Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Chuck: Chuck here. Upper intermediate, season 1, Lesson 14. Listen Up, The Boss is Speaking German!
Judith: Hello everyone, I am Judith and welcome to germanpod101.com.
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. In this lesson, you will learn how to use the German words that start with [da].
Judith: This conversation takes place at a German office.
Chuck: The conversation is between Mr. Mueller, the boss, Mrs. [Bayer] and Frank Jones.
Judith: The speakers are in a business relationship. Therefore they will be speaking formal German.
Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. What’s the cultural point today, colors?
DIALOGUE
Müller: Hallo, liebe Mitarbeiter. Darf ich Sie alle kurz um Ihre Aufmerksamkeit bitten. Sie haben sich sicherlich schon gefragt, wo unser Ausflug nächste Woche hingeht…..
Bayer: Nach Schlumpfhausen?
Müller: Haha, nein. Wir fahren nicht nach Schlumpfhausen. Wir gehen zur Blue Man Group!
Bayer: Oh super! Damit habe ich nicht gerechnet!
Jones: Blue Man Group? Das kenne ich gar nicht. Kein Wunder, dass ich darauf nicht gekommen bin…
Bayer: Die Blue Man Group ist so etwas wie ein Theaterstück mit Musik und drei Männern, die blau angemalt sind.
Jones: Drei blaue Männer? Waren Sie schon einmal da und haben sich die Blaumänner angeguckt?
Bayer: Nein, gesehen habe ich die Blue Man Group noch nicht….
Jones: Stellen die irgendetwas dar? Oder soll das lustig sein?
Bayer: Hmm, lustig….ich weiß nicht genau. Aber es soll sehr unterhaltsam sein.
Jones: Hmm, na da bin ich ja mal gespannt…Momentan kann ich mir nicht viel darunter vorstellen…
Bayer: Sie können sich ja im Internet mal Videos anschauen, dann wissen Sie schon mal, was Sie erwartet.
Jones: Ja, das ist eine gute Idee. Wie heißen die noch mal? Blues Group?
Bayer: Nein, mit dem Blues haben die nichts zu tun…
Jones: Haha, schade, dabei mag ich Blues!
Müller: Hello, my dear co-workers. May I have your attention please? You have all certainly been wondering where we'll be going for our outing next week.
Bayer: To Smurf Village?
Müller: Haha, no. We're not going to Smurf Village. We're going to Blue Man Group!
Bayer: Oh, great! I didn't expect that!
Jones: Blue Man Group? I don't recognize that name at all. No wonder I never thought of it.
Bayer: The Blue Man Group is something like a play with music and three men that are all painted blue.
Jones: Three blue men? Have you already been once to see these guys?
Bayer: No, I haven't seen the Blue Man Group yet.
Jones: Does it represent something? Or is it supposed to be funny?
Bayer: Funny, I think. I don't know exactly. But it should be quite entertaining.
Jones: I'm actually quite curious...currently I can't quite imagine it.
Bayer: You can check out their videos on the Internet, and then you'll have a better idea of what to expect.
Jones: Good idea. What are they called again? Blues Group?
Bayer: No, they have nothing to do with the blues.
Jones: Haha, too bad, I actually quite like the blues.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Judith: Yeah. It has something to do with colors. Actually it is one mistake that Frank made. He was being funny calling that group [Blaumänner]. I guess he was trying to translate Blue men but in German the meaning [Blaumann] means boiler suits [Blaumann] boiler suits like those workmen suits like your plumber would have that.
Chuck: Okay well I know one. [blau sein].
Judith: Yes [blau sein] it means to be drunk.
Chuck: Yeah and note, this doesn’t mean to be sad.
Judith: Yes only to be drunk [blau sein] in German. There is also [blau machen] do you know that?
Chuck: That’s to skip work or school right?
Judith: Yes and there is [blauäugig].
Chuck: I think [blauäugig] new to know that word.
Judith: Well literally having blue eyes but it means naïve.
Chuck: Ah how about [rot werden]
Judith: Yeah that’s an easy one, to become red literally is to blush and there is also [rot sehen].
Chuck: Why do you keep asking me this stuff ah!
Judith: Yeah aggravated.
Chuck: That’s right.
Judith: [rot sehen]. And [schwarzsehen].
Chuck: It’s to be pessimistic.
Judith: Yes to see black is pessimistic.
Chuck: Ah I know one.
Judith: Yeah.
Chuck: [Schwarzfahren].
Judith: Yeah [schwarzfahren] to take public transport without a valid ticket. It’s kind of related to [schwarz arbeiten].
Chuck: Yeah to moonlight…
Judith: Yes.
Chuck: Or to take money under the table I’d say.
Judith: Hmm…
Chuck: To take money under the table.
Judith: Yeah, yeah it’s about working without paying taxes for it.
Chuck: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is.
VOCAB LIST
Judith: [Mitarbeiter].
Chuck: Employee, staffer or co-worker.
Judith: [Mitarbeiter]. This word is masculine and the plural is the same.
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Aufmerksamkeit].
Chuck: Attention.
Judith: [Aufmerksamkeit, die] and it means attention.
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [bitten].
Chuck: To request or beg.
Judith: [bitten] and the forms are [Er bittet, Er bat, Er hat gebeten]. So it changes vowels and it goes in past tense and participle.
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [rechnen].
Chuck: To calculate.
Judith: rechnen, a weak verb.
Chuck: Next
Judith: [Theaterstück].
Chuck: Theater play.
Judith: [Theaterstück, das] and the plural is [Theaterstücke].
Chuck: Next
Judith: [anmalen] or [malen]
Chuck: To paint.
Judith: [anmalen]
Chuck: Next
Judith: [Blaumann]
Chuck: Boiler suit or blue overalls.
Judith: [Blaumann, der] and the plural is [Blaumänner]
Chuck: Next
Judith: [darstellen]
Chuck: To portray or depict.
Judith: [darstellen] and the [dar] splits off.
Chuck: Next
Judith: [unterhaltsam]
Chuck: Entertaining.
Judith: [unterhaltsam]
Chuck: Next
Judith: [gespannt]
Chuck: Tense or curious.
Judith: [gespannt]
Chuck: Next
Judith: [erwarten]
Chuck: To expect or wait.
Judith: [erwarten]
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 is [mit etwas rechnen]
Chuck: To expect something.
Judith: Yes literally to calculate with something or to expect something [mit etwas rechnen] and next [auf etwas kommen]
Chuck: To guess.
Judith: And finally [mit etwas nichts zu tun haben].
Chuck: Not have anything to do with.
Judith: Yeah this one is easier for English speakers [mit etwas nichts zu tun haben] like [Ich habe damit nichts zu tun]. I don’t have anything to do with it.

