Learn how to deal with the German bureaucracy
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Upper intermediate, season 1, Lesson 11. Coming and Going, There and Back in Germany. Hello and welcome to germanpod101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn German. |
| Judith: I am Judith and thanks again for being here with us for this upper intermediate season 1 lesson. |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you will learn how to deal with the German bureaucracy. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at the German office. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Mr. Jones and Mrs. [Bayer]. |
| Judith: The speakers are colleagues. Therefore they will be speaking formal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Bayer: So, heute fangen wir mal wieder mit einer etwas langweiligen Aufgabe an. Wir müssen diese Akten neu ordnen. |
| Jones: Na, das ist wirklich nicht sehr spannend. |
| Bayer: Ja…..Die Akten sind alphabetisch nach den Namen der Kunden geordnet, aber jetzt sollen wir sie nach Jahreszahlen ordnen. |
| Jones: Was? Wir sollen die Akten alphabetisch nach Jahreszahlen ordnen? |
| Bayer: Nein, entschuldigen Sie, das war wohl etwas schnell. Wir sollen die Akten nach Jahreszahlen ordnen. |
| Jones: Ach so. Okay. |
| Bayer: Also, nehmen Sie die Akten aus diesem Schrank heraus und ordnen Sie sie nach dem Datum. |
| Jones: Okay, und wohin soll ich sie dann stellen? |
| Bayer: Die sortierten Akten kommen dann einfach wieder in den Schrank hinein. |
| Jones: Ach so. Erst heraus, dann wieder hinein. |
| Bayer: Genau. Oh, ich vergaß…Bevor Sie anfangen, fahren Sie doch am besten mit dem Fahrstuhl ins Archiv hinunter und fragen Sie, ob dort etwas Platz für alte Akten ist. Und wenn Sie wieder herauf kommen, bringen Sie einen Rollwagen mit. |
| Jones: Einen Rollwagen? |
| Bayer: Ja. Mit dem Rollwagen können Sie später die alten Akten leichter hinunter ins Archiv bringen. |
| Jones: Ach so! Mensch, ist das ein Hin und Her! |
| Bayer: So, today we'll start with a somewhat boring task. We need to sort these files in a new order. |
| Jones: Ya, that really doesn't sound very exciting. |
| Bayer: Indeed. The files are alphabetically sorted by customer name, but we'll be sorting them by date now. |
| Jones: What? We're sorting the files alphabetically by date? |
| Bayer: No, sorry, perhaps I said that too fast. We need to sort the files by date. |
| Jones: Ahh, ok. |
| Bayer: So, take the files out of this cabinet and sort them all by date. |
| Jones: Ok, and where do I put them afterwards? |
| Bayer: The sorted files simply go back into the cabinet. |
| Jones: Ok. Out first, and then back in. |
| Bayer: Exactly. Oh, I forgot...before you start, it'd be best if you took the elevator down to the archive and ask whether there's room there for old files. And on your way back up, bring a cart with you. |
| Jones: A cart? |
| Bayer: Yes. With a cart, it'll be easier for you to bring the old files down to the archive later. |
| Jones: Oh man, what a lot of coming and going. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Sounds like this company has a real bureaucracy going there with an archive and lots of old files and… |
| Chuck: Well I’d say in Germany, you would be confronted with a lot of bureaucracy. |
| Judith: Yeah everything is documented and in turn, people expect you to document everything. For example, you have to regularly draw your bank statements, put them into a folder and keep them for at least 5 years. |
| Chuck: Yeah really. The German tax authorities can really demand to see your bank statements from 5 years ago. |
| Judith: If you want to get anything done with the authorities, motive is always to bring as much documentation as you possibly can. Not just your passport and some extra passport photos but also whatever might potentially relate to your situation. |
| Chuck: For example, your social security and income tax numbers, your university registration, your apartment rental contract, your driver’s license, your residency registration, vehicle papers, health insurance, well yeah whatever. |
| Judith: The more you bring, the less likely it is that they will tell you to come back another day with more documents. |
| Chuck: Also look online and see if you can already print and fill out whatever form they may ask you to fill out. Otherwise they may give you that form and have you leave their office to fill it out and then get back in line and hand it in. |
| Judith: Yes you can save time this way. |
| Chuck: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: [anfangen]. |
| Chuck: To begin or start. |
| Judith: [anfangen]. The forms are [Er fängt an, Er fing an, Er hat angefangen]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [langweilig]. |
| Chuck: Boring. |
| Judith: [langweilig]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Akte]. |
| Chuck: To see a record. |
| Judith: [Akte, die] and the plural is [Akte]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [ordnen]. |
