Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Chuck: Chuck here. Beginner series, Season 2, Lesson #18. You Could Be The Luckiest Person in Germany!. I Can Hardly Believe it!
Judith: Hello everyone. I am Judith and welcome to germanpod101.
Chuck: With us, you will learn to speak German with fun and effective lessons.
Judith: We also provide you with cultural insights.
Chuck: And tips you won’t find in a textbook.
Judith: I am particularly glad you are here with us today because we are starting on a new sub-series of beginner lessons.
Chuck: Oh what’s that?
Judith: We will look at how to express various emotions in German whether you are angry or sad, happy or unsatisfied, you will be able to let people know without offending.
Chuck: Great and we will pick up lots of unique German expressions on the way too.
Judith: In this lesson, you will learn how to express happiness in German.
Chuck: This conversation takes place in a German street. The conversation is between Stefan and Karina.
Judith: The speakers are friends. Therefore they will be speaking informal German.
Chuck: Now before we listen to the conversation
Judith: We want to ask
Chuck: Do you read the lesson notes while you listen?
Judith: We received an email about the study tip.
Chuck: So we are wondering if you tried it and if so
Judith: What do you think of it?
Chuck: You can leave us feedback in the comments section of this lesson. Okay let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
C: La la la la la…
J: Hey Stephan! Wie geht’s? Du siehst glücklich aus!
C: Ja, ich bin glücklich. Mir geht es wirklich gut. Ich kann es kaum fassen!
J: Was ist los?
C: Ich habe Karten für das Fußballspiel Wolfsburg gegen Bayern München übermorgen!
J: Wow, super! Du hast nicht zufällig eine Karte übrig?
C: Nein, tut mir leid. Meine Frau möchte mitkommen.
Judith: Now it’s slowly.
C: La la la la la…
J: Hey Stephan! Wie geht’s? Du siehst glücklich aus!
C: Ja, ich bin glücklich. Mir geht es wirklich gut. Ich kann es kaum fassen!
J: Was ist los?
C: Ich habe Karten für das Fußballspiel Wolfsburg gegen Bayern München übermorgen!
J: Wow, super! Du hast nicht zufällig eine Karte übrig?
C: Nein, tut mir leid. Meine Frau möchte mitkommen.
Judith: Now with the translation.
C: La la la la la…
C: La la la la la…
J: Hey Stephan! Wie geht’s? Du siehst glücklich aus!
J: Hey Stephan! How are you? You look happy!
C: Ja, ich bin glücklich. Mir geht es wirklich gut. Ich kann es kaum fassen!
C: Yes, I am happy. I am really well. I can hardly believe it!
J: Was ist los?
J: What's up?
C: Ich habe Karten für das Fußballspiel Wolfsburg gegen Bayern München übermorgen!
C: I have tickets for the soccer game Wolfsburg against Bayern Munich day after tomorrow!
J: Wow, super! Du hast nicht zufällig eine Karte übrig?
J: Wow, super! You don't by any chance have another ticket?
C: Nein, tut mir leid. Meine Frau möchte mitkommen.
C: No, I'm sorry. My wife wants to come along.
CULTURAL SECTION
Judith: Alright. I believe we already talked about soccer. Now how about we look at the other sports in Germany?
Chuck: So what other sports are popular in Germany?
Judith: Well as I mentioned, soccer is the most popular professional sport but other than that, professional sports, racing comes to mind. I mean car racing.
Chuck: You mean like car racing?
Judith: Yes car racing. It’s the second most popular and on a racing day, you will see lots of red Ferrari flags all over Germany because Michael Schumacher is a German even though he drives for the Italian team.
Chuck: Is that like Stock car racing?
Judith: What is that?
Chuck: Large car racing.
Judith: No it’s racing cars.
Chuck: Okay. So it’s sports car racing?
Judith: Yes. There is also ice hockey. Some like to watch that. Basketball, volleyball, handball. Those are not so big but there is lots of clubs playing these.
Chuck: And what about like baseball or like American football or racquetball?
Judith: No those are quite rare. I mean I know one American football team that the others know. I haven’t actually seen anywhere.
Chuck: Oh!!
Judith: If you want to play them, then Germany is probably not a good place for you.
Chuck: I hear badminton is also kind of popular. Is it?
Judith: Yes, yes badminton or Federball a German variation.
Chuck: You will find that the badminton here is treated more like a sport in general than it is in the states.
Judith: Yeah and of course, there is ice-skating and athletics, gymnastics, martial arts.
Chuck: Well besides sports, how about we take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson?
VOCAB LIST
Judith: Sure. First word is [Glücklich]
Chuck: Happy or lucky.
Judith: [Glücklich, Glücklich]. Können.
Chuck: Can, to be able to. To be allowed to.
Judith: [Können, können]. Kaum.
Chuck: Hardly.
Judith: [Kaum, kaum]. Fassen.
Chuck: To catch or grasp.
Judith: [Fassen, fassen]. Los sein.
Chuck: To be up, to be afoot, be aware of.
Judith: [Los sein, los sein]. Karte.
Chuck: Card, menu, map or ticket.
Judith: [Karte, die Karte] This is feminine. [Spiel]
Chuck: Game or match.
Judith: [Spiel, das Spiel] This is neuter and the plural is [Spiele]. Gegen.
Chuck: Against.
Judith: [Gegen, gegen]. Übermorgen.
Chuck: Day after tomorrow.
Judith: [Übermorgen, Übermorgen]. Super.
Chuck: Super, great.
Judith: [Super, super]. Zufällig.
Chuck: By accident, by any chance.
Judith: [Zufällig, zufällig]. Übrig.
Chuck: Left over or remaining.
Judith: [Übrig, übrig].
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 phrase we look at is [Wie gehts?]
Chuck: How are you?
Judith: This is short for [Wie geht es dir?] and at this point, I want to remark that generally when you see an apostrophe s in German, this stands for S, es.
Chuck: Note that it literally means how is it going?
Judith: Yes but if you want to ask what’s up, that will be the phrase [Was ist los?] like what’s on. Was ist los? And the third phrase that probably needs explaining in this dialogue is [Ich kann es kaum fassen].
Chuck: Literally it means I can hardly grasp it.
Judith: But actually in English, it means that you are astonished like you are so lucky.

