Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Chuck: Chuck here, intermediate series season 3 lesson 20. German doctor notes.
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 will learn to explain that you are sick and get a recommendation for a doctor.
Judith: This conversation takes place at work in a German office.
Chuck: The conversation is between Mr. Jones and Mrs. Bayer.
Judith: The speakers are colleagues, therefore they’ll be speaking formal German.
Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Jones: Sagen Sie, Frau Bayer, können Sie mir einen Arzt empfehlen?
Bayer: Hmm, was haben Sie denn für Beschwerden?
Jones: Ich habe Halsschmerzen.
Bayer: Oh, ja dann sollten Sie wirklich zum Arzt gehen, bevor Sie richtig krank werden. Ich kann Ihnen meine Hausärztin empfehlen.
Jones: Ah super.
Bayer: Ich habe sie auch schon einer Kollegin empfohlen und ihr hat die Praxis auch gut gefallen. Die Ärztin ist sehr freundlich. Hier ist ihre Visitenkarte.
Jones: Super, danke. Meinen Sie, ich kann morgen früh dort hingehen und etwas später zur Arbeit kommen?
Bayer: Ja, das geht sicher. Sagen Sie dem Chef einfach nachher Bescheid. Er erlaubt es Ihnen sicher. Vielleicht müssen Sie dann aber von der Ärztin ein Attest mitbringen.
Jones: Okay. Und muss ich bei der Ärztin einen Termin ausmachen?
Bayer: Nein, bei dieser Ärztin nicht. Da können Sie einfach vorbeigehen.
Jones: Oh, das ist ja klasse. Ist das in allen Arztpraxen in Deutschland so?
Bayer: Nein, es gibt auch Ärzte, da kommen Sie nur mit Termin dran.
Jones: Ach so. … Können Sie mir die Adresse von der Ärztin geben?
Bayer: Die Adresse steht doch auf der Visitenkarte!
Jones: Welche Visitenkarte?
Bayer: Die ich Ihnen eben gegeben habe. Sie liegt dort vor Ihnen auf dem Tisch!
Jones: Haha, die habe ich ganz vergessen! Danke!
Jones: Tell me, Mrs Bayer, can you recommend a doctor to me?
Bayer: Hmm, what are your symptoms?
Jones: I have a sore throat.
Bayer: Oh, yes then you should really go to the doctor before you get really ill. I can recommend my family doctor to you.
Jones: Ah great.
Bayer: I already recommended her to a colleague and she also liked the practice. The doctor is very friendly. Here's her business card.
Jones: Great, thanks. Do you think I can go there tomorrow morning and come to work a bit late?
Bayer: Yes, that won't be a problem. Just tell the boss later. He will surely permit you this. But you might have to get a medical certificate from the doctor.
Jones: Okay. And do I have to make an appointment with the doctor?
Bayer: No, not with this doctor. You can just drop by there.
Jones: Oh, that's great. Are all doctor's practices like this in Germany?
Bayer: No, there are also doctors that will only see you with an appointment.
Jones: Ah, I see. ... Can you give me the doctor's address?
Bayer: But the address is on the business card!
Jones: What business card?
Bayer: The one that I just gave you. It is lying on the table in front of you!
Jones: Haha, I had forgotten that one! Thanks!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Judith: What are you trying to tell us?
Chuck: [sneezes]
Judith: Okay I guess you are sick. Sick in Germany, that shall be our topic.
Chuck: Sick of work or…
Judith: No
Chuck: Sick in Germany! Yes. So people go to the doctor more often than say in the States because everyone has health insurance here.
Judith: Yes and people do not work when sick, because they have unlimited days of sick leave as long as the doctor prescribes them sick leave. And getting that prescription for sick leave is a major reason to see a doctor even when you think things are under your control.
Chuck: Are remedies about the same as they are here? Do you just want to stay at home?
Judith: Oh you mean, home remedies? I don’t know, I mean I haven’t been able to compare those fortunately. One thing I’m pretty sure is universal is that you get a lot of bed rest and some tea [Zwieback] and there is also a bottle shaped thing that’s filled with hot water which you can place on whichever part of your body that’s hurting and of course there are painkillers.
Chuck: Painkillers and other tablets are taken less often than in the States and they are also not available in huge packs here.
Judith: Yes.
Chuck: You were surprised by that one weren’t you?
Judith: Yes it’s really surprising to see these huge packs of painkillers, it’s like…. Almost like candy.
Chuck: But you can get candy in a pharmacy right?
Judith: Yes but only the healthy kind like the one that was as an anti-sore medicine.
Chuck: Okay.
Judith: There is actually a very strict separation between pharmacies and grocery stores in Germany. In German pharmacies, you can get medicine and almost no products that the supermarket would have and in a supermarket you can definitely not get any medicine.
Chuck: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is;
VOCAB LIST
Judith: [Beschwerde]
Chuck: Complaint.
Judith: [Beschwerde, die] and the plural is [Beschwerden].
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Hals]
Chuck: Throat or neck.
Judith: [Hals, der] and the plural is [Hälse]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Schmerz]
Chuck: Pain or ache.
Judith: [Schmerz, der] and the plural is [Schmerzen] it’s actually usually used in the plural, except if you want to talk about one single strong ache in that you had and it immediately passed, that could be [Schmerz] otherwise you say [schmerzen]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Hausarzt]
Chuck: General practitioner or family doctor.
Judith: [Hausarzt, der] and the plural is [Hausärzte]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Praxis]
Chuck: Practice.
Judith: [Praxis, die] and the plural is [Praxen] this is irregular.
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Visitenkarte]
Chuck: Business card.
Judith: [Visitenkarte, die] and the plural is [Visitenkarten]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [erlauben]
Chuck: to permit or allow.
Judith: [erlauben] a weak verb.
Chuck: Next
Judith: [Attest]
Chuck: Medical certificate or attestation.
Judith: [Attest, das] and the plural is [Atteste]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [dran kommen]
Chuck: It is one’s turn.
Judith: [dran kommen]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Chuck: Let’s have a closer look for the usage of some of the words and phrases for this lesson.
Judith: The first word is [Beschwerde]
Chuck: Complaint.
Judith: Yes, we’ve seen this in the vocabulary. [Beschwerde] in complaint.
Chuck: Wait, wasn’t it used in the dialogue as symptoms?
Judith: Yes, exactly. The plural [Beschwerden] can be used in the sense of symptoms in a question like [Was sind Ihre Beschwerden] literally, what are your complaints? But in English, you’d probably ask, what are your symptoms?
Chuck: You are sick, what are you complaining about now?
Judith: Okay another phrase [dran kommen]
Chuck: It’s someone’s turn.
Judith: For example, [Er kommt jetzt dran]
Chuck: It’s his turn now.
Judith: This verb is mostly used when the….someone will suffer the scrutiny of a doctor or leader of sorts.
Chuck: Wait isn’t it different in a game?
Judith: Yes, that’s what I was able to say, If you want to say “it’s your turn in a game” then that should be [Du bist dran] So either verb [dran sein] or the verb [dran kommen] as I said is when you are going to see a doctor or see a leader or something like that.

