The Lernen to Talk Show: Episode 7 – See-sawin’

Hello again! Episode 7 finds me on location at a local playground, speaking with my newfound friend and neighbor, Robin. We tackle issues like youth professional training, table sports, and the transportation of nautical vehicles, complete with the preposition and pronunciation errors you’ve come to know and love.

I’ve noticed that as my German progresses my mistakes have become more sophisticated (read: less overtly idiotic). Sometimes these errors are tough to translate for the subtitles… So I’m trying something new this week. Any time I’ve made a mistake that is very very close to being right, but not quite right, I’ll be putting the subtitle in parentheses. And yes, you probably can find more things not quite right with what I’m saying than I can. Feel free to call me out on it.

I’ve also realized that in the process of reviewing and translating these videos I learn quite a lot. Take a look below the embedded video for a by-the-second commentary “track”.

Thanks to Kansas Kate for the camera work (and color commentary).

0:02 – I hope this does the trick for you, Conrad.

0:24 – I made this exact same mistake last week, not conjugating “sein”. Hopefully next week I’ll have this figured out.

0:27 – Wait, what’s perfect?

0:36 – My tendency to automatically say “Ich auch nicht” makes me look like a compulsive liar.

0:53 – I said “laste”. It’s supposed to be “letzte”. I am told I do this all the time. (See 1:07)

0:59 – I said “Woche” when I should have said “Wochen”. Woche is singular, so technically here I said “three week ago”.

1:01 – Yeah Josef! He pretty much destroyed me at ping pong.

1:07 – (See 0:53)

1:24 – This was my attempt at a joke after we were drowned out by the tractor. Even after I explained it fully to a German person they didn’t find it funny.

1:31 – It would have helped if I had known the word “Witz”. And I’m still not even sure if that’s the word I should be using.

1:52 – I had thought he said that he’d interned as a butcher as a kindergartener. Hence what follows.

2:03 – “als Kinder” means “as children”. I corrected myself by saying “als Kind” shortly after. Only now am I realizing how creepy it is to mention knives and children in the same sentence. While on a see-saw, no less.

2:16 – Not true.

2:18 – I’m still not comfortable with the word for “meat” and the word for “flesh” being one and the same. And by that I mean I still find it hilarious.

2:23 – Obviously Robin isn’t nearly as amused, as he seemed to take the question very seriously.

2:39 – Also not true. (See 0:36)

2:49 – A patronizing hand gesture in German is still a patronizing hand gesture. What did I expect, that she wouldn’t notice us walking away?

2:53 – Okay you got me, I only had us walk over there so you could get a better view of Robin’s awesome haircut.

3:00 – Those things seriously look like giant Segways.

3:04 – (The hair!)

3:11 – The literal translation of this is “Have you once travelled by ship?” This is normal.

3:23 – Okay let me explain. I know it looks like I had no idea what he was saying here. I actually did for once! But I had just gotten the light, and instead of appropriately responding to his touching story I choked and had us wrap things up.

3:34 – Yes, I almost said “bueno” there.

3:43 – A rather morbid goodbye, I suppose.