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CBG 01 Notes Single PDF

This document provides notes for Lesson 1 of the Coffee Break German language learning program. It introduces basic greetings and phrases for asking how someone is feeling in German. It also introduces the teachers and cultural correspondent on the program - Thomas, Mark, Julia, and Kirsten. Key phrases covered include "hello", "goodbye", "how are you?", "I'm well", "very well", "not so well". The document concludes with a sample dialogue practicing the new vocabulary and an additional study section with bonus vocabulary and audio.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

1K views12 pages

CBG 01 Notes Single PDF

Uploaded by

Fuat Sumer

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

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Coffee Break German

Lesson 01
Study Notes

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 1 of 12

LESSON NOTES

HALLO, WIE GEHTS?

Welcome to this first lesson of Coffee Break German. In this lesson
well learn how to say hello and goodbye, and well also learn how
to ask how are you?, and answer this question.

INTRODUCING OUR PRESENTERS, THOMAS

AND MARK

My name is Thomas. Im from Bavaria in the

south of Germany. Im currently studying for
a Masters in Geography and Natural Hazards
in Innsbruck, Austria. Im a native speaker of
German - I speak German every day - and Im
delighted to be working with Radio Lingua on
Coffee Break German. In each lesson Ill be
helping you build your vocabulary and master
the basics of the German language.

Im Mark and as the presenter of Coffee

Break Spanish and Coffee Break French, my
role until now has been teaching languages.
However, for Coffee Break German Im
excited to take on the role of learner and Im
looking forward to learning along with our

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 2 of 12

listeners. Ive been a teacher for many years and Im fascinated by
languages. In particular I like using my knowledge of one
language to help me learn another and comparing vocabulary and
grammar across the languages. Ill be asking lots of questions
about German and I hope that these questions help our listeners
learn too!

READY TO BEGIN?
Thomas begins by asking the question:

bist du fertig?
Are you ready?

Like all languages, German has regional differences in pronunciation.

Where Thomas pronounces fertig with a hard -g ending, in other
parts of the German-speaking world, this final -g sounds more like
ch in the Scottish word loch. Dont worry about these nuances of
pronunciation just yet! No matter how you pronounce fertig youll
be understood by any native speaker!

In answer to this question, we can say yes, or no:

ja
yes

nein
no

To say yes, I am ready, you can say, ja, ich bin fertig. Well cover
this in more detail in the future.

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 3 of 12

SAYING HELLO AND GOODBYE
Lets learn some greetings.

hallo
hello

auf Wiedersehen
goodbye

You may be wondering why Wiedersehen has a capital letter. This

is because it is a noun, meaning something like the next seeing. It
can also mean reunion. All nouns in German must be written with
an initial capital letter.

There is another way to say goodbye which is used informally:

tschss
goodbye, bye

Dont worry about the initial combination of letters tsch in this

word. It may look daunting, but you can pronounce it simply as a
strong ch sound (as in English church).

If you are going to be seeing someone the next day you can say;

bis morgen
until tomorrow, see you tomorrow

The word morgen means tomorrow, as in bis morgen. However

when written with a capital letter in the noun form it means
morning:

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 4 of 12

guten Morgen
good morning

Well learn more greetings for different times of the day in the next
lesson.

ASKING HOW ARE YOU? AND REPLYING

To ask the question how are you? you can say:

wie gehts?
how are you?

This literally means how is it going?

Lets look at some possible answers for the question wie gehts?

gut
good, well

To be more polite, you can add the word for thank you:

danke
thank you

Here is a sample conversation:

Mark: Wie gehts?

Thomas: Gut, danke.

If you want to use the more developed answer, I am (feeling) well,

you can use the following construction:

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 5 of 12

mir gehts gut
Im well

Please note that this is not a literal word-for-word translation of I

am well. Mir gehts gut literally means to me it is going well,
answering the question, how is it going?