Lesson focus

Chuck: Okay. The focus of this lesson is the dative singular. So far we studied the genitive and the causative cases in depth. Now it’s time to look at the last one we haven’t treated yet. The dative. Today we are looking at the dative singular endings since the dialog contained quite a few of them.
Judith: For masculine nouns such as [der Mann] the key ending is “em” for dative. The key ending always has to be present so the masculine accusative singular form of the is [dem] and the equivalent for of [a] is [einem].
Chuck: Since the article will already contain the key ending, adjectives will only get the bland “en” ending and same for those nouns with [en] endings. But wait, what are some examples for this?
Judith: [Bei dem Mann, bei dem netten Mann, bei einem netten Mann] and an example for a noun that add the “en” ending as a by [bei einem Menschen] this is still just singular per item mentioned with one person at one person’s place.
Chuck: For a feminine noun such as [die Frau] the key ending is “er”. So the articles will be [der or einer] again the key ending is used up by the article are ready and all that’s used up by the article is the “en” ending.
Judith: So you’d say [bei der Frau, bei der netten Frau] or [bei einer Frau]
Chuck: But wait, how does this work for neutral nouns?
Judith: Neutral nouns such as [das Kind] behave exactly like masculine nouns in the dative. So the articles are [dem] or [einem] and the adjectives end in [bei dem Kind, bei dem netten Kind, bei dem Kind] all the same.

Outro

Chuck: So I say you should memorize these forms well and have another look at the dialogue to identify all the dative forms. Make sure you can figure out why they have the endings they have. Also review the dative personal pronouns which is [mir, dir] or [Ihnen] that just about does it for today. Okay 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 the lines of the conversation again and again.
Chuck: Listen till each word in a syllable becomes clear. Basically, we break down the dialog into comprehensible, bite size sentence.
Judith: You can try the line by line audio in the premium learning center at germanpod101.com.
Chuck: So see you next week.
Judith: [Also bis nächste Woche]!

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