Learn how to talk about an experience you had
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here upper intermediate season 1 lesson 21. In order to get impressive German skills you need…. |
| Judith: Hello everyone, I’m Judith and welcome to germanpod101.com. |
| Chuck: With us you’ll learn to speak German with fun and effective lessons. |
| Judith: We also provide you with cultural insights and tips you won’t find in a textbook. |
| Chuck: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about an experience you had. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at a German office. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Frank Jones and Mrs. Bayer. |
| Judith: The speakers have gotten to know each other so now they switched to speaking informal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Bayer: Und Frank, wie fandest du unseren Betriebsausflug gestern? |
| Jones: Ich fand die Aufführung sehr interessant. |
| Bayer: Ja, ich war auch sehr beeindruckt. So etwas habe ich vorher noch nie gesehen. |
| Jones: Ja, ich auch nicht. Und ich fand den Ausflug wirklich sehr toll. Ich denke, solche Ausflüge sind wirklich eine gute Gelegenheit, um die Kollegen besser kennenzulernen. |
| Bayer: Ja, stimmt. So trifft man sich auch mal außerhalb des Büros. |
| Jones: Was für Ausflüge hast du denn schon mitgemacht? |
| Bayer: Hmm. Also letztes Jahr waren wir in einem Kletterpark. |
| Jones: Kletterpark? Was ist das? |
| Bayer: In einem Kletterpark gibt es Kletterwände oder auch Plattformen in Bäumen. |
| Jones: Man klettert auf Bäume? Oh, damit ich so etwas tue, müsste ich vorher wahrscheinlich viel Alkohol trinken! Haha! |
| Bayer: Haha, Quatsch! So schlimm ist es wirklich nicht. Jeder Teilnehmer ist doch gesichert, damit nichts passieren kann. |
| Jones: Trotzdem, die Plattformen sind sicherlich sehr hoch und ich habe etwas Höhenangst. |
| Bayer: Aber genau dafür gibt es doch diese Kletterparks. Man klettert dort, um die eigenen Ängste zu überwinden! |
| Jones: Also ich finde, um Ängste zu überwinden, muss man nicht hoch klettern! Ich bleibe lieber mit beiden Beinen fest auf dem Boden! |
| Bayer: And Frank, how'd you find our company outing yesterday? |
| Jones: I found the performance very interesting. |
| Bayer: Yes, I was also quite impressed. I've never seen something like that before. |
| Jones: Yes, me neither. And I found the excursion really quite nice. I think such outings are really a good opportunity to get to know your colleagues better. |
| Bayer: Yeah, that's right. You get to see each other outside the office too. |
| Jones: What other sorts of outings have you done before? |
| Bayer: Hmm. Well, last year we went to a climbing park. |
| Jones: Climbing park? What's that? |
| Bayer: In a climbing park, there are climbing walls, or also platforms in trees. |
| Jones: You climb the trees? To do that, I'd have to drink a lot of alcohol beforehand! Haha! |
| Bayer: Haha, nonsense! It's actually not that bad. Every participant is secured so that nothing can happen. |
| Jones: That aside, the platforms are certainly quite high and I'm a little afraid of heights. |
| Bayer: But that's exactly what these climbing parks are for. You go climbing there in order to overcome your personal fears. |
| Jones: Well, I think to overcome fears, you don't have to climb up something. I'd prefer to keep my feet on the ground! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: For cultural point, how do we talk about climbing and the possibilities you have in Germany? |
| Chuck: Sounds good. If you are looking at rock climbing in Germany there are quite a few “Kletter” parks, climbing parks available. If you want real mountains though, there are less of those. |
| Judith: Yes, there are only really high mountains high mountains can be found in the Alps in the south of Germany and Germany only has a very small part of the Alps. |
| Chuck: Switzerland and Austria are better choices for that and also German speaking. |
| Judith: Yeah, the North of Germany where I come from is uniformly flat and at times below sea level. There are several mountain chains in the middle of Germany and also along it’s Eastern border. |
| Chuck: the highest German mountain is the [Zugspitze] at the German Austrian border and the top seven highest mountains are all found in the vicinity of the [Zugspitze]. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is: |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: [Aufführung]. |
| Chuck: Performance or show. |
