Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Chuck: Chuck here, Upper-Beginner Season 2 Lesson 17 - Having fun in Germany. Hello, and welcome back to GermanPod101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn German. I`m joined in the studio by.
Judith: Hello everyone, Judith here.
Chuck: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe a birthday party.
Judith: This conversation takes place at the Schneider family home.
Chuck: The conversation is between Paul and Mrs. Schneider.
Judith: The speakers are adults, therefore they will be speaking formal German.
Chuck: Let`s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Frau Schneider: Na, war es schön gestern?
Paul: Ja. Wir haben leckeren Kuchen gegessen und haben uns gut unterhalten.
Frau Schneider: Wie viele Leute waren da?
Paul: Hmm, Chuck natürlich, Sarah, Angelina, Peter und ich, also insgesamt fünf Leute.
Frau Schneider: Alles Schüler der Goethe-Schule?
Paul: Ja, außer uns war niemand da. Es scheint, als ob Chuck wenig Deutsche kennt.
Frau Schneider: Wenn man den ganzen Tag an der Sprachschule ist, ist es schwierig, andere Leute kennen zu lernen.
Paul: Stimmt, aber abends oder am Wochenende kann man etwas unternehmen. Chuck hat gestern Abend ein Aggro Berlin Konzert besucht.
Frau Schneider: Oh? Aber es war doch seine Geburtstagsfeier?
Paul: Ja, deshalb darf er auch gehen, wann er will. Wenn er seinen Geburtstag gern auf einem Konzert feiern will... Wir anderen waren noch gemeinsam im Kino.
Frau Schneider: Im Kino? Welchen Film habt ihr geschaut?
Paul: Transformers 4. Angelina hat sich diesen Film gewünscht.
Frau Schneider: Und? Wie war er?
Paul: Langweilig und sehr lang. Ich habe nichts anderes erwartet.
Frau Schneider: Schade.
Frau Schneider: Möchtest du heute Bücher kaufen gehen? Ich habe endlich mal weniger Stress.
Paul: Ja! Das wäre toll. Ich habe zu wenig zu lesen im Moment.
Judith: Now it`s slowly.
Frau Schneider: Na, war es schön gestern?
Paul: Ja. Wir haben leckeren Kuchen gegessen und haben uns gut unterhalten.
Frau Schneider: Wie viele Leute waren da?
Paul: Hmm, Chuck natürlich, Sarah, Angelina, Peter und ich, also insgesamt fünf Leute.
Frau Schneider: Alles Schüler der Goethe-Schule?
Paul: Ja, außer uns war niemand da. Es scheint, als ob Chuck wenig Deutsche kennt.
Frau Schneider: Wenn man den ganzen Tag an der Sprachschule ist, ist es schwierig, andere Leute kennen zu lernen.
Paul: Stimmt, aber abends oder am Wochenende kann man etwas unternehmen. Chuck hat gestern Abend ein Aggro Berlin Konzert besucht.
Frau Schneider: Oh? Aber es war doch seine Geburtstagsfeier?
Paul: Ja, deshalb darf er auch gehen, wann er will. Wenn er seinen Geburtstag gern auf einem Konzert feiern will... Wir anderen waren noch gemeinsam im Kino.
Frau Schneider: Im Kino? Welchen Film habt ihr geschaut?
Paul: Transformers 4. Angelina hat sich diesen Film gewünscht.
Frau Schneider: Und? Wie war er?
Paul: Langweilig und sehr lang. Ich habe nichts anderes erwartet.
Frau Schneider: Schade.
Frau Schneider: Möchtest du heute Bücher kaufen gehen? Ich habe endlich mal weniger Stress.
Paul: Ja! Das wäre toll. Ich habe zu wenig zu lesen im Moment.
Judith: Now with the translation. Jetzt mit Übersetzung.
Frau Schneider: Na, war es schön gestern?
Mrs Schneider: Well, was it nice yesterday?
Paul: Ja. Wir haben leckeren Kuchen gegessen und haben uns gut unterhalten.
Paul: Yes. We ate some yummy cake and we had a good conversation.
Frau Schneider: Wie viele Leute waren da?
Mrs Schneider: How many people were there?
Paul: Hmm, Chuck natürlich, Sarah, Angelina, Peter und ich, also insgesamt fünf Leute.
Paul: Hmm, Chuck of course, Sarah, Angelina, Peter and I, so five people in total.
Frau Schneider: Alles Schüler der Goethe-Schule?
Mrs Schneider: All of them students of the Goethe school?
Paul: Ja, außer uns war niemand da. Es scheint, als ob Chuck wenig Deutsche kennt.
Paul: Yes, there was nobody there apart from us. It seems, as if Chuck knows few Germans.
Frau Schneider: Wenn man den ganzen Tag an der Sprachschule ist, ist es schwierig, andere Leute kennen zu lernen.
Mrs Schneider: If you're at the language school all day, it's difficult to get to know other people.
Paul: Stimmt, aber abends oder am Wochenende kann man etwas unternehmen. Chuck hat gestern Abend ein Aggro Berlin Konzert besucht.
Paul: True, but in the evenings or on the weekends you can do stuff. Chuck attended an Aggro Berlin concert last night.
Frau Schneider: Oh? Aber es war doch seine Geburtstagsfeier?
Mrs Schneider: Oh? But it was his birthday party?
Paul: Ja, deshalb darf er auch gehen, wann er will. Wenn er seinen Geburtstag gern auf einem Konzert feiern will... Wir anderen waren noch gemeinsam im Kino.
Paul: Yes, therefore he may also leave when he wants to. If he wants to celebrate his birthday at a concert... We others went to the movies together then.
Frau Schneider: Im Kino? Welchen Film habt ihr geschaut?
Mrs Schneider: To the movies? Which movie did you watch?
Paul: Transformers 4. Angelina hat sich diesen Film gewünscht.
Paul: Transformers 4. Angelina wished for this movie.
Frau Schneider: Und? Wie war er?
Mrs Schneider: And? How was it?
Paul: Langweilig und sehr lang. Ich habe nichts anderes erwartet.
Paul: Boring and very long. I didn't expect anything else.
Frau Schneider: Schade.
Mrs Schneider: It's a pity.
Frau Schneider: Möchtest du heute Bücher kaufen gehen? Ich habe endlich mal weniger Stress.
Mrs Schneider: Do you want to go buy books today? I'm finally under less stress.
Paul: Ja! Das wäre toll. Ich habe zu wenig zu lesen im Moment.
Paul: Yes! That would be great. I have little to read at the moment.
CULTURAL INSIGHTS
Judith: Ok, so it seems like Mrs. Schneider is a real workaholic, but how common are these in Germany?
Chuck: Well, I’d say stereotypically Germans are workaholics but it’s not quite true. I mean Germany’s one of the countries with the least amount of work hours per week. The maximum here is less than 40 hours per week, but in addition there’s also a ton of public holidays and, of course, you’re legally guaranteed four weeks of vacation. That means at least 20 days of vacation.
Judith: In my experience, Germans actually want to work hard during work hours and then also then they’re [Feierabend].
Chuck: The end of work day.
Judith: And they may just drop whatever they were doing and go home then. So serious about work and series about taking free time.
Chuck: They’re also known to be punctual. Well, yes they are and they expect you to be too as a matter of common courtesy. If you’re more than five minutes late, call and apologize profusely.
Judith: Another stereotype about Germans is that they drink lots of beer. And that’s true, Germany is only outdone by the Czech Republic when it comes to per capita beer consumption. Well, there are quite a few Germans who don’t like beer or prefer wine, so you shouldn’t take It as a given. It’s those men who regularly drink six or seven bottles a night, they’re influencing these statistics.
Chuck: You may also have heard that Germans wear [Lederhosen]. Well, that’s a pretty annoying stereotype for the average German cause only Bavarians wear [Lederhosen] and even there it’s just part of folk celebration like Oktoberfest, not something you’d wear everyday. Let`s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Chuck: The first word we shall look at is.
Judith: [Wie viel]
Chuck: How much.
Judith: [Wie viel, wie viel]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Wie viele]
Chuck: How many.
Judith: [Wie viele, wie viele]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Außer]
Chuck: Except.
Judith: [Außer, außer]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Wenig]
Chuck: Little.
Judith: [Wenig, wenig]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Schwierig]
Chuck: Difficult.
Judith: [Schwierig, schwierig]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Unternehmen]
Chuck: “To venture” or “undertake”.
Judith: [Unternehmen, unternehmen] and this is a vowel-changing verb, [Er unternimmt].
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Schauen]
Chuck: “To have a look”, “look” or “watch”.
Judith: [Schauen, schauen]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Wünschen]
Chuck: To wish.
Judith: [Wünschen, wünschen] It’s also used with [Sich] to make a [Personal wish]. “Angelina wünscht sich Transformers”
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Erwarten]
Chuck: “To expect” or “wait”.
Judith: [Erwarten, erwarten]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Stress]
Chuck: Stress.
Judith: [Stress, Stress, der Stress]
Chuck: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Judith: The first phrase we'll look at is [Wir haben uns unterhalten] and [Er hat uns besucht]. These are forms of a perfect tense that don’t fit our scheme, [Haben unterhalten, hat besucht]. We’ll learn more about them at the beginning of the intermediate level, just accept them for now. Then the form [Waren]. [Waren] is the plural of [War], [Sie waren] is “they were”. And finally [Es scheint als ob].
Chuck: It seems as if.
Judith: [Es scheint] “it seems”, [Als ob] “as if”.

