Learn how to get what we want
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: This is Newbie Series lesson Sieben. |
| Judith: Seven. |
| Chuck: [Willkommen zurück!] |
| Judith: Hey, that’s my part. [Willkommen zurück!] |
| Chuck: Welcome back. |
| Judith: How have you been? |
| Chuck: Hope you’re well and ready to get back to German. So Judith, what should we study today? |
| Judith: Today we will learn how to get what we want. |
| Chuck: Really? |
| Judith: Well, we learn how to express what we want anyway, and we learn how to make suggestions. |
| Chuck: So I’ll learn how to suggest when this lesson should stop recording? |
| Judith: Not quite, but let me ask something else. Chuck, apart from already being outside, what do you really want? |
| Chuck: Not sure… Hey, I know. I’d really like to stop getting spam and start getting more interesting comments about what people want to hear about. For example, I’d like to get more emails from listeners telling me that they really like me and they want to hear more from me in the lessons, and less emails from you telling me to work more. |
| Judith: Tough request. You can’t always control who will send you messages and what they will tell you. However, GermanPod101 makes it easy. Using the recently introduced My Feed feature, you can fully customized what kind of things you’ll be notified about. For example, you can choose to be notified about upcoming Newbie lessons, but not about Advanced audio blogs. And if you like, you can also choose to automatically download the podcast and accompanying PDF files whenever they become available. This way you will always have a fresh supply of lessons. You no longer need to browse to GermanPod101.com, check what’s new and download the lessons yourself. |
| Chuck: Well, that sounds really useful for lazy people, I mean busy people like me. I always forget to look for new stuff to put on my MP3 player, and then the pile of lessons keeps growing and growing… |
| Judith: Speaking of lessons, let’s get started on this one. In the last lesson, Michael and Lena exchanged cellphone numbers before Lena had to run. Now, a few days later, Michael is calling her. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Lena Wagner: Lena Wagner. |
| Michael Schmidt: Hi. Hier ist Michael. Wie geht es dir? |
| Lena Wagner: Gut. Danke. Und dir? |
| Michael Schmidt: Auch gut. Lena, ich möchte dich treffen. Hast du Zeit? |
| Lena Wagner: Nein, ich habe jetzt noch zwei Termine. |
| Michael Schmidt: Dann lass uns morgen ins Kino gehen. Welchen Film möchtest du sehen? |
| Lena Wagner: Ich habe keine Lust auf Kino. |
| Judith: Now slowly. |
| Lena Wagner: Lena Wagner. |
| Michael Schmidt: Hi. Hier ist Michael. Wie geht es dir? |
| Lena Wagner: Gut. Danke. Und dir? |
| Michael Schmidt: Auch gut. Lena, ich möchte dich treffen. Hast du Zeit? |
| Lena Wagner: Nein, ich habe jetzt noch zwei Termine. |
| Michael Schmidt: Dann lass uns morgen ins Kino gehen. Welchen Film möchtest du sehen? |
| Lena Wagner: Ich habe keine Lust auf Kino. |
| Judith: Now Chuck will translate. |
| Judith: Lena Wagner. |
| Chuck: That would be “Lena Wagner”. |
| Judith: Hi. Hier ist Michael. |
| Chuck: “Hi, here is Michael.” This is really tough translating job today. |
| Judith: Wie geht es dir? |
| Chuck: “How are you?” |
| Judith: Gut. Danke. Und dir? |
| Chuck: “Good. Thanks. And you?” |
| Judith: Auch gut. |
| Chuck: “Good as well.” |
| Judith: Lena, ich möchte dich treffen. |
| Chuck: “Lena, I’d like to meet you.” |
| Judith: Hast du Zeit? |
| Chuck: “Do you have time?” |
| Judith: Nein, ich habe jetzt noch zwei Termine. |
| Chuck: “No, I still have two appointments.” |
| Judith: Dann lass uns morgen ins Kino gehen. |
| Chuck: “Then let’s go to the movies tomorrow.” |
| Judith: Welchen Film möchtest du sehen? |
| Chuck: “Which film would you like to see?” |
| Judith: Ich habe keine Lust auf Kino. |
| Chuck: “Not really in the mood for a movie.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chuck: Did you notice something strange? Lena said “Lena Wagner” when Michael called. Just like that. |
| Judith: How is that odd? What would you have expected her to say? |
| Chuck: Wouldn’t you say just “hello” or “hi” just to greet them? I mean you have greetings in Germany, don’t you? |
| Judith: Of course there are greetings in Germany, it’s just not what you say first thing on the phone. When you make or receive a call, you should say your name pretty immediately so that people know who they’re talking to. |
| Chuck: But why? |
| Judith: If somebody dialed a wrong number, he will know very quickly and you will both be able to quickly get on with your lives. |
| Chuck: I guess they could also avoid embarrassing situations where I call a girl and get her mom, and her mom’s voice is quite similar to her. |
| Judith: Are you recalling something in particular? |
| Chuck: No, not at all. |
| Judith: Funny, I think you might be talking of my mom. Anyway, in response to you saying your name, the caller should then reveal his name and he may add a greeting. For example, [Martin Müller, Guten Tag]. |
