Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Chuck: Chuck here. Intermediate Season 4, Lesson 19 – “An Intriguing German Job Offer”
Judith: Hi, my name is [*] and I’m 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 talk to a recruiter.
Judith: This conversation takes place at the conference.
Chuck: The conversation is between Joe and [Birke], who’s attending a lecture.
Judith: The speakers are strangers therefore they’ll be using formal German.
Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Birke: Sie arbeiten nicht gern, wenn Sie in Deutschland sind? Das sollten Sie ändern.
Joe: Wozu? Ich bin nie lange hier. Ich möchte meinen Urlaub genießen.
Birke: Ich habe mich noch nicht vorgestellt. Mein Name ist Birke Pfarrer, ich arbeite in der Personalabteilung von Berlin Translated.
Joe: Ah, angenehm, Sie kennen zu lernen.
Birke: Mir hat ihr Vortrag eben wirklich gut gefallen und ich denke, wir könnten Sie gebrauchen.
Joe: Entschuldigung...wovon reden Sie?
Birke: Ich meine, wir könnten Ihnen vielleicht eine Stelle anbieten. Also natürlich müssten Sie sich noch bewerben, aber ich denke, dass Sie qualifiziert sind.
Joe: Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob ich wieder eine feste Stelle haben oder weiter freiberuflich arbeiten möchte.
Birke: Ja, es gibt ein paar Dinge, über die wir sprechen müssten...
Joe: Worüber müssen wir sprechen?
Birke: Na, zum Beispiel darüber, warum Sie Ihren alten Job aufgegeben haben. Und auch über das Visum und so.
Joe: Ja. Woran würde ich bei Ihnen arbeiten?
Birke: Hauptsächlich an Webseiten. Wenn es da mal nichts zu tun gibt, können wir sehen, wofür Sie sich sonst interessieren.
Joe: Klingt gut. Und ist Ihr Büro in Berlin?
Birke: Ja. Die Hauptstelle ist in Berlin und wir haben auch Niederlassungen in Dresden und Nürnberg.
Birke: You don't like to work when you're in Germany? You should change that.
Joe: What for? I'm never here for long. I'd like to enjoy my vacation.
Birke: I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Birke Pfarrer, I work in the personnel department of Berlin Translated.
Joe: Ah, pleased to meet you.
Birke: I really enjoyed your lecture, and I think we could use you.
Joe: Excuse me... what are you talking about?
Birke: I think we could possibly offer you a position. Naturally you'd have to apply, but I think that you're qualified.
Joe: I'm not sure whether I want a permanent position, or if I want to continue working as a freelancer.
Birke: Yes, there are a few things that we would need to discuss...
Joe: What do we need to talk about?
Birke: Well, for example, why you left your old job. And also about the work visa and things like that.
Joe: Yes. What would I work on, with you?
Birke: Mainly on websites. If there's nothing to do there, then we can see what else you're interested in.
Joe: Sounds good. And is your office in Berlin?
Birke: Yes. The head office is in Berlin, and we also have branches in Dresden and Nuremberg.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Chuck: Let’s talk about the East German connection.
Judith: Yeah, we mentioned [Dreseden, Nürnberg], Berlin, well a part of it, all of these used to be a part of communist East Germany. What about some good sides of this East Germany? I don’t think they really get much attention these days.
Chuck: Well, there’s cheap culture, free education, ship holidays, camps and youth activities.
Judith: Yeah and bands like [Karat and the Puddies], lot of ignored goodies.
Chuck: And [you can via], a non-religious celebration of achieving adulthood. It’s like confirmation of protestants in church. Still 40 percent of participation in 2000.
Judith: Yes, it was a popular thing and we’re totally lacking something like that now, the only way you can celebrate adulthood is if you’re a part of a church. Also, what I found really amazing is there were more women in engineering and math, like they really had 50-50 split at universities for these kinds of subjects. Gender equality was a matter of course.
Chuck: And they spoil the chances of [bearing] capitalism. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Chuck: The first word we shall see is?
Judith: [nie]
Chuck: “Never”.
Judith: [nie, nie]
Chuck: Next?
Judith: [Personal]
Chuck: “Personnel”.
Judith: [Personal, das Personal]
Chuck: Next?
Judith: [Abteilung]
Chuck: “Department”.
Judith: [Abteilung, die Abteilung] and the plural is [Abteilungen]
Chuck: Next?
Judith: [eben]
Chuck: “Just, a moment ago” or “indeed”.
Judith: [eben]
Chuck: Next?
Judith: [gebrauchen]
Chuck: “To make use of” or “utilize”.
Judith: [gebrauchen, gebrauchen]
Chuck: Next?
Judith: [anbieten]
Chuck: “To offer”.
Judith: [anbieten, anbieten] the forms are [Er bietet an, Er bot an, Er hat angeboten]
Chuck: Next?
Judith: [sich bewerben]
Chuck: “To apply for”.
Judith: [sich bewerben, sich bewerben] the forms are [Er bewirbt sich, Er bewarb sich, Er hat sich beworben]
Chuck: Next?
Judith: [qualifiziert]
Chuck: “Qualified”.
Judith: [qualifiziert, qualifiziert]
Chuck: Next?
Judith: [aufgeben]
Chuck: “To give up”.
Judith: [aufgeben, aufgeben] the forms are [Er gibt auf, Er gab auf, Er hat aufgegeben]
Chuck: Next?
Judith: [Visum]
Chuck: “Visa”.
Judith: [Visum, das Visum]
Chuck: Next?
Judith: [hauptsächlich]
Chuck: “Mainly” or “mostly”.
Judith: [hauptsächlich, hauptsächlich]
Chuck: Next?
Judith: [Haupt]
Chuck: “Main”.
Judith: [Haupt, Haupt]
Chuck: Next?
Judith: [Niederlassung]
Chuck: “Office” or “subsidiary”.
Judith: [Niederlassung, die Niederlassung] and the plural is [Niederlassungen].
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 closely is [reden].
Chuck: “To talk”.
Judith: Because it’s the base word for [die Rede].
Chuck: “The talk” or “the speech”.
Judith: Then, we found the form [müssten].
Chuck: “Would have to”.
Judith: You know, [müssten] without the “t” means “must”, but [müssten] with extra “t” means “would have to”. Finally, [freiberuflich].
Chuck: “Freelancing”.
Judith: It’s an adjective or adverb for [der Freiberufler].
Chuck: “Freelancer”.
Judith: A lot of adjectives and adverbs are forms are formed using [-lich].

