Learn how to ask questions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: This is Newbie Series Lesson 3. |
| Judith: Guten Tag! |
| Chuck: Welcome back, listeners. This is already the third lesson of the Newbie Series. |
| Judith: And it’s already an important lesson because today we will be starting a new story ark. |
| Chuck: What story? |
| Judith: A story about a young man and a woman… |
| Chuck: Oh no, not another one of your chick flicks. |
| Judith: Don’t groan yet. You will like this story. It will give you a lot of useful vocabulary. For example, today we’re going to learn some basics on how to flirt. |
| Chuck: You mean I get to learn how to chat up hot German girls? |
| Judith: For example. |
| Chuck: Cool. Let’s start the dialogue already. |
| Judith: Alright. This dialogue takes place in an ice cream parlor in Dusseldorf. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Michael Schmidt: Ist hier noch frei? |
| Lena Wagner: Ja. |
| Michael Schmidt: Danke. Ich heiße Michael Schmidt. |
| Lena Wagner: Angenehm. Ich heiße Lena Wagner. |
| Michael Schmidt: Angenehm. Kommen Sie oft hierhin? |
| Lena Wagner: Ja, das Café ist sehr gut. |
| Michael Schmidt: Ich wohne in Bremen, aber ich komme oft nach Düsseldorf. Wohnen Sie hier in Düsseldorf? |
| Lena Wagner: Nein, ich wohne nicht in Düsseldorf. Ich wohne in Köln. Duzen wir uns doch. |
| Michael Schmidt: Ok, gut. |
| Judith: Now read slowly. |
| Michael Schmidt: Ist hier noch frei? |
| Lena Wagner: Ja. |
| Michael Schmidt: Danke. Ich heiße Michael Schmidt. |
| Lena Wagner: Angenehm. Ich heiße Lena Wagner. |
| Michael Schmidt: Angenehm. Kommen Sie oft hierhin? |
| Lena Wagner: Ja, das Café ist sehr gut. |
| Michael Schmidt: Ich wohne in Bremen, aber ich komme oft nach Düsseldorf. Wohnen Sie hier in Düsseldorf? |
| Lena Wagner: Nein, ich wohne nicht in Düsseldorf. Ich wohne in Köln. Duzen wir uns doch. |
| Michael Schmidt: Ok, gut. |
| Judith: Now I will read the whole and Chuck will give you the translations. |
| Judith: Ist hier noch frei? |
| Chuck: “Is this free?” |
| Judith: Ja. |
| Chuck: “Yes.” |
| Judith: Danke. |
| Chuck: “Thanks.” |
| Judith: Ich heiße Michael Schmidt. |
| Chuck: “My name is Michael Schmidt.” |
| Judith: Angenehm. |
| Chuck: “Pleasure to meet you.” |
| Judith: Ich heiße Lena Wagner. |
| Chuck: “My name is Lena Wagner.” |
| Judith: Angenehm. |
| Chuck: “Pleasure to meet you.” |
| Judith: Kommen Sie oft hierhin? |
| Chuck: “Do you come here often?” |
| Judith: Ja, das Café ist sehr gut. |
| Chuck: “Yes, the café is very good.” |
| Judith: Ich wohne in Bremen. |
| Chuck: “I live in Bremen.” |
| Judith: Aber ich komme oft nach Düsseldorf. |
| Chuck: “But I often come to Dusseldorf.” |
| Judith: Wohnen Sie hier in Düsseldorf? |
| Chuck: “Do you live here in Dusseldorf?” |
| Judith: Nein, ich wohne nicht in Düsseldorf. |
| Chuck: “No, I don’t live in Dusseldorf.” |
| Judith: Ich wohne in Köln. |
| Chuck: “I live in Cologne.” |
| Judith: Duzen wir uns doch. |
| Chuck: “Let’s use Du instead.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: This is hard to translate. It means, “Let’s switch to informal language.” That’s address each other by Du and first names and everything. |
| Judith: Ok, gut. |
| Chuck: Ok, good. Now let’s have a look at the new words in this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: The first new word is noch. |
| Chuck: “Still.” |
| Judith: noch. |
| Chuck: “Still.” |
| Judith: Again, pay attention to the sound at the end of this word. noch. |
| Chuck: “Still.” |
| Judith: The next word is frei. |
| Chuck: “Free” meaning it’s free as in speech, not free as in beer. |
| Judith: Well, actually “free beer” is called frei bier but that’s really the exception. Normally frei doesn’t mean without cost. Frei also means “not occupied”. Now we already mentioned angenehm. |
| Chuck: Which means “pleasant” but it’s also an abbreviation for “nice to meet you”. |
| Judith: Yes, the whole sentence would be angenehm Sie kennenzulernen or something like that. It’s a pleasure to meet you, it’s pleasant to meet you, but we always just shorten it to just angenehm. Sie. |
| Chuck: “You” formally, or it can also mean “they”. |
| Judith: This is an extremely important pronoun to learn. |
| Chuck: “You” formally, or “they”. Also note when you use it as formally, the S is capitalized in “Sie.” |
| Judith: You can see that in the vocabulary list in the PDF or the Learning Center. Now the next word is really easy, it’s oft. |