| Judith: [Aufführung, die] and the plural is [Aufführungen]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [beeindruckt]. |
| Chuck: Impressed. |
| Judith: [beeindruckt]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Gelegenheit]. |
| Chuck: Opportunity. |
| Judith: [Gelegenheit, die] and the plural is [Gelegenheiten]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [außerhalb]. |
| Chuck: Outside of or beyond. |
| Judith: [außerhalb] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [klettern] |
| Chuck: To climb. |
| Judith: [klettern] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Wand] |
| Chuck: Wall. |
| Judith: [Wand, die] and the plural is [Wände] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Plattform] |
| Chuck: Platform. |
| Judith: [Plattform, die] and the plural is [Plattformen] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Baum] |
| Chuck: Tree. |
| Judith: [Baum, der] and the plural is [Bäume] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [damit] |
| Chuck: So that. |
| Judith: [damit] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [wahrscheinlich] |
| Chuck: Probably. |
| Judith: [wahrscheinlich] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [sichern] |
| Chuck: To secure. |
| Judith: [sichern] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Angst] |
| Chuck: Fear anxiety or angst. |
| Judith: [Angst, die] and the plural is [Ängste]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [überwinden] |
| Chuck: To overcome. |
| Judith: [überwinden] and the forms are [Er überwindet, Er überwand, Er hat überwunden] |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Bein] |
| Chuck: Leg |
| Judith: [Bein, das] and the plural is [Beine] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Chuck: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases for this lesson. |
| Judith: The first word we are going to look at is [mitmachen] If you internalized what we said about the [mit] prefix, you can guess that [mitmachen] literally to do along means to participate.[Kletterpark] and [Kletterwand] are both based on the verb [klettern] |
| Chuck: To climb. |
| Judith: [Kletterpark] is a park where you can go climbing and [Kletterwand] is a wall designed for climbing. Finally the word [Höhenangst]. |
| Chuck: The fear of heights. |
| Judith: This word is composed of [Höhe] |
| Chuck: Height |
| Judith: And [Angst] |
| Chuck: Fear. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Judith: The grammar focus of this lesson is [damit] and [umzu] |
| Chuck: A lot of times when English uses the infinitive in the sentence German uses the preposition [zu] some examples? |
| Judith: [Ich habe keine Lust nach Hause zu gehen] |
| Chuck: I’m not in the mood to go home. |
| Judith: [Ich bin stolz darauf einer der besten zu sein] |
| Chuck: I am proud of being one of the best. The rule for these cases is to place [zu] immediately in front of the verb. |
| Judith: This means that when you have two verbs piled up at the end of your sub-clause, the [zu] is placed in the middle. |
| Chuck: And when you have a splitting verb, the [zu] is inserted between the prefix and the verb stem. |
| Judith: For example [mitzukommen] |
| Chuck: To come along. |
| Judith: [abzugeben] |
| Chuck: To give away and so on. [zu] is also crucial when using [um] as the conjunction. |
| Judith: [umzu] means in order to. |
| Chuck: In today’s dialogue, we’ve seen several examples of this. |
| Judith: [Man klettert dort um die eigenen Ängste zu überwinden. Solche Ausflüge sind wirklich eine gute Gelegenheit, die Kollegen besser kennenzulernen]. |
| Chuck: If you want to avoid the tricky [zu] you should use the conjunction [damit] instead which is almost the same, it translates to “so that”, with [damit] you don’t need to use [zu] |
| Judith: For example, consider this sentence. [Jeder Teilnehmer ist doch mit einem Seil gesichert, damit nichts passieren kann]. |
Outro |
| Chuck: That just about does it for today. Not enough time! |
| Judith: You are very busy. |
| Chuck: We know. And that’s why we have one click lesson downloads on iTunes. |
| Judith: Subscribe on iTunes. |
| Chuck: All free materials will automatically be downloaded for each new lesson as they become available. |
| Judith: Basic and premium members, get all access to bonus lesson materials too. |
| Chuck: Save time. Spend more time studying. |
| Judith: Never worry about missing another lesson again. |
| Chuck: Go to iTunes, search for the phrase germanpod101.com and click subscribe. So see you next week! |
| Judith: [Also bis nächste Woche]! |
Comments
Hide