Lesson focus

Chuck: The focus of this lesson is [wo] and [wor].
Judith: In Lesson 17, we already looked the prefix [da], which is used in words like [davon, damit, daran, darüber] and so on. Now, let’s look at the similar case, the prefix [wo].
Chuck: [wo] is the direct equivalent of [da] except it’s used to create question words. The [da] prefix can be translated as “that”, in the [wo] prefix can be translated as “what”.
Judith: To form the question words, just use [wo] and any preposition or [wor] with an extra “r” if the preposition starts with a vowel, like [womit].
Chuck: “With what”?
Judith: [wofür]
Chuck: “For what”?
Judith: [wovon]
Chuck: “Of what”?
Judith: Is a combination of [wo] and [von, woran].
Chuck: “On what”?
Judith: Here we have the first one with an “r”, because [an] starts with a vowel, so [woran, woran].
Chuck: [woran] sounds so weird.
Judith: Yeah. [woran, of what], “on what” [worüber].
Chuck: “About what” or “above what”.
Judith: [woraus]
Chuck: “Out of what”?
Judith: And so on, and so on. For every [wo] question word, the [da] word provides the answer. So, if you have a very annoying, small kid bugging you, asking lots of questions then you can always answer with the [da] word, like if the question is [womit], the easiest answer is [damit] and if the question is [worüber], the easiest answer is [darüber].
Chuck: Be sure to use the preposition that’s appropriate for the verb. For example, in English you can go by car, but in German it’s [mit dem Auto], so the appropriate question is [womit].
Judith: [Womit fahren Sie zur Arbeit]

Outro

Chuck: [damit]. That just about does it for today.
Judith: Listeners, have you ever dreamt of starring in one of our lessons?
Chuck: If your answer is “yes”, use the voice recording tool on lessons’ page.
Judith: Record your voice with a click of a button.
Chuck: Then play it back just as easily.
Judith: Then, compare it to the native speakers in the lesson.
Chuck: And adjust your pronunciation.
Judith: After a few tries, you’ll be speaking better German than Chuck here.
Chuck: Hey!
Judith: Go to GermanPod101.com and rapidly improve your German pronunciation.
Chuck: See you next week!
Judith: [Bis nächste Woche]!

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