| Chuck: So when you call someone, don’t forget this part. People can get very annoyed or even hang up if you fail to say your name. It’s not just a common courtesy but it also distinguishes you from people that have no business calling like telemarketers or people who want to call for legal lotteries. |
| Judith: For example. Or those survey people. Now, if you want to talk to somebody else in the household, you should still say your name before asking for the phone to be passed over. |
| Chuck: If you really want to be polite, you should also have a quick conversation with the person who answered the phone before asking for that, especially if you’re acquainted with the person. |
| Judith: Here’s a sample dialogue of how this might look. [Gerda Wagner]. |
| Chuck: [Michael Schmidt, Guten Tag, wie geht es Ihnen Frau Wagner?] |
| Judith: [Gut, Danke, und Ihnen?] |
| Chuck: [Gut, Danke, und wie geht es Ihrem Mann?] So I'm actually asking, “How’s your husband?” |
| Judith: [Auch gut. Er arbeitet im Moment]. |
| Chuck: [Und Lena? Ich möchte eigentlich mit Lena sprechen.] So I'm saying, “I’d actually like to talk to Lena.” |
| Judith: [Lena ist hier. Ich gebe ihr jetzt das Telefon.] |
| Chuck: “I'm giving the phone to her now.” These phrases are also very useful even if you want to, for example, talk to an American friend who’s staying at the university in Germany, cause it might be that there’s just one phone for the floor and then some German picks it up and doesn’t speak English. |
| Judith: Yeah, and for Michael it’s very useful because he could have reached Lena even on her home phone, could have convinced her parents to hand over the phone, but he was calling on her cellphone. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Let’s have a closer look at what was said. First, the new vocabulary. The first word is really important. It is möchte. |
| Chuck: Would like. |
| Judith: möchte. |
| Chuck: Would like. |
| Judith: Now listen carefully to the pronunciation. Chuck, you still sometimes have problems with it. It’s [Möchte]. Now, [Möchte] is not actually a real verb. It’s the conditional of [Mögen] but you don’t need to worry about that because it behaves as if it was a verb called [Möchten]. Now the next word is dich. |
| Chuck: “You”, as used as an object. |
| Judith: dich. |
| Chuck: You, as in [Ich liebe dich]. |
| Judith: For example, perfect example. I think quite a few listeners may have heard it before. |
| Chuck: It means “I love you” for those who haven’t. |
| Judith: Ich liebe dich. |
| Chuck: I love you. |
| Judith: Next word is treffen. |
| Chuck: To meet. |
| Judith: treffen. |
| Chuck: To meet. |
| Judith: Next, dann. |
| Chuck: Then. |
| Judith: dann. |
| Chuck: Then. |
| Judith: Next we have a whole phrase. ins Kino. |
| Chuck: “To the movies” or literally, “Into the cinema”. |
| Judith: ins Kino. |
| Chuck: To the movies. |
| Judith: Next, gehen. |
| Chuck: “To go”, as in to walk. |
| Judith: Yeah, gehen is rarely used for going by car. Then you will probably use [Fahren]. |
| Chuck: Notice also, if you go by bike or if you fly, you also don’t use [Gehen]. Or by train. You’ll get funny looks in the train if you ask people where they’re [Gehen]. |
| Judith: You’d also use [Fahren] there, yeah. We’ll cover them in a later lesson about transportation. |
| Chuck: But just know if you’re walking somewhere, you can use gehen. |
| Judith: Definitely then. And in some other cases. Now the next word is welchen. |
| Chuck: Which. |
| Judith: welchen. |
| Chuck: Which. |
| Judith: There are different forms of this, just like for the adjectives. For now don’t worry about it and just memorize this form, welchen. |
| Chuck: Which. |
| Judith: And finally, one more word, sehen. |
| Chuck: To see. |
| Judith: sehen. sehen. |
| Chuck: To see. |
| Judith: For example, Welchen Film möchtest du sehen? |
| Chuck: So, for example, this means “Which film would you like to see?” |
| CULTURAL INSIGHT |
| Judith: What are the films that you like, Chuck? |
| Chuck: There’s actually quite a lot of interesting, good German movies. |
| Judith: You mean movies that Americans wouldn’t know about? |
| Chuck: Yeah. Or movies they would find in the back in the corner of their video rental store, that have the foreign section. |
| Judith: What kind of movies would you recommend? |
| Chuck: Well, the classic would be “Run Lola Run”, which in German is Lola rennt. |
| Judith: Can you think of any other movies that would be interesting for Americans? |
| Chuck: Well, I’d say “Goodbye, Lenin” is really good. |
| Judith: “Goodbye, Lenin” is a movie about the time when the wall was cracking and soviet empire was crashing down. |
| Chuck: If you want a more interesting comedy, you could search for “Viktor Vogel – Commercial Man” about a young man right out of college, trying to get a job at an ad agency. |
| Judith: The most recent very, very popular German movie is [Der Schuh des Manitu]. It was actually the most popular movie ever in Austria. And if you want to learn more about it, you should listen to one of our next audio blogs which will feature this film. |
