Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Chuck: Chuck here upper intermediate season 1 lesson 21. In order to get impressive German skills you need….
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’ll learn how to talk about an experience you had.
Judith: This conversation takes place at a German office.
Chuck: The conversation is between Frank Jones and Mrs. Bayer.
Judith: The speakers have gotten to know each other so now they switched to speaking informal German.
Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Bayer: Und Frank, wie fandest du unseren Betriebsausflug gestern?
Jones: Ich fand die Aufführung sehr interessant.
Bayer: Ja, ich war auch sehr beeindruckt. So etwas habe ich vorher noch nie gesehen.
Jones: Ja, ich auch nicht. Und ich fand den Ausflug wirklich sehr toll. Ich denke, solche Ausflüge sind wirklich eine gute Gelegenheit, um die Kollegen besser kennenzulernen.
Bayer: Ja, stimmt. So trifft man sich auch mal außerhalb des Büros.
Jones: Was für Ausflüge hast du denn schon mitgemacht?
Bayer: Hmm. Also letztes Jahr waren wir in einem Kletterpark.
Jones: Kletterpark? Was ist das?
Bayer: In einem Kletterpark gibt es Kletterwände oder auch Plattformen in Bäumen.
Jones: Man klettert auf Bäume? Oh, damit ich so etwas tue, müsste ich vorher wahrscheinlich viel Alkohol trinken! Haha!
Bayer: Haha, Quatsch! So schlimm ist es wirklich nicht. Jeder Teilnehmer ist doch gesichert, damit nichts passieren kann.
Jones: Trotzdem, die Plattformen sind sicherlich sehr hoch und ich habe etwas Höhenangst.
Bayer: Aber genau dafür gibt es doch diese Kletterparks. Man klettert dort, um die eigenen Ängste zu überwinden!
Jones: Also ich finde, um Ängste zu überwinden, muss man nicht hoch klettern! Ich bleibe lieber mit beiden Beinen fest auf dem Boden!
Bayer: And Frank, how'd you find our company outing yesterday?
Jones: I found the performance very interesting.
Bayer: Yes, I was also quite impressed. I've never seen something like that before.
Jones: Yes, me neither. And I found the excursion really quite nice. I think such outings are really a good opportunity to get to know your colleagues better.
Bayer: Yeah, that's right. You get to see each other outside the office too.
Jones: What other sorts of outings have you done before?
Bayer: Hmm. Well, last year we went to a climbing park.
Jones: Climbing park? What's that?
Bayer: In a climbing park, there are climbing walls, or also platforms in trees.
Jones: You climb the trees? To do that, I'd have to drink a lot of alcohol beforehand! Haha!
Bayer: Haha, nonsense! It's actually not that bad. Every participant is secured so that nothing can happen.
Jones: That aside, the platforms are certainly quite high and I'm a little afraid of heights.
Bayer: But that's exactly what these climbing parks are for. You go climbing there in order to overcome your personal fears.
Jones: Well, I think to overcome fears, you don't have to climb up something. I'd prefer to keep my feet on the ground!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Judith: For cultural point, how do we talk about climbing and the possibilities you have in Germany?
Chuck: Sounds good. If you are looking at rock climbing in Germany there are quite a few “Kletter” parks, climbing parks available. If you want real mountains though, there are less of those.
Judith: Yes, there are only really high mountains high mountains can be found in the Alps in the south of Germany and Germany only has a very small part of the Alps.
Chuck: Switzerland and Austria are better choices for that and also German speaking.
Judith: Yeah, the North of Germany where I come from is uniformly flat and at times below sea level. There are several mountain chains in the middle of Germany and also along it’s Eastern border.
Chuck: the highest German mountain is the [Zugspitze] at the German Austrian border and the top seven highest mountains are all found in the vicinity of the [Zugspitze]. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is:
VOCAB LIST
Judith: [Aufführung].
Chuck: Performance or show.
Judith: [Aufführung, die] and the plural is [Aufführungen].
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [beeindruckt].
Chuck: Impressed.
Judith: [beeindruckt].
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Gelegenheit].
Chuck: Opportunity.
Judith: [Gelegenheit, die] and the plural is [Gelegenheiten].
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [außerhalb].
Chuck: Outside of or beyond.
Judith: [außerhalb]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [klettern]
Chuck: To climb.
Judith: [klettern]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Wand]
Chuck: Wall.
Judith: [Wand, die] and the plural is [Wände]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Plattform]
Chuck: Platform.
Judith: [Plattform, die] and the plural is [Plattformen]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Baum]
Chuck: Tree.
Judith: [Baum, der] and the plural is [Bäume]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [damit]
Chuck: So that.
Judith: [damit]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [wahrscheinlich]
Chuck: Probably.
Judith: [wahrscheinlich]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [sichern]
Chuck: To secure.
Judith: [sichern]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Angst]
Chuck: Fear anxiety or angst.
Judith: [Angst, die] and the plural is [Ängste].
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [überwinden]
Chuck: To overcome.
Judith: [überwinden] and the forms are [Er überwindet, Er überwand, Er hat überwunden]
Chuck: Next.
Judith: [Bein]
Chuck: Leg
Judith: [Bein, das] and the plural is [Beine]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Chuck: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases for this lesson.
Judith: The first word we are going to look at is [mitmachen] If you internalized what we said about the [mit] prefix, you can guess that [mitmachen] literally to do along means to participate.[Kletterpark] and [Kletterwand] are both based on the verb [klettern]
Chuck: To climb.
Judith: [Kletterpark] is a park where you can go climbing and [Kletterwand] is a wall designed for climbing. Finally the word [Höhenangst].
Chuck: The fear of heights.
Judith: This word is composed of [Höhe]
Chuck: Height
Judith: And [Angst]
Chuck: Fear.

