German
Anke: Ach, Fußball ist ein toller Sport!
Joe: Ja, Fußball gucken macht immer Spaß!
Anke: Ja. Das stimmt.
Joe: Aber es gibt auch Menschen, die nicht gern Fußball gucken …
Anke: Ja, aber das kann ich nicht verstehen.
Thomas: Ich auch nicht.
Joe: Thomas, du weißt aber wirklich viel über Fußball.
Thomas: Ja. Wisst ihr, dass Lothar Matthäus mit 25 WM-Spielen den Weltrekord hält?!
Joe: Lothar…wer?
Anke: Haha, Thomas, du weißt Dinge!! So etwas wissen wir natürlich nicht!
Thomas: Haha …Ja, so etwas vergesse ich nicht, aber Telefonnummern und Geburtstage vergesse ich immer!
Joe: Haha…
Thomas: So, jetzt muss ich aber los…
Anke: Okay. Wir sehen uns ja morgen auf der Arbeit.
Thomas: Nein, morgen bin ich nicht da. Du weißt doch, ich habe Urlaub!
Anke: Ach stimmt, das weiß ich ….
Thomas: Nächste Woche bin ich aber wieder da.
Anke: Ja, gut…
Thomas: Tschüss Joe, vielleicht sehen wir uns ja auch noch mal wieder...
Joe: Ja, vielleicht. Gute Heimfahrt!
Thomas: Danke. Tschüss!
Anke: Tschüss!
…
Joe: Thomas ist echt nett.
Anke: Ja.
Joe: Und er weiß wirklich viel über Fußball!
Anke: Das stimmt!
Joe: Er ist also ein Fußball-Lexikon!
Anke: Haha, genau.
English
Anke: Ah, soccer is a great sport!
Joe: Yes, watching soccer is always fun!
Anke: Yes. That's right.
Joe: But there are also people who don't like to watch soccer...
Anke: Yes, but I can't understand that.
Thomas: Me neither.
Joe: Thomas, you do really know a lot about soccer.
Thomas: Yes. Do you know, that Lothar Matthäus holds the record by having played in 25 world championship games?!
Joe: Lothar... who?
Anke: Haha, Thomas, you know stuff!! Of course we don't know that kind of thing!
Thomas: Haha... yes, I don't forget this kind of thing, but I always forget phone numbers and birthdays!
Joe: Haha...
Thomas: Well, I have to get going now...
Anke: Okay. We shall see each other tomorrow at work.
Thomas: No, tomorrow I won't be there. You know that it's my holidays!
Anke: Ah right, I know that...
Thomas: I shall be there again next week.
Anke: Yes, good...
Thomas: Bye Joe, maybe we'll also see each other again...
Joe: Yes, maybe. Have a good drive home!
Thomas: Thanks. Bye!
Anke: Bye!
...
Joe: Thomas is really nice.
Anke: Yes.
Joe: And he really knows a lot about soccer!
Anke: That's right!
Joe: So he is a soccer lexicon!
Anke: Haha, exactly.
Vocabulary Phrase Usage
1. "So, jetzt muss ich aber los" = Well, now I have to get going. In races, "Los!" means "Go!", but it's
not a verb.
2. Geburtstag consists of "Geburt" (birth) and "Tag" (day), so it mirrors the English "birthday".
3. verstehen is a really useful verb also when you're having communication problems. You could say
"Ich verstehe nicht" or "Ich verstehe Sie nicht. Könnten Sie das wiederholen?" (I don't understand you.
Could you repeat that?)
Grammar Points
The focus of this lesson is the irregular verb "wissen" (to know)
Ach stimmt, das weiß ich!
"Ah right, I know that!"
„wissen“ (to know) is an irregular German verb. In this lesson’s dialog you have encountered several
forms of it, such as „du weißt“ and „er weiß“. All singular forms of the verb „wissen“ are based on
„weiß-“ instead of the expected „wiss-“. The plural forms are regular.
Here is the complete conjugation.
ich weiß, du weißt, er weiß, wir wissen, ihr wisst, sie wissen
This verb comes up in the Loreley song, which is really well-known. It starts off „Ich weiß nicht was
soll es bedeuten, dass ich so traurig bin.“ (I don't know what it means that I am so sad). The whole
song is melancholic, because it deals with ships being drowned by the beautiful Loreley. Conversely,
this song is often brought up when people are not sad but happy.
Cultural Insight
German law guarantees 4 weeks of movable holidays, so that translates to 20 days if you have a 5-day work week or 24 days if you have a 6-day work week. Young workers (up to 18 years old) get more, but keep in mind that your choice of work and your amount of weekly work hours are restricted when you're young, to prevent child labor.
Additionally there 9 to 13 non-moveable public holidays. The exact amount depends on the state, because some states recognize different religious holidays than others, depending on the state's prevalent confession (Catholic or Protestant).
For a vacation, about a third of all Germans travel to a vacation spot within Germany, for example the Black Forest, the coast or one of the metropoles. Then, Spain and Italy also attract a lot of visitors, especially the Spanish Balearic island of
Mallorca, which is sometimes jokingly referred to as the 17 th
German Bundesland. Considering that German summers are never too hot and you have to be brave to swim in the cold North Sea, it's no surprise that a lot of Germans travel to sunny beaches for their vacation. That includes all of Southern Europe really – not just Spain and Italy but also Southern France, former Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey. Even spots on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea are popular for this purpose, for example Tunisia or Egypt. If you're not looking for a beach though, Austria, Switzerland and Eastern Europe are also popular destinations, as are metropoles such as Paris, London, Rome, Venice or Vienna and historic sites in Greece.
If you're going to Europe for a vacation, there's no reason you have to do one or the other. Distances are small and flights within Europe are dirt cheap, so why not see both Berlin and Vienna for example?
DANKE
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