| Chuck: “Often” |
| Judith: oft. |
| Chuck: “Often” |
| Judith: In the dialogue, you heard an example of this. It was Kommen Sie oft hierhin? |
| Chuck: Do you come here often? |
| Judith: And in this example you also heard the next word I want to introduce to you. It’s hierhin. |
| Chuck: “To here.” |
| Judith: It’s always a direction. If you want to say just “here”, it’s hier, but if you want to say “to you”, in this direction, it’s hierhin. Kommen Sie oft hierhin? You can’t say Kommen Sie oft hier? Now, another really important word is sehr. |
| Chuck: “Very.” |
| Judith: sehr. |
| Chuck: “Very”. You’ll often hear this used with sehr gut. |
| Judith: sehr gut is an example of how you can answer wie geht es Ihnen? |
| Chuck: sehr gut. |
| Judith: Danke. |
| Judith: Nach |
| Chuck: “To” |
| Judith: Nach |
| Chuck: “To” |
| Judith: Compared to noch. |
| Chuck: “Still” |
| Judith: Nach. |
| Chuck: “To” |
| Judith: Noch. |
| Chuck: “Still” |
| Judith: An example of nach is Kommen Sie nach oft Deutschland? |
| Chuck: Do you often come to Germany. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: That’s all. These words, combined with the previous lesson’s ones, are all you need to start chatting with somebody in German. |
| Chuck: In the next lessons, you will of course learn a lot more useful words so you can talk about other topics as well and, of course, improve your flirting skills. |
| Judith: To make sure you remember these words when it matters and don’t look like an Idiot, a stammering fool, just use the vocabulary flashcard tool in the Learning Center at GermanPod101.com. You will also find the Learning Center very useful in keeping track of which lessons and which words you need to revise. |
| Chuck: Of course, you could also take vocabulary list from there and enter it into any vocabulary program of your choice. It’s just nicer to have everything in one place. |
| Judith: We at GermanPod101.com want to be your one-stop solution to learning German. |
| Chuck: Yeah, but there is one phrase in the dialogue I still find hard to get. |
| Judith: Which one? You know, you need only ask. I will answer all your questions either in the podcast, in the comments or on the forums. Which phrase is hard? |
| Chuck: It’s towards the end. That… Duzen wir uns doch. |
| Judith: Duzen wir uns doch. That one. This is hard indeed because in English you never need this phrase. It is a request to switch to informal language. Duzen is a special verb derived from the personal pronoun Du which is the informal “you”. Maybe “thou” would be the equivalent to mean “start addressing each other as Du” but is informally, Duzen. |
| Chuck: So if I'm tired of being formal, I just say Duzen wir uns doch.? |
| Judith: Well, it’s up to the older person or the one higher in rank to offer that. You can’t walk up to your boss and ask him to start being informal with you. |
| Chuck: Yeah, I also noticed that older people also enjoy respect in other situations. For example, if the bus is full and an elderly person comes in, you’re supposed to offer them your seat. And when eating together, some families still observe the tradition that guests and older people get their food first. |
| Judith: At a good restaurant, you can expect waitresses to also know this part of etiquette. They will hand out menus to women and older people first. If a couple with a son and daughter are eating out together, for example, the expected order is that first mom will get her menu, then you daughter, then the father and then the son. |
| Chuck: Can you think of any other situation where age or rank sets different rules in Germany? |
| Judith: Shaking hands is another example. You know that most Germans will shake hands when meeting. Only young people hug or exchange kisses on the cheek like the French do. So when shaking hands, the etiquette is that the older person or the one higher in rank should initiate the ritual, should hold out his hand first. If you offer your hand to somebody ranking higher than you, then a few will even snub it, but fortunately they’re the minority. |
| Chuck: Yes, that must be very embarrassing. |
| Judith: It is. That’s why I’d ask you to try to observe such customs when in Germany, even if not all Germans do, particularly the uneducated. It’s all part of appearing sophisticated, and as I’ve said before, it’s hard to make a career in Germany if you appear too unsophisticated. |
