008 B3 042908 Gpod101 Recordingscript

7/25/2019 008 B3 042908 Gpod101 Recordingscript

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LESSON TRANSCRIPT

Beginner #3

The Oldtown

CONTENTS

2 INTRODUCTION

2 LESSON CONVERSATION

2 POST CONVERSATION BANTER

3 VOCAB LIST

5 LESSON FOCUS

#

3

COPYRIGHT © 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/008-b3-042908-gpod101-recordingscript 2/7GERMANPOD101.COM BEGINNER #3 - THE OLDTOWN 2

INTRODUCTION

Chuck: This is Beginner Series, Lesson 3.

Judith: Willkommen zurück

Chuck: Welcome back!

Judith: This is already the third Beginner lesson.

Chuck: And again, we’ll be following Michaela and her American pen pal, John.

Judith: If you don’t recall what happened so far, you can do a quick review right now

by going to the learning center and listening to the conversation track of the previous

two lessons. This is much faster than listening to the complete podcast again.

Chuck: Right now, Michaela and John are going home in her car. On the way,

Michaela is indicating some of the sights to him.

Judith: As usual, I will play Michaela and Chuck is playing John.

LESSON CONVERSATION

John: Es gibt viele schöne gebäude hier.

Michaela: Ja, das ist die Altstadt. Hier gibt es auch viele bars.

John: Und was ist das?

Michaela: Das ist der rhein dort drüben. John, wir sind da. Das ist mein haus.

Judith: Now, read slowly.




Michaela: Das ist der rhein dort drüben. John, wir sind da. Das ist mein haus.Judith: Now, I will read the whole and Chuck will give you the translations.

Judith: Es gibt viele schöne gebäude hier.

Chuck: There are many nice buildings here.

Judith: Ja, das ist die Altstadt.

Chuck: Yes, this is the oldtown.

Judith: Hier gibt es auch viele bars.

Chuck: There are also many bars here.

Judith: Und was ist das?

Chuck: And what is that?Judith: Das ist der rhein dort drüben.

Chuck: That is the [river] Rhine over there.

Judith: John, wir sind da.

Chuck: John, we’re there.

Judith: Das ist mein haus.

Chuck: That’s my house.

POST CONVERSATION BANTER



Judith: I’d like to say more about the sights of Dusseldorf. It’s really a city worth seeing.

Chuck: Particularly the Altstadt, the old town where there’s many bars.

Judith: I figure you’d go for that aspect, Chuck.

Chuck: Well, it is called the longest beer counter in the world, and the beer is really

excellent.

Judith: Chuck, have you been drinking before the show?

Chuck: No, just kidding. I still remember the “Kein Bier vor vier” rule, that is, no beer

before 4:00 PM.Judith: Good. I’m afraid though that our listener’s vocabulary is not good enough to

learn more about Dusseldorf from Michaela at this point.

VOCAB LIST

Chuck: So let’s improve our vocabulary.

Judith: This lesson again featured quite a few unknown words along with some known

ones. As you go on, you will encounter more and more well-known words in thedialogues. The first phrase is “es gibt [natural native speed].”

Chuck: There is or there are.

Judith: Es gibt [slowly - broken down by syllable].

Chuck: “There is or there are.”

Judith: Note that there’s no difference in German. You always say “est gibt.” The next

word is viele [natural native speed].

Chuck: “Many.”

Judith: There are actually two words, viele…

Chuck: “Much.”Judith: And viele.

Chuck: “Many.”

Judith: Schön [natural native speed].

Chuck: “Nice or pretty.”

Judith: Schön [natural native speed].

Chuck: “Nice or pretty.”

Judith: Gebäude [natural native speed].

Chuck: “Buildings or building.”

Judith: Gebäude [natural native speed].

Chuck: “Buildings or building.”

Judith: So now you can say, “Es gibt viele schöne gebäude.”

Chuck: “There are many buildings.”

Judith: Many nice buildings, schöne gebäude. Now we have “das [natural native

speed].”

Chuck: “This or that.”

Judith: Das [natural native speed].

Chuck: “This or that.”

Judith: Das [natural native speed].

Chuck:



“That.”

Judith: The following word is really easy. It is “haus.”

Chuck: This one’s really easy. It means “house.”

Judith: Haus.

Chuck: I think they got it already.

Judith: Yeah, but this building is a bit different. It is H-A-U-S in German, at least. Haus.

Now we have a question word, “Was? [natural native speed].”

Chuck: “What?”Judith: “Was? [natural native speed].

Chuck: “What?”

Judith: “Was” means “what?” And finally, the last word for today is Altstadt [natural

native speed].

Chuck: “Old town.”

Judith: Altstadt [natural native speed].

Chuck: “Old town.”

Judith: This literally means “old town”, too, because “alt” means “old” and “stadt”

means “town.” Now let’s talk abou the altstadt, the old towns.Chuck: We’re not going to get into history now, are we?

Judith: Of course, we are.

Chuck: You know I hate history.

Judith: I love history. I love history.

Chuck: Well, I do have to say there are many cities in Germany with nice historical

towns, and it’s quite shrinking when compared to American cities. The whole sense of

history is different, because in the States, something might be called old if it’s 200

years old, and here that would be considered pretty recent. So what’s the difference

between American and the European?

Judith: I don’t know.

Chuck: Well, European thinks that 100 miles is a long way, and the American thinks

that 100 years is a long time.