Lesson focus

Chuck: The focus of this lesson is the difference between adjectives and adverbs. One of the rare ways that German grammar is easier than English grammar is the case of adjectives versus adverbs.
Judith: In German, adjectives and adverbs initially look the same, there is no special L-Y, I mean LY endings for adverbs for example, like “quickly” instead of “quick”, but there’s a difference in usage in German.
Chuck: Adjectives have to match related noun and case, number and gender. So if a noun is accusative singular, and it’s a feminine noun too, then the adjective has to use the right ending for accusative singular feminine.
Judith: What’s more, the right ending may sometimes also depend on whether the article already uses the key ending for the case or not. So it’s a complicated matter to figure out what ending to put on your adjective. We’ll talk about it in the intermediate series.
Chuck: By contrast, adverbs never add any ending. They always appear just as in the dictionary, so in the phrase [Wir haben lecker Kuchen gegessen], the “lecker” is an adverb, otherwise it would have to have an ending.
Judith: [Lecker] is the adverb and [Leckeren Kuchen] is the adjective form. The adverb never changes, it’s colloquial to use [Lecker] as an adverb with [Essen]. You could also say [Wir haben leckeren Kuchen gegessen] and that will make more sense grammatically, it’s just not as common in colloquial speech.
Chuck: The word “Noch” is also considered an adverb, but a native one. One that doesn`t have an adjective form.

Outro

Chuck: That just about does it for today. Listeners, do you know the reason flashcards are so popular?
Judith: It`s because they work.
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Judith: Learn vocabulary, using your eyes and ears.
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Judith: Master words in your MyWordbank by practising with flashcards.
Chuck: Words in MyWordbank come with Audio, so you learn proper pronunciation.
Judith: While you learn to recognize words by sight.
Chuck: Go to GermanPod101.com now and try MyWordbank and flashcards today. Ok, see you next week!
Judith: Ok, dann bis nächste Woche!

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