith: eigentlich. |
| Chuck: “Actually” or “in fact”. |
| Judith: I’ll break it down. ei-gent-lich, eigentlich. Next, nur. |
| Chuck: Only. |
| Judith: nur. |
| Chuck: Only. |
| Judith: Next, entlang. |
| Chuck: Along. |
| Judith: entlang, entlang. |
| Chuck: Along. |
| Judith: Next, an expression - auf der rechten Seite. |
| Chuck: On the right side. |
| Judith: auf der rechten Seite. |
| Chuck: On the right side. |
| Judith: Similarly, you could say auf der linken Seite. |
| Chuck: On the left side. |
| Judith: auf der linken Seite. |
| Chuck: On the left side. |
| Judith: Next, zwischen. |
| Chuck: Between. |
| Judith: zwischen. |
| Chuck: “Between”. Could this also be used for among? |
| Judith: Yes, actually… Next, also. |
| Chuck: So. |
| Judith: also. |
| Chuck: So. |
| Judith: Not very difficult, is it? |
| Chuck: It’s important to remember that you use this in the form of a conjunction. So you wouldn’t say like [Ich bin also müde]. You would say [Ich bin so müde]. |
| Judith: Yes, [Also] is only as a conjunction, as you said. And the last word for today is bis. |
| Chuck: Until. |
| Judith: bis.. |
| Chuck: Until. |
| Judith: This is also used in the expression “see you”. For example, bis morgen. |
| Chuck: See you tomorrow. |
| Judith: bis bald. |
| Chuck: See you soon. |
| CULTURAL INSIGHTS |
| Judith: So, Chuck, do you think this dialogue could have taken place just as well in the USA? |
| Chuck: The streets in Germany tend not to be a grid. |
| Judith: And the names are different, of course. We don’t have 4th, 2nd and 45th street. |
| Chuck: This is true. |
| Judith: The streets are generally a bit different in the center of a German city it looks quite different from a center of an American city. For example, there are very few big malls and few parking spots. People just expect you to go all the in the city and park your car a bit outside, and walk the rest. |
| Chuck: Yeah. Or you become a master at parallel parking. |
| Judith: And you probably pay a lot for it too. Now, of course there are a couple of parking houses, as we call them, [Parkhaus], but they really charge you a lot. |
| Chuck: Yeah. |
| Judith: It’s much easier if you just walk along and it’s more convenient too because these are pedestrian zones, they’re not made for cars. |
| Chuck: And we had an impossible time trying to find a place to park a trailer when we moved to berlin. |
| Judith: Yeah, well, that’s a special problem. But really, the people just walk along in these pedestrian zones with lots of small shops and boutiques where you can just go into if they look interesting. You usually don’t go to, like, one place and, “Ok, I'm going to shop here”. |
| Chuck: And also it depends on where you are in the States, cause if you’re in New York or Boston, for example, then it can be quite similar to the way European cities are set up. |
| Judith: Well, still, New York looked quite different. I can’t place it. Maybe it’s the cafés. In Germany you have a lot of cafés and ice cream parlors that have chairs outside where you can sit in the summer. |
| Chuck: Yeah. I think in New York there’s just not enough space for the extra chairs outside. You may see one or two but they just don’t have room to put them. |
| Judith: Well, that’s where the pedestrian zones come in. If you have a large pedestrian zone, like in [Duisburg] or Cologne or any major German city, then the cafés have always enough space to put some chairs there. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: Now, I remember from the dialogue Lena told Michael Komm nicht zu spät. Should she be worried? |
| Chuck: I don’t think I’d be late to a date with a cute girl. |
| Judith: Yeah, I find it hard to imagine too. Still, let’s have a look at this structure, Komm nicht zu spät. It involves a new part of grammar. |
| Chuck: New grammar? What do you mean? Komm nicht zu spät literally translates to “come not too late”. I don’t see a problem there. |
| Judith: Don’t you notice? It’s a command she gives him. It’s called an imperative in grammar. |
| Chuck: Imperative, that sounds kind of complicated. |
| Judith: No need to worry. It’s really quite easy. |
| Chuck: What’s an imperative? |
| Judith: As I said, imperative is just a command. |
| Chuck: Ah ok, I get it now. |
| Judith: So the formal imperative for people you call Sie is exactly the same as the Sie form just inverted. Instead of Sie kommen nicht zu spät, you don’t come too late, you would say Kommen Sie nicht zu spät, come you not too late. It’s just inverted and the informal imperative, the one that we just saw corresponds to just the word stem without any ending. So it’s komm instead of kommen or geh instead of gehen. The du is dropped entirely. |
| Chuck: Could you give me some more examples of that? |
| Judith: Okay I will give you a couple of sentences where you can compare the formal and informal imperative. For example, Gehen Sie zum Museum. |
| Chuck: Go to the museum! (formally) |
| Judith: As opposed to Geh zum Museum. |
| Chuck: Go to the museum! (informally) |
| Judith: Or Kommen Sie nach Deutschland. |
| Chuck: Come to Germany! (formally) |
| Judith: Komm nach Deutschland. |
| Chuck: Come to Germany! (informally) |
| Judith: It’s not that hard. So let’s apply this understanding to the original dialogue that we had here. |
| Lena Wagner: Wo ist das Café Antabli eigentlich? |
| Michael Schmidt: Schulstraße 13 am Rhein. |
| Lena Wagner: Ich kenne nur den Burgplatz. |
| Michael Schmidt: Geh das Rathausufer entlang. Auf der rechten Seite ist dann die Schulstraße. Das Café ist zwischen dem Rhein und dem Museum. |
| Lena Wagner: Okay danke. Also bis morgen, 18 Uhr. Komm nicht zu spät. |
| Michael Schmidt: Ok, 18 Uhr. Bis morgen. |
Outro |
| Chuck: Wow, I can’t wait till the next Newbie lesson. I'm going to go out with Lena, I'm going to go out with Lena. |
| Judith: I bet you will even show up early for that one and not leave a second early. |
| Chuck: You bet. Until then, I’ll review everything Lena said to avoid making a fool of myself. Actually, the dialogue track is really good for a quick review like that. Then I need to practice my words… |
| Judith: Ok, I’ll leave you to your preparations. Thank you all for listening to GermanPod101.com and see you next week. |
| Chuck: See you. |
| Judith: [Bis bald]. |
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