Learn about the four cases in the German language and more than four ways to keep improving your German speaking skills while in Germany
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here, Upper-Beginner Season 2, Lesson 2 - Improve your German with a language exchange. |
| Judith: Hi, my name is Judith and I am joined here by Chuck. |
| Chuck: Hello everyone and welcome back to GermanPod101.com |
| Judith: What are we learning today? |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to write a classified ad. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at the Schneider family home. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Frau Schneider and Paul Martens. |
| Judith: The speakers are adults, therefore they’ll be speaking formal German. [] |
| Chuck: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Paul Martens: Wo finde ich einen Tandempartner? |
| Frau Schneider: Na, Sie hängen einfach einen Zettel an das schwarze Brett. Deutsche werden lesen, was da steht, und Sie anrufen. |
| Paul Martens: Gute Idee. Und was soll ich schreiben? |
| Frau Schneider: Stellen Sie sich vor und beschreiben Sie dann den Austausch. |
| Paul Martens: Okay, ich schreibe mal etwas. |
| ... |
| Paul Martens: Hier, was halten Sie von diesem Text? |
| Frau Schneider: Sprachenaustausch. Ich heiße Paul Martens, bin Amerikaner und bin jetzt in Berlin, um Deutsch zu lernen. |
| Frau Schneider: Ich kann es schon ziemlich gut verstehen, aber ich brauche mehr Übung. Besonders das Sprechen fällt mir schwer. |
| Frau Schneider: Deshalb suche ich einen deutschen Tandempartner. Ich kann Ihnen gerne helfen, Ihr Englisch zu verbessern. |
| Frau Schneider: Bitte rufen Sie mich an. Tel.: 030/123456789 |
| Frau Schneider: ... nicht schlecht. Hängst du das jetzt auf? |
| Paul Martens: Ja. Ich bin gleich zurück. |
| Judith: Now it’s slowly. |
| Paul Martens: Wo finde ich einen Tandempartner? |
| Frau Schneider: Na, Sie hängen einfach einen Zettel an das schwarze Brett. Deutsche werden lesen, was da steht, und Sie anrufen. |
| Paul Martens: Gute Idee. Und was soll ich schreiben? |
| Frau Schneider: Stellen Sie sich vor und beschreiben Sie dann den Austausch. |
| Paul Martens: Okay, ich schreibe mal etwas. |
| ... |
| Paul Martens: Hier, was halten Sie von diesem Text? |
| Frau Schneider: Sprachenaustausch. Ich heiße Paul Martens, bin Amerikaner und bin jetzt in Berlin, um Deutsch zu lernen. |
| Frau Schneider: Ich kann es schon ziemlich gut verstehen, aber ich brauche mehr Übung. Besonders das Sprechen fällt mir schwer. |
| Frau Schneider: Deshalb suche ich einen deutschen Tandempartner. Ich kann Ihnen gerne helfen, Ihr Englisch zu verbessern. |
| Frau Schneider: Bitte rufen Sie mich an. Tel.: 030/123456789 |
| Frau Schneider: ... nicht schlecht. Hängst du das jetzt auf? |
| Paul Martens: Ja. Ich bin gleich zurück. |
| Judith: Now with the translation. |
| Paul Martens: Wo finde ich einen Tandempartner? |
| Paul Martens: Where do I find a language exchange partner? |
| Frau Schneider: Na, Sie hängen einfach einen Zettel an das schwarze Brett. Deutsche werden lesen, was da steht, und Sie anrufen. |
| Mrs. Schneider: Well, you simply hang a note on the bulletin board. Germans will read what's on it, and call you. |
| Paul Martens: Gute Idee. Und was soll ich schreiben? |
| Paul Martens: Good idea. And what should I write? |
| Frau Schneider: Stellen Sie sich vor und beschreiben Sie dann den Austausch. |
| Mrs. Schneider: Introduce yourself and then describe the exchange. |
| Paul Martens: Okay, ich schreibe mal etwas. |
| Paul Martens: Okay, I'll write something |
| Paul Martens: Hier, was halten Sie von diesem Text? |
| Paul Martens: Here, what do you think of this text? |
| Frau Schneider: Sprachenaustausch. Ich heiße Paul Martens, bin Amerikaner und bin jetzt in Berlin, um Deutsch zu lernen. |
| Mrs. Schneider: Language Exchange. I'm Paul Martens, I'm an American, and I'm now in Berlin to learn German. |
| Frau Schneider: Ich kann es schon ziemlich gut verstehen, aber ich brauche mehr Übung. Besonders das Sprechen fällt mir schwer. |
| Mrs. Schneider: I can already understand it quite well, but I need more practice. Speaking is particularly hard for me. |
| Frau Schneider: Deshalb suche ich einen deutschen Tandempartner. Ich kann Ihnen gerne helfen, Ihr Englisch zu verbessern. |
| Mrs. Schneider: That's why I'm looking for a language exchange partner. I'd gladly help you improve your English. |
| Frau Schneider: Bitte rufen Sie mich an. Tel.: 030/123456789 |
| Mrs. Schneider: Please call me. Tel.: 030/123456789 |
| Frau Schneider: ... nicht schlecht. Hängst du das jetzt auf? |
| Mrs. Schneider: ... Not bad. Are you hanging that up now? |
| Paul Martens: Ja. Ich bin gleich zurück. |
| Paul Martens: Yes. I'll be right back. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chuck: So, in the last lesson we looked at ways to practice the language while abroad, but there’s also many ways to practice in the country itself. Well, there are tons of ways. |
| Judith: Yeah, just like when you’re abroad, you can also find language exchange partners and language meetups. But being in the country has the advantage that you can also go at any club and speak your target language there. So if you’re interested in, say, martial arts, why not join a German martial arts club? |
| Chuck: Movies in German language TV are also easier to come by. In fact, you may find it hard to find English language movies cause everything at the cinema and on TV [inaudible 00:02:51] is dubbed. It’s great for language learning, though. |
