]Hello and welcome to a new series here at Slow German. There will
be new episodes as before, but I will include a few episodes for
absolute beginners. They are meant for people who for example are
travelling to Germany and who want to speak a few words in the
native language... First of all, you want to be able to say yes and
no. That's the easy part. If you want to say yes, say „Ja“. „Ja“.
If you want to say no, say „nein“. Nein. When travelling in a
foreign country, it is important to be nice to the people you meet.
After all, everything you do will reflect on your own country. If
you're an American and you're acting loud the Germans will say:
Americans are loud! So be careful what you do! Our next words are
please, thank you and sorry or pardon. If you want to thank
somebody for something, you simply say „Danke“. Danke. In reply to
that, the other person will answer „bitte“. Bitte. If you want to
attract the attention of somebody, for example a person working in
a store, or if you bump into somebody, you say „Entschuldigung“. I
know this is a hard word to say and everybody will understand if
you say „sorry“, but the correct German word is Entschuldigung.
Ent-schul-di-gung. Alright, very good so far! Now let's get to four
words that you can use for directions. There is left and right.
Left is links, links, and right is rechts, rechts. It's easy to
memorize, because the first letter of the words is the same. Links
and rechts. In rechts you have a sound that is not common in many
other languages, the „ch“-Sound. Your mouth forms a wide grin, like
if you want to say „eeeee“. Now if you lift the middle part of your
tongue a little bit, you will get this sound. „Ch“. Two more words
for directions: Up and down. Up is „oben“, oben, and down is
„unten“, unten. Let's get to different greeting formulas. You can
always say „Guten Tag“, no matter what time it is. It jus means „A
good day to you“. If you want to specify, you can wish a good
morning or good evening. Then it is „Guten Morgen!“ or „Guten
Abend“. Guten Morgen. Guten Abend. The more colloquial form is
„Hallo“. Hallo. If you are in Southern Germany, in Bavaria or even
in our neighbor-country Austria, you will often hear „Grüß Gott“.
This means „God is greeting you“, meaning „God bless you“. I am not
a Christian and I say it anyway – it is very common in Southern
Germany. Grüß Gott. If you want to leave, there are also different
possibilities. You can say „Auf Wiedersehen“, auf Wiedersehen,
meaning „until we see us again“. The more colloquial form is
„Tschüss“ or the Italian „ciao“. Tschüss. Ciao. Auf Wiedersehen!
Four more words to go, then we are through with this first episode
of Slow German for Absolute Beginners. Let's say you enter a hotel,
or you want to introduce yourself to somebody. Then you say
„Ich heiße...“ and then your name. I would say „Ich heiße Annik“.
In a hotel, you would follow up with something like „Ich habe eine
Reservierung“, if you have a reservation for a room. We also copied
the English form of that sentence, so you can also introduce
yourself by saying „Mein Name ist...“. Mein Name ist Annik. Ok, now
three important places for every traveler. If you travel by train,
you need the trainstation. Bahnhof. Bahnhof. If you fly to Germany,
you will arrive at the airport, the Flughafen. Flughafen. And if
you need a taxi, guess what? You can call a Taxi! I guess that word
is the same in almost every language. We just pronounce it a little
differently. Taxi. Taxi. That's it for now, in the next easy
episode I will tell you what to say if you're in a restaurant. If
you have questions or ideas what to teach next, write me an e-mail
at podcast@slowgerman.com . You can find the text and the
vocabulary to this episode as well as many infos on slowgerman.com.
Auf Wiedersehen! Or better: Auf Wiederhören!
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