| Chuck: Language is part of that too. Just like in other countries, the lower classes use a different style of language than the higher ones do. It’s generally a good idea to go for an educated style of language. So that’s what we’re teaching in these lessons, but we may release a special series of lessons later, focusing on how bad or good German can get. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: So let’s get back to studying the language. Today’s grammar tidbit is about asking questions. In the past lesson, you learned how to say something about yourself. For example, Ich wohne in Frankfurt. But what if somebody you want to get to know doesn’t voluntarily give us this information? You need to be able to ask for it. |
| Chuck: For questions that can be answered with Yes or No, this involves two steps. |
| Judith: First, you need to adjust the verb, because wohne is only the right form for ich. “I” Ich wohne. For the pronoun Sie, the formal form of “You,” you need to say Sie wohnen. |
| Chuck: It’s easy because wohnen with the “n” is exactly the same as the infinitive or the form you’ll see in the dictionary. |
| Judith: Ich wohne. “I live.” Sie wohnen. “You live.” |
| Chuck: The second step is to move the verb to the beginning of the phrase. This turns the sentence into a question. |
| Judith: Wohnen Sie in Frankfurt? “Do you live in Frankfurt?” |
| Chuck: Now, if you want to ask a question that is not a Yes or No answer, just add the question word to the beginning of the phrase. |
| Judith: Wo wohnen Sie? “Where do you live?” |
| Chuck: Wie geht es Ihnen? is also an example of this rule. If you wanted to make a Yes or No question here, you could ask, Geht es Ihnen gut? for example. |
| Judith: The answer to this would probably be, Ja, es geht mir gut. “Yes, it goes me well.” More commonly known as, “Yes, I’m well.” |
| Chuck: But what if you aren’t well? It seems to me that very few Germans admit to having a great life. |
| Judith: Well, then you’d say, Nein, es geht mir nicht gut. “No, it goes me not well.” That is, “No, I am not well.” My head is hurting, my throat is sore, I don’t feel like going in to work, my doctor gave me four weeks of paid sick leave but now he won’t extend them…” |
| Chuck: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know the problem with German healthcare and social plans. You guys should count yourselves lucky. If I get unlimited paid sick days, I might never show up for work. |
| Judith: Well, there’s the matter of convincing your doctor to certify you’re sick and unable to work. |
| Chuck: You haven’t seen me partying… If I had that chance, I’d show at the doctor’s with blood-shut eyes, hardly able to stand up, emptying my stomach on his desk… Oh, he’d be forced to certify that. |
| Judith: I can so picture that. Good thing you’re working for an American company and there are no easy excuses to avoid showing up in the studio when millions of listeners are waiting for the next episode. Speaking of the next episode, I believe we’re almost done with this one. |
Outro |
| Chuck: Alright. Here comes party time. |
| Judith: Let’s listen to the dialogue one more time, just for practice. |
| Chuck: Then we can drink some beer. |
| Judith: Maybe. |
| Michael Schmidt: Ist hier noch frei? |
| Lena Wagner: Ja. |
| Michael Schmidt: Danke. Ich heiße Michael Schmidt. |
| Lena Wagner: Angenehm. Ich heiße Lena Wagner. |
| Michael Schmidt: Angenehm. Kommen Sie oft hierhin? |
| Lena Wagner: Ja, das Café ist sehr gut. |
| Michael Schmidt: Ich wohne in Bremen, aber ich komme oft nach Düsseldorf. Wohnen Sie hier in Düsseldorf? |
| Lena Wagner: Nein, ich wohne nicht in Düsseldorf. Ich wohne in Köln. Duzen wir uns doch. |
| Michael Schmidt: Ok, gut. |
| Judith: Great, Michael and Lena are on their way of getting to know each other better and in the next lesson we’re going to learn more about them. |
| Chuck: Meanwhile, I hope that we are going to learn about you, our listeners. Please write a comment underneath this lesson right now and tell us about yourself, why you’re learning German and, of course, how you like the lessons so far and where you’d like them to go. |
| Judith: We’re also open to suggestions of what you would like to learn, what you would like on the site and so on. These best go in the forum. |
| Chuck: Thanks for listening. |
| Judith: Hope you enjoyed it. Bis später! |
| Chuck: See you soon. |
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