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Yes, no, hello! Absolute Beginners # 1
July 6th, 2009 by admin

Hello and welcome to a new series here at Slow German. There will be new episodes as before, but I want to include a few episodes for absolute beginners. They are meant for people who for example are traveling to Germany and who want to speak a few words in the native language ...

Part First of all, you want to be able to say yes and no That's the easy. If you want to say yes, say "Yes". "Yes." If you want to say no, say "no". No.

When I meet traveling in a foreign country, it is important to be nice to the people you. 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 "thank you". Thank you. In reply to that, the other person will answer "please". Please. 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 "sorry". I know this is a hard word to say and everybody wants to understand if you say "sorry", but the correct German word is an excuse. Developed school-di-tion.

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 left, left, and right is right, right. It's easy to memorize, because the first letter of the words is the same. Left and right. At the right 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 the "top", above, and down is "below", below.

Let's get to different greeting formulas. You can always say "good day", 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 "Good morning" or "Good evening". Good morning. Good evening. The more colloquial form is "Hello". Hello. If you are in Southern Germany, in Bavaria, or even in our neighbor-country Austria, you will often hear "God Bless". 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. God bless.

If you want to leave, there are also different possibilities. You can say "goodbye," goodbye, meaning "until we see us again". The more colloquial form is "bye" or the Italian "ciao". Bye. Ciao. Good-bye!

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 "My name is ..." and then your name. I would say "My name is Annik". In a hotel, you would follow up with something like "I have a reservation," if you have a reservation for a room. We also copied the English form of that sentence, so you can then introduce yourself by saying "My name is ...". My name is Annik.

Ok, now three important places for every traveler. If you travel by train, you need the train station. Station. Station. If you fly to Germany, you will arrive at the airport, the airport. Airport. 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 info on many slowgerman.com. Good-bye! Or better: Goodbye!

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Episode download
PDF with the download word list


6 Responses
  • yes wrote:
    July 7th, 200914:12 at

    What's wrong with the usual chapters of the Germans?
    Are they already gone to its end?
    Thank you for your answer.

  • admin wrote:
    July 7th, 200914:23 at

    No, as I said (and written): Normal Slow German-effects go, this is only a supplement for people who still do not speak German.

  • ravi writes:
    July 7th, 200915:40 at

    Very useful information for learners of German us. A thought: I suppose one could click on the podcast to hear the pronunciation, but it might also be useful to give some hint textually when you introduce a word (like you do above with "right") - I believe the "Name" is pronounced "took" (like in Hindi! with the same meaning!)? Thank you.

  • admin wrote:
    July 7th, 200915:49 at

    Sorry, but this is mainly a podcast and supposed to be listened to. The text is therefore to support the podcast. But thanks for dropping by, I know that you are the designer of this great layout!

  • michael writes:
    July 10th, 200917:45 at

    haallo I müchte the verbs in deutchs! please tshus

  • Hanna writes:
    July 24th, 200918:03 at

    Hello and good day!

    Thank you for the podcast. I would like to go to Germany someday. ;) Yes, this is essential information for beginners like me. We need to know how to show courtesy to the Germans by saying Appropriate words. Anyway, thanks again. Oops .. I should say .. Thank you! ;)


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