Learn how to introduce yourself
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: This is Newbie series lesson number 2. Guten Tag! Frau Meyer! |
| Judith: Guten Tag! Herr Smith. Wie geht es Ihnen? |
| Chuck: Gut! Danke, und Ihnen? |
| Judith: Auch gut! Danke. |
| Chuck: But let’s start with the lesson. |
| Judith: Alright. |
| Chuck: This is the second newbie lesson brought to you by GermanPod101.com. Judith, what shall we learn today? |
| Judith: Today we will learn how to introduce ourselves. This is extremely important because there will always be situations where you meet new people and have to tell them something about yourself. And we’ll also be looking at some very common regular verbs. |
| Chuck: Ok. Now we need someone to provide an example of how to introduce oneself. Hello, is there a German girl in the audience who could step up and introduce herself to me. You don’t have to be shy, I'm a nice guy, you know. |
| Judith: Stop it, Chuck. I'm the only German girl you’re going to work with for now. If you absolutely want to meet more interesting people who speak German, do that on the forum, in your private time. |
| Chuck: But we need somebody to introduce herself to give an example to the listeners. Hey, any cute girls our there? |
| Judith: I'm going to introduce myself in German. And then you will introduce yourself as an additional example. And we’re each going to do the presentation several times to give the listeners a chance to absorb the pronunciation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Judith: Guten Tag! Ich heiße Judith Meyer. Ich komme aus Deutschland und ich arbeite hier, bei GermanPod101.com. |
| Chuck: Guten Tag! Ich heiße Chuck Smith. Ich komme nicht aus Deutschland, aber ich wohne in Deutschland. Ich arbeite auch bei Germanpod101.com. |
| Judith: Now slowly. |
| Judith: Guten Tag! Ich heiße Judith Meyer. Ich komme aus Deutschland und ich arbeite hier, bei GermanPod101.com. |
| Chuck: Guten Tag! Ich heiße Chuck Smith. Ich komme nicht aus Deutschland, aber ich wohne in Deutschland. Ich arbeite auch bei GermanPod101.com. |
| Judith: Now Chuck will give us the translation. |
| Judith: Guten Tag! |
| Chuck: Good day. |
| Judith: Ich heiße Judith Meyer. |
| Chuck: “I am called Judith Meyer” or normally, “My name is Judith Meyer”. |
| Judith: Ich komme aus Deutschland. |
| Chuck: I come from Germany. |
| Judith: und ich arbeite hier, bei GermanPod101.com. |
| Chuck: And I work here, at GermanPod101.com. |
| Judith: Guten Tag! |
| Chuck: Good day. |
| Judith: Ich heiße Chuck Smith. |
| Chuck: I am called Chuck Smith. |
| Judith: Ich komme nicht aus Deutschland |
| Chuck: I don’t come from Germany. |
| Judith: aber ich wohne in Deutschland. |
| Chuck: But I live in Germany. |
| Judith: Ich arbeite auch bei GermanPod101.com. |
| Chuck: “I also work at GermanPod101.com.” |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: Now, let’s have a look at the words that you can use to introduce yourself. |
| Judith: The key word is of course ich. |
| Chuck: Ahm, this is a bit tricky. Be careful and pay attention to the end of it. |
| Judith: Yes, the sound, the ch. Ich. |
| Chuck: This word means “I.” |
| Judith: Ich is combined with various verbs to reveal information about yourself. For example, heißen. |
| Chuck: “To be called.” This is just one word in German. Convenient, isn’t it? Must be that German engineering. |
| Judith: Heißen. |
| Chuck: “To be called.” |
| Judith: Ich heiße Judith. “I am called Judith.” |
| Chuck: Ich heiße Chuck. “I am called Chuck,” or “My name is Chuck.” |
| Judith: Note that the dictionary form, the infinitive, ends in “n.” But that “n” is dropped when you use ich. “I.” |
| Chuck: All verbs you will meet today end in “n.” When you find them in the dictionary, just drop the “n” when they are used with the word “I.” |
| Judith: So, heißen is “to be called” and ich heiße is “I am called.” The next useful verb is kommen. |
| Chuck: “To come.” |
| Judith: Kommen. |
| Chuck: “To come.” |
| Judith: Use this with the preposition aus. For example … |
| Chuck: Ich komme aus Harrisburg. “I come from Harrisburg.” Note again that it is ich komme and not ich kommen. The “n” is dropped. |
| Judith: Ich komme aus Deutschland “I come from Germany.” Now, the next word is arbeiten. |
| Chuck: “To work.” |
| Judith: So, ich arbeite is “I work.” It can also be “I am working” because in German there is no difference. Arbeiten. |
| Chuck: “To work.” |
| Judith: Arbeiten. |
| Chuck: “To work.” |
| Judith: The next word is really easy. It is hier. |
| Chuck: That translates to “here,” as in “I’m right over here.” |
| Judith: Be careful and listen to the difference in pronunciation. Hier. |
| Chuck: “Here.” |
| Judith: Hier. |
| Chuck: “Here.” |
| Judith: The main difference is the ‘r’ sound. Now we’re going to learn another very useful verb. It’s the verb wohnen. |
| Chuck: “To live,” as in Ich wohne in Berlin. “I live in Berlin.” |
| Judith: Ich wohne in Kamp-Lintfort “I live in Kamp-Lintfort.” Wohnen also drops the “n” when used with ich. Ich wohne. “I live.” Be careful that this word does not mean “I live” in the sense of “I am alive.” Rather, it means to live in the sense of “I inhabit.” “I live” in a place. Now we’re going to have fun again. Here comes another word with the fun German ch sound. Nicht. |
| Chuck: That means “not.” |
| Judith: Nicht. |
| Chuck: “Not”. |
| Judith: This word is really useful because you just place it after a verb to make the sentence negative. Ich heiße Judith. “I am called Judith.” Ich heiße nicht Judith. “I am not called Judith.” Now, the last word for today is aber. |
| Chuck: Which means “but.” |
| Judith: Chuck used this in the dialogue. He said, Ich komme nicht aus Deutschland aber ich wohne in Deutschland. That is, “I don’t come from Germany, but I live in Germany.” We could also say, Ich komme aus Amerika aber ich wohne in Deutschland. Or you could say, Ich wohne in Kamp-Lintfort aber ich arbeite in Berlin. Did you understand that one? Ich wohne in Kamp-Lintfort aber ich arbeite in Berlin. |