| Chuck: To arrange or sort. |
| Judith: [ordnen]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [alphabetisch]. |
| Chuck: Alphabetically. |
| Judith: [Zahl]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Zahl]. |
| Chuck: Number. |
| Judith: [Zahl, die] And the plural is [Zahlen]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Schrank]. |
| Chuck: Cupboard, wardrobe or cabinet. |
| Judith: [Schrank, der]. And the plural is [Schränke]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [sortieren]. |
| Chuck: To sort, arrange or classify. |
| Judith: [sortieren]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [bevor]. |
| Chuck: Before. |
| Judith: [bevor]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Fahrstuhl]. |
| Chuck: Elevator. |
| Judith: [Fahrstuhl, der]. And the plural is [Fahrstühle]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Archiv]. |
| Chuck: Archive. |
| Judith: [Archiv, das]. And the plural is [Archive]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Rollwagen]. |
| Chuck: Dolly or a cart. |
| Judith: [Rollwagen, der]. And the plural is [Rollwagen]. |
| 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 is [die Jahreszahl]. |
| Chuck: Literally year number or date. |
| Judith: And we’ve also seen [der Fahrstuhl], is just another word for [der Aufzug]. |
| Chuck: What’s the difference? |
| Judith: There is no difference. [Fahrstuhl] and [Aufzug] are synonyms. There is no difference whatsoever. |
| Chuck: Oh okay. |
| Judith: And finally we’ve seen [hin und her]. |
| Chuck: To and fro, in and out, back and forth. |
| Judith: Yeah lot of comings and goings, [hin und her] You can hear the Latin complaints. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: So the focus of this lesson is [hin und her]. |
| Judith: A lot of German verbs are prefaced with the prefixes [hin] or [her] for no apparent reason. If you don’t understand these, it greatly increases the amount of verbs that you have to learn. |
| Chuck: The usage can be a bit tricky though but [her] is generally used for an action and the direction of the speaker and [hin] is used for an action in another direction. What are some examples? |
| Judith: [herkommen] is to come to the speaker and [hinkommen] is to come elsewhere. For example a place that the speaker will be in the future. |
| Chuck: And an example for [hin]. |
| Judith: That was just for [hin, hinkommen, her, herkommen] but I can give you more examples. |
| Chuck: Okay. |
| Judith: [hingehen] is to go there. There is no [hergehen] that would be kommen. So and simply [gehen] does not imply the target. See that’s the difference. [gehen] can already mean to go there but [hingehen] to go there and you don’t need to say where you are going. With [gehen] you always have to say that. |
| Chuck: Oh okay. |
| Judith: Like [Gehst du ins Schwimmbad? Ja, ich gehe hin.] and there is [hersehen] is to look towards the speaker whereas [hinsehen] is to look at it. It is the same as before. [sehen] doesn’t imply the targets or if you mean [sehen] with leaving out the object and you say [hinsehen] and [hersehen] is just towards you like [Seht alle her] everyone have a look what I am going to do and how I am going to brag in. [her] and [hin] also combine with other special prepositions. For example [herein] is a combination of [her] and [ein]. So it means into and towards the speaker. |
| Chuck: Oh is it like when someone says [Komm herein]. |
| Judith: Yes in that case, the speaker is inside the building and asks you to come inside and towards him. [hinein] means into and away from the speaker. So [herein, hinein] into and away. We’ve seen this in this dialogue where Frank has to put the documents into the closet. He puts them [hinein] because he is not inside the closet. That would be weird. This dialogue also featured the word [heraus] which is a combination of [her] and [aus]. So it means out of and towards the speaker. [hinaus] would be out of and away from the speaker. So if Frank is in front of the closet and takes the documents out of it, then it would be [heraus] but if he is on the other side of the room and documents spontaneously fall out, then that would be [hinaus]. |
| Chuck: Your practice will make you become more comfortable with these distinctions and use them in your own speech. This will make you sound a lot more like a native speaker. |
| Judith: Yes, definitely. |
Outro |
| Chuck: All right. That just about it for today. Some of our listeners already know the most powerful tool on germanpod101.com. |
| Judith: Line by line audio. |
| Chuck: The perfect tool for rapidly improving listening comprehension. |
| Judith: By listening to lines of the conversation again and again. |
| Chuck: Listen until every word and syllable becomes clear. |
| Judith: Listen to the dialogue in bite size sentences. |
| Chuck: And understand it all. |
| Judith: Try the line by line audio at germanpod101.com. |
| Chuck: So see you next week. |
| Judith: [Also bis nächste Woche]! |
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