Lesson focus

Judith: The grammar focus of this lesson is [damit] and [umzu]
Chuck: A lot of times when English uses the infinitive in the sentence German uses the preposition [zu] some examples?
Judith: [Ich habe keine Lust nach Hause zu gehen]
Chuck: I’m not in the mood to go home.
Judith: [Ich bin stolz darauf einer der besten zu sein]
Chuck: I am proud of being one of the best. The rule for these cases is to place [zu] immediately in front of the verb.
Judith: This means that when you have two verbs piled up at the end of your sub-clause, the [zu] is placed in the middle.
Chuck: And when you have a splitting verb, the [zu] is inserted between the prefix and the verb stem.
Judith: For example [mitzukommen]
Chuck: To come along.
Judith: [abzugeben]
Chuck: To give away and so on. [zu] is also crucial when using [um] as the conjunction.
Judith: [umzu] means in order to.
Chuck: In today’s dialogue, we’ve seen several examples of this.
Judith: [Man klettert dort um die eigenen Ängste zu überwinden. Solche Ausflüge sind wirklich eine gute Gelegenheit, die Kollegen besser kennenzulernen].
Chuck: If you want to avoid the tricky [zu] you should use the conjunction [damit] instead which is almost the same, it translates to “so that”, with [damit] you don’t need to use [zu]
Judith: For example, consider this sentence. [Jeder Teilnehmer ist doch mit einem Seil gesichert, damit nichts passieren kann].

Outro

Chuck: That just about does it for today. Not enough time!
Judith: You are very busy.
Chuck: We know. And that’s why we have one click lesson downloads on iTunes.
Judith: Subscribe on iTunes.
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Judith: Basic and premium members, get all access to bonus lesson materials too.
Chuck: Save time. Spend more time studying.
Judith: Never worry about missing another lesson again.
Chuck: Go to iTunes, search for the phrase germanpod101.com and click subscribe. So see you next week!
Judith: [Also bis nächste Woche]!

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