Here are some further possible answers for the question wie gehts?

mir gehts sehr gut

Im (feeling) very well

mir gehts schlecht

Im feeling bad

mir gehts nicht so gut

Im not (feeling) so good

mir gehts wunderbar

Im feeling great

mir gehts ausgezeichnet

Im feeling fantastic, extraordinary

INTRODUCING JULIA, OUR CULTURAL

CORRESPONDENT

Im really excited to be involved in Coffee Break German and Im

sure its going to be a huge success. Learning a language is not just
about learning the language itself: so much of a language is
influenced by the cultures which surround it, and thats why Im

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 6 of 12

here as your Cultural Correspondent. In
each episode of Coffee Break German, Im
going to be bringing you some cultural
information, a little report on a particular
aspect of culture associated with a part of
the German-speaking world. I really hope
that you enjoy these little cultural tidbits
each week.
Like Thomas Im a native German speaker,
but from quite a different part of the country. I come from
Potsdam in the eastern part of the country, just southwest of
Berlin. I studied in Leipzig and now I live and work in the
wonderful city of Berlin. Ill be telling you more about Berlin in
future episodes, and indeed about many other parts of Germany,
Austria and Switzerland, and other places where German is
spoken as well.
Ich bin sehr froh - Im really pleased - to be working on Coffee
Break German now. Thats all from me this week, just a little
introduction. Through my weekly reports youll get to know me a
bit better, but more importantly, youll get to know the cultures of
the German-speaking areas better too. Danke, und bis bald!

ich bin sehr froh

Im very happy

bis bald
see you soon, (literally until soon)

INTRODUCING KIRSTEN, OUR GRAMMAR

GURU

My name is Kirsten and Im going to be your German Grammar

Guru for the course. I love grammar! Im a bit of a grammar geek

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 7 of 12

to be honest, and as the Grammar Guru, its
my job to help you understand the patterns
of the language, just as Mark and Thomas
have explained. By learning the patterns
youll begin to understand how the language
works and youll have a really strong
foundation to build upon as you move
forward with the course.
Like Mark, I come from Scotland, but Ive
been studying German for many years. I
have an honours degree in German and Ive spent a lot of time
living and working in Germany. In my working life I use German
every single day, and I have many friends from various parts of
the German-speaking world.
I love all things German: the music, the literature, the beautiful
villages, towns and cities Ive travelled to, from the Baltic coast to
the Alps, and of course the people. Theyre so friendly and
welcoming!
Im not a native speaker of German, but as someone who has
learned German from scratch, I understand the difficulties for
learners, and so I hope I can help you overcome these difficulties,
just as my own teachers did for me when I first started.
Im delighted to be part of the Coffee Break German team and Im
looking forward to bringing you my weekly Grammar Guru
segments.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Lets put eveything weve learned together in a conversation. You
should try practising this conversation and substituting the other
words youve learned in todays lesson.

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 8 of 12

Mark: Hallo, Thomas.
Thomas: Hallo, Mark. Wie gehts?
Mark: Mir gehts gut, danke. Wie gehts?
Thomas: Mir gehts ausgezeichnet!
Mark: Tschss.
Thomas: Auf Wiedersehen.

Translation:

Mark: Hello, Thomas.

Thomas: Hello, Mark. How are you?
Mark: Im well, thanks. How are you?
Thomas: Im feeling fantastic!
Mark: Bye.
Thomas: Goodbye.

Ready for more? Turn the page to continue with the

bonus materials for this lesson.

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 9 of 12

BONUS MATERIALS
In each edition of Coffee Break German we cover the basic language
you need to communicate. As part of the study pack we provide some
additional vocabulary to help you increase your range of expression.
This section of bonus materials provides additional content to help
you master the words and phrases contained in the lesson.

Start with the Bonus audio lesson, our review podcast

Review the Core Vocabulary and learn the Bonus Vocabulary

CORE VOCABULARY
bist du fertig?
are you ready?

ja
yes

nein
no

hallo
hello

bis morgen
until tomorrow, see you tomorrow

guten Morgen
good morning

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 10 of 12

wie gehts?
how are you? / how is it going?

gut
good, well

danke
thank you

mir gehts gut

I am well (literally to me its going well)

mir gehts sehr gut

I am very well

mir gehts schlecht

I am feeling bad, Im not feeling well

mir gehts nicht so gut

I am not feeling so good

mir gehts wunderbar

I am feeling great

mir gehts ausgezeichnet

I am feeling fantastic

BONUS VOCABULARY
wie lufts?
hows it going? (informal)

Coffee Break German: Lesson 01 - Notes page 11 of 12

super
great

groartig
wonderful, tremendous

Note the letter which called Eszett (sz) or scharfes S (sharp s).
The letter is pronounced as an s and sounds exactly the same as ss
in tschss. Note that in Switzerland and in Liechtenstein, is
always written as ss.

es geht so
its going so-so - neither good nor bad