| Chuck: “I live in Kamp-Lintfort, but I work in Berlin.” That’s quite a commute you got there. |
| Judith: Yes, about 500 kilometers. Good thing I moved to Berlin. Now that’s it for the vocabulary. Using this vocabulary you can already say some basic things about yourself and each lesson will help you express more in German. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: Remember that the Newbie Series will help you become conversational in German as quickly as possible. That is why we’re doing less grammar here than in the Beginner Series, and just focusing on structure. If you want to advance through the lessons particularly quickly however, maybe because you have a deadline when you’re visiting Germany, I highly recommend you get the Premium Subscription or, at the very least, a Basic one. |
| Judith: The Basic Subscription allows you to access transcripts of these lessons where you can review the phrases, grammar and vocabulary taught. |
| Chuck: A Premium subscription, however, will also give you access to a vast array of learning tools. These make it much easier to retain what was taught and you’ll be able to progress more quickly. And it also makes us happy. |
| Judith: Chuck, how have you been progressing in your study of German. |
| Chuck: Pretty well, thank you. Being in the country definitely helps, of course. There are so many things that the average textbook or class just won’t teach you. |
| Judith: Like what? |
| Chuck: Well, for example a lot of textbooks will teach you simple expressions like Wie geht es Ihnen?, but they won’t teach you that those expressions aren’t necessarily used in the same way in Germany as they are in the States. When I came here I noticed, for example, that people tend to ask Wie geht es Ihnen? less often that I would have expected them to, but also the answers were not what I was used to. |
| Judith: How were the answers different? As far as I know, the question means exactly the same. |
| Chuck: Yes, but in Germany you’ll often hear people honestly answering that question and not just saying, “Hey, I'm fine”. It’s a lot more acceptable to just say, “Well, today I'm not feeling so good. Yeah, my husband got a cold and I fear I might catch one too. And I'm pretty tired” and they just keep complaining. |
| Judith: I believe Germans like to complain more than Americans, particularly the older generation. My English book even contained a joke. A British guy is just returning from his vacation, and his buddies are asking him, “So how was your trip?” And he said, “Oh, the hotel was lousy and the food was just horrible. I’ll never go back.” And they asked him, so what did he do? Did he get a refund? And he said, “No, unfortunately there were no Germans to complain about it.” |
| Chuck: Nice. Yeah, I think that’s true. Germans complain more and it makes it hard for foreigners to see that Germany’s actually a great country to live in and the people are generally pretty happy here. |
| Judith: What I think people always complain about is politics. Politicians have a really bad reputation, kind of like lawyers in the States. A lot of people will see an election as the choice between two evils. I can’t imagine people becoming really enthusiastic and active for a candidate as they are in the USA. |
| Chuck: I’d say though that more people are political in Germany though. |
| Judith: You mean Stammtisch talk? |
| Chuck: What’s Stammtisch? |
| Judith: Stammtisch is people meeting in pubs, having a few beers and then believing that they know better solutions to all of Germany’s problems than any politician. |
| Chuck: No, I mean more that people are aware of what’s happening nationally and internationally. I think it’s a good thing because otherwise how would they govern their country? If hardly anyone knew what was happening, politicians could just run wild for four years as long as they looked nice and trustworthy on election day. On the other hand, it gets annoying if people want to ask me here what do I hear about American politics just because I'm Americans. |
| Judith: Talking about politics is not taboo in Germany. The news often comes up in small talk and then it’s only a small step towards discussing opinions. If you don’t like it, you will just have to find a polite way of changing the topic. One thing that is taboo is religion. Religion is thought of as an issue between you and God, and nobody else should be trying to interfere. |
| Chuck: Well, talking about avoiding religious talk, I think that’s enough for this lesson. The lesson transcript has a summary of our cultural point as well if you want to read up on it. And, of course, we’ll tell you more about German customs and thoughts in later lessons. So stay tuned. |
| Judith: Now let’s listen to the introductions one more time so that you can check if you understand everything now. |
| Judith: Guten Tag! Ich heiße Judith Meyer. Ich komme aus Deutschland und ich arbeite hier, bei GermanPod101.com. |
| Chuck: Guten Tag! Ich heiße Chuck Smith. Ich komme nicht aus Deutschland, aber ich wohne in Deutschland. Ich arbeite auch bei GermanPod101.com. |
Outro |
| Judith: There. Did you understand everything now? |
| Chuck: If not, be sure to do some exercises in the Learning Center to improve your retention of vocabulary and grammar. |
| Judith: I’d suggest that anyway because practice never hurts when you’re learning a language. Also practice introducing yourself to some Germans? |
| Chuck: How about to the forums right now, introduce yourself or ask us whatever you want and tell us what you think of German or Germany. |
| Judith: I'm looking forward to seeing you there. Bis bald! |
| Chuck: See-ya! |
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