Lesson focus

Chuck: In this lesson’s dialogue, you’ve encountered the form [Ich kann].
Judith: This is an irregular form of the verb [Können].
Chuck: This moral verb behaves almost like a vowel changing verb except that the complete singular uses another vowel not just the second and third person singular.
Judith: Here is the complete conjugation. [Ich kann]
Chuck: I can.
Judith: [Du kannst]
Chuck: You can
Judith: [Er kann]
Chuck: He can
Judith: [Wir können]
Chuck: We can
Judith: [Ihr könnt]
Chuck: You all can.
Judith: [Sie können]
Chuck: They can.
Judith: And of course the infinitive is [Können].
Chuck: To be able to. This verb is always used with an infinitive verb like in English. However in German, the infinitive verb is placed at the end of the sentence while the modal verb stays in second place.
Judith: This unexpected verb movement occurs whenever there is more than one verb in the same sentence.
Chuck: That was all a bit complicated. Could you give us an example?
Judith: Sure how about [Kannst du heute kommen?]
Chuck: Can you come today?
Judith: Or [Ich kann nicht gut singen].

Outro

Chuck: I can’t sing well. That just about does it for today. Before we go, we want to tell you about a way to drastically improve your pronunciation.
Judith: The voice recording tool.
Chuck: Yes the voice recording tool in the premium learning center.
Judith: Record your voice with a click of a button
Chuck: And then play it back just as easily
Judith: So you record your voice and then listen to it.
Chuck: Compare it to the native speakers
Judith: And adjust your pronunciation.
Chuck: This will help you improve your pronunciation fast. So see you next week.
Judith: [Bis nächste Woche].

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