| Chuck: If you look for more realistic movies, and possibly not so up-beat movies, you might want to try Der Untergang or “The Downfall”, about the last days of Hitler’s life. |
| Judith: Or you can watch [Das Experiment]. It’s about an experiment run to see how readily people would exert power if they have it. |
| Chuck: Basically where a group of people were taken, and half of them became prisoners and half of them became prison guards. |
| Judith: But I think we’re really digressing at the moment. We should get back to the lesson. If you want to discover more good German movies, check the forum for some recommendations and add your own. |
| Chuck: We would love to hear what German films you’ve really enjoyed watching. |
| Judith: There’s presently a forum thread about movies. |
| Chuck: So then we’d also like to know [Welchen Film möchtest du sehen?]. |
| Judith: Yes, tell us. For now let’s get back to the purpose of this lesson. |
| Chuck: But wait, we’ve been going on a bit. Is there really a purpose of this lesson? I mean, has there ever been one? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: Of course there is. In this lesson, we will learn how to express what we want. We already know Ich habe Lust auf and the corresponding question Haben Sie Lust auf? or Hast du Lust auf? |
| Chuck: That’s actually been bugging me. What happens if you want to say, “No, I'm not in the mood for…” to that question? |
| Judith: The correct phrasing is Ich habe keine Lust auf. Keine means “no”, you’re literally saying “You have no desire of”. |
| Chuck: So I could use this for Ich habe keine Lust auf Arbeit? So I have no desire to work? |
| Judith: Yes, that’s how you would describe your state of mind. In today’s dialogue, you have also encountered ich möchte, which means “I would like”. This is an extremely useful phrase because you can express so much with it. I’ll give you a couple of examples. Ich möchte einen Kaffee. |
| Chuck: “I’d like a cup of coffee.” |
| Judith: Ich möchte Telefonnummern austauschen. |
| Chuck: “I would like to exchange phone numbers.” |
| Judith: Ich möchte morgen frei haben. |
| Chuck: “I would like to have a day off tomorrow.” |
| Judith: Note that this involves the German expression frei haben, “to have free,” “to have a day off.” Ich möchte morgen nicht arbeiten. |
| Chuck: “I don’t want to work tomorrow.” |
| Judith: Literally, “I would like to not work tomorrow.” Ich möchte morgen nicht arbeiten. Möchtest du ins Kino gehen? |
| Chuck: Would you like to go to the cinema? |
| Judith: One minor annoyance that all of these long phrases have in common is that the second verb always gets transferred till the end of the sentence. This is the case whenever there are two verbs in one sentence in German. For example, also with the expression Lass uns, “let’s.” Lass uns Titanic sehen. |
| Chuck: “Let’s watch Titanic.” Or, as I would like to say, Lass uns nicht Titanic sehen. |
| Judith: Lass uns morgen ins Theater gehen. |
| Chuck: “Let’s go to the theater tomorrow.” And notice in German if you say Theater, this means an actual theater like for plays, not a movie theater. |
| Judith: Lass uns nicht streiten. |
| Chuck: “Let’s not argue.” |
| Judith: So, what do you think? |
| Chuck: Yeah, it’s nice. I can say [Ich habe keine Lust auf Arbeit, ich möchte gehen] and [Lass uns Feierabend machen]. I'm beginning to feel I can really express myself in German. |
| Judith: Is it that time of the show again? [Möchtest du wirklich schon Feierabend machen?] Do you really already want to call it a day? |
| Chuck: [Natürlich] Of course. [Natürlich möchte ich Feierabend machen.] Of course I want to call it a day, what do you think? |
| Judith: [Ok, lass uns nur den Dialog noch einmal lesen]. Ok, let’s just read the dialogue one more time. |
| Lena Wagner: Lena Wagner. |
| Michael Schmidt: Hi. Hier ist Michael. Wie geht es dir? |
| Lena Wagner: Gut. Danke. Und dir? |
| Michael Schmidt: Auch gut. Lena, ich möchte dich treffen. Hast du Zeit? |
| Lena Wagner: Nein, ich habe jetzt noch zwei Termine. |
| Michael Schmidt: Dann lass uns morgen ins Kino gehen. Welchen Film möchtest du sehen? |
| Lena Wagner: Ich habe keine Lust auf Kino. |
Outro |
| Judith: Now tell us, what are you going to do after this show, Chuck? |
| Chuck: I think I'm going to go home, relax, maybe watch some TV, surf the net… |
| Judith: No, I mean what are you going to do after this show? |
| Chuck: Well, I might get a bite to eat for dinner, maybe something exotic. |
| Judith: Chuck, you don’t understand. What are you going to do after the show? |
| Chuck: Oh, oh, I mean I'm going to leave a comment underneath the lesson about how much I enjoyed it, and then of course I'm going to practice my vocabulary and phrases using the Learning Center. |
| Judith: Finally! Everybody, please follow Chuck’s example and do that. |
| Chuck: Wait, you mean everyone should go home and relax and watch TV and… |
| Judith: No. I mean write us nice comments and practice your German. Thanks for listening to GermanPod101.com. |
| Chuck: See you soon. |
| Judith: [Bis bald.] |
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