Lesson focus

Chuck: The focus of this lesson are the words that start with [da]. So that means we are focusing on songs like da, da, da.
Judith: No, no, no I mean German words that start with [ba] or da are like [dafür]. We’ve also seen [darüber] and these words are often a problem for English speakers. Well let’s start from beginning. The [da] always means that. So if you have a word [dafür] that means for that you have to take the preposition from the end and stick it in front [dafür] for that and [darüber] is about that. [über das] literally and the [das] gets shortened to [da] and you can form similar words based on every preposition.
Chuck: The receipe if the preposition starts with a consonant, add da in front, if it starts with a vowel, just need an additional R so that prefix becomes [dar]. Could you give us some examples of that?
Judith: Of course like [darauf].
Chuck: On that.
Judith: Yeah [daran]
Chuck: At that.
Judith: [davon]
Chuck: Of that.
Judith: [dagegen]
Chuck: Against that.
Judith: Yeah you know [gegen] against and [dazu]
Chuck: To that.
Judith: Uhoo…
Chuck: And also notice that you can’t actually say [auf das] for example.
Judith: Yeah.
Chuck: It’s just wrong.
Judith: Yeah, yeah it’s wrong. You can’t say [dagegen das] you have to say [dagegen]. I remember a popular cup that had a little figure on that. The figure was carrying a sign saying just one word [dagegen] with an exclamation mark. It’s like being against everything. And these words replace sentence parts. For example, if you have a sentence [Ich weiß nichts von dem Unfall].
Chuck: I don’t know anything about the accident.
Judith: Yeah you want to replace [von dem Unfall] and let’s say the accident I mentioned before. So you can say [Ich weiß nichts davon]
Chuck: I don’t know anything about that.
Judith: Yeah and the idea is, you have the [von] because it’s [von dem Unfall] and that’s why you have to use [davon]. You can’t use any other preposition. It’s because the [von] was the preposition that you would use for the [von dem Unfall]. You always have to choose the word that contains the preposition that you are replacing.

Outro

Chuck: That just about does it for today. Before we go, we want to tell you about a way to improve your pronunciation drastically.
Judith: The voice recording tool.
Chuck: Yes the voice recording tool.
Judith: Record your voice with a click of a button
Chuck: And then play it back just as easily.
Judith: Record and listen.
Chuck: Compare it to native speakers.
Judith: And adjust your pronunciation.
Chuck: This will help you improve your pronunciation fast. So see you next week.
Judith: [Also bis nächste Woche]!

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