| Judith: If you’re in the country, there’s also no shortage of language teachers. Maybe you can even find someone who will teach you German in exchange for you teaching them another skill. [inaudible 00:03:03]. |
| Chuck: Find opportunities to talk to everyone you see, allow sales people to give you a detailed recommendation, regularly forget to bring a map and ask Germans for the way, buy all train tickets from humans rather than machine, and chat with waitresses and the hair dresses. There are lots of ways to get a lot more language practice of every day. |
| Judith: Get a library card and read as many German books as you can. In some cities, such as Berlin, there are also many used bookstores. If you’re really lucky, you’ll find a store where every book costs 1 euro. Go wild and grab everything that interests you, no matter if the language is too difficult for you right now. If you have something you really want to read, you will quickly develop the ability to read it. |
| Chuck: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chuck: The first word we shall see is. |
| Judith: [Aufhängen] |
| Chuck: To hang up. |
| Judith: [Aufhängen, aufhängen] And the [Auf] splits off. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Zettel] |
| Chuck: “Note” or “piece of paper”. |
| Judith: [Zettel, Zettel, der Zettel] and the plural is the same. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Schwarz] |
| Chuck: Black. |
| Judith: [Schwarz, schwarz] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Brett] |
| Chuck: Wooden board. |
| Judith: [Brett, Brett, das Brett] and the plural is [Bretter]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Anrufen] |
| Chuck: To call. |
| Judith: [Anrufen, anrufen] and the [An] splits off. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Idee] |
| Chuck: Idea. |
| Judith: [Idee, Idee, die Idee] and the plural is [Ideen]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Sich vorstellen] |
| Chuck: “To imagine” or “introduce yourself”. |
| Judith: [Sich vorstellen, sich vorstellen] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Beschreiben] |
| Chuck: To describe. |
| Judith: [Beschreiben, beschreiben] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Halten] |
| Chuck: “To hold” or “to consider somebody or something as…”, “to think” or “to stop”. |
| Judith: [Halten, halten] And this is a vowel-changing verb [Er hält] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Ziemlich] |
| Chuck: Quite. |
| Judith: [Ziemlich, ziemlich]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Übung] |
| Chuck: “Exercise” or “practice”. |
| Judith: [Übung, Übung, die Übung] and the plural is [Übungen]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Fallen] |
| Chuck: To fall. |
| Judith: [Fallen, fallen] And this is another vowel-changing verb, so [Er fällt]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Deshalb] |
| Chuck: Therefore. |
| Judith: [Deshalb, deshalb] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Gleich] |
| Chuck: “Equal”, “immediately” or “shortly”. |
| Judith: [Gleich, gleich] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Chuck: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Judith: The first word we’ll look at is [Halten]. Normally it means “to hold”, but it can also mean “to think of” in some expressions like [Was halten sie davon?]. |
| Chuck: What do you think about that? |
| Judith: Or [Ich halte nichts davon?]. |
| Chuck: I don’t think much of it. |
| Judith: [Es fällt mir schwer.] is another German expression. It means “it’s difficult for me”. [Es fällt mir schwer] Similarly, you could say [Es fällt ihm schwer]. |
| Chuck: “It’s difficult for him.” |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The focus of this lesson is an introduction to cases. German pronouns, articles and adjectives change slightly depending on what their function is in the sentence. The pattern of changes are known as cases. |
| Judith: There are four cases in German. |
| Chuck: Nominative, for the [inaudible 00:07:10] of the sentence. |
| Judith: Genitive, to express possession, like “my father’s car”. |
| Chuck: Dative, for indirect objects and after many prepositions. |
| Judith: Accusative, for direct objects and also after many prepositions. |
| Chuck: English doesn’t have a dative or accusative case for nouns, but we can see something similar when looking at personal pronouns. |
| Judith: For example, the nominative of “he” is “he” and the accusative is “him”. We say “He is a student” and “I love him”. In German, this would be [Er ist ein Student] and [Ich liebe ihn]. [Er] and [Ihn] are as different as “he” and “him”. |
| Chuck: For the dative, English would simply use “to him”, as in “I give the present to him”. In German this is simply [Ihm]. |
| Judith: [Ich gebe ihm ein Geschenk]. |
| Chuck: That one’s easy to remember, you just mix up the letters from English. We’ll look at each case and the changes it involves in later lessons. They’re easier to learn once you have a bit of a feel for the German language. |
| Judith: For now just keep in mind that pronouns, articles and adjectives will change depending on the role that they have in the german sentence. So don't be confused if they do. |
Outro |
| Chuck: Well, that just about does it for today. |
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| Chuck: So, see you next time. |
| Judith: Also, bis nächstes Mal. |
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