Judith: That’s very true. A hundred years, it’s definitely recent. Some German cities

can be traced as far back as 500 before Christ. I’m very interested in history, and if

you’re like me, the western part of Germany should be particularly interesting for you

because that is where the Frankish Empire with those Medieval castles stretched,

especially with the area along the Upper Rhine that’s known for its castles.

Chuck: In the extreme western part of Germany, you will also find Roman ruins. The

Rhine was a natural boarder to their empire.Judith: But Germanic tribes on the other side of Rhine resisted too fiercely.

Chuck: So in the left side of the Rhine, they built many camps and fortifications.

Judith: Xanten, a rather small town that’s not very remarkable otherwise, has a really

great archeological park where they dug up and reconstruct the large parts of the

Roman colony there. Every two years, Europe’s largest Roman re-enactment festival

takes place there and the entire part is populated with actress and hobbyists showing

you all parts of Roman life.

Chuck: So even if you hate history like me, you can still learn how to shoot a catapult,

see legions exercising, or watch gladiator fights that have not been choreographed.



Judith: You can even learn about subjects that would never come up at school, for

example, Roman hair-dos or Roman fashion and food.

Chuck: Yeah. But this German interest in early history has always amazed me. I’d say

there are parts or re-enactment festivals dedicated to any part of German history

before 1900; the barbarian life, the Romans, the Frankish empire, medieval crafts and

trades, the industrial revolution, the war against Napoleon, and so on and so on.

Maybe it’s because Germans have trouble identifying with Germany as a moderncountry given its past.

Judith: There’s probably less patriotism here than any other country of the world.

Chuck: Yeah, I guess, except for joining the World Cup.

Judith: Yeah. Of course.

Chuck: So other than the World Cup, people find it easier to associate with Germany’s

earlier history.

Judith: Whatever the reason, Germany is that place to be if you like history or also

beauty because most cities and most houses are designed with beauty in mind, not

plain functionality, and this starts with the altstadt, of course. There are also plenty ofmuseums, theaters, amusement parks, spas, and the like.

Chuck: When there several big cities close to each other like in the Ruhrgebiet

metropolitan area, then there’s a rivalry between them, and every city tries to out-do

the other in terms of museums, parks, theaters, clubs, et cetera.

Judith: This particularly applies to Dusseldorf and Cologne. For example, never try to

order a Cologne beer in a Dusseldorf pub.

Chuck: But most of the time, this rivalry is great for the people living there. They really

have a lot of choices when deciding where they go.

Judith: Now, however, we don’t have a choice. We have to confront you with a

grammar topic that is unavoidable in German, word genders.

Chuck: No! I hate those things.

Judith: I’m sorry.

Chuck: Can you keep those away from me?

Judith: I’m really sorry. I didn’t invent them. I will try to help you learn them though.

Chuck: All right.

LESSON FOCUS

Judith: The first thing you need to know is that German divides everything into three

genders: masculine…

Chuck: Male.

Judith: …feminine.

Chuck: Female.

Judith: And neuter.

Chuck: Neutral.

Judith: Really, everything has a grammatical gender in German, not just people or pets.

Chuck: For example, a computer is masculine in German but a keyboard is feminine.



Can you believe it?

Judith: Most of the time, it doesn’t make sense, so you will have to learn the gender

along with the noun.

Chuck: A great way to learn the gender is if you imagine some male or female or

neutral archetypes or stars along with word. Make the situation funny or weird and

you’ll have note to remembering it. For example, to remember that bar in Germany is

feminine, you might imagine a bikini model lying in a bar counter. Don’t laugh! It works.

Judith: If it works, do you use it. Anyway, the translation of the word “the” changesdepending on the gender of the noun. Masculine words get the article “der”, feminine

words get the article “die”, and neuter words get the article “das”. The gender of a

noun will always be mentioned in the vocabulary list.

Chuck: I wrote the words I learned in the past.

Judith: I’ll give you the agendas now and you’ll see if you used to remember the

meaning. Das auto.

Chuck: “The car.”

Judith: Die entschuldigung.

Chuck: “The apology.”Judith: Das gebäude.

Chuck: “The building.”

Judith: Die bar.

Chuck: I think I get this one. That one means, “The bar.”

Judith: Das haus.

Chuck: It’s another toughie, “the house.”

Judith: Der Rhine

Chuck: And it keeps getting harder, this will be “the rhine.”

Judith: Die altstadt.

Chuck: “The old town.”

Judith: For compound words like altstadt, it’s particularly easy to determine the

gender. Just look at the noun that is the last part of it. That noun determines the

agenda of the whole word. In this case, the last part is “stadt” which is feminine, so

altstadt is feminine too.

Chuck: Thanks for the tip. That will reduce the amount of time I need to spend

studying and that could give me more time to party. There’s not much left the study in

this lesson? I can go and enjoy beer at that bar with that bikini that’s lying on the bar

counter.

Judith: Actually, I believe we have taught enough for this time. Let’s just listen to thedialogue again.




Michaela: Das ist der rhein dort drüben. John, wir sind da. Das ist mein haus.

Chuck: So I’m curious how the story will turn out. Is Michaela single? And how good of

a friend is this John?

Judith: We don’t know. I guess we’ll have to wait till next week to find out.

Chuck: In the meantime, I’ll be using the learning center to brush up my vocabulary



and to listen again to the dialogues. You should do the same.

Judith: Awesome! Thank you for listening to GermanPod101.com.

Chuck: See you soon!

Judith: Bis bald!

Documents

008 B3 042908 Gpod101 Recordingscript