The Lernen to Talk Show: Episode 41 – A Random Chat!

Happy October, liebe Freunde. I’m back in Chicago for a brief spell in between legs of the tour, including a hometown show this Thursday night. I’m using this break to attend weddings, plan more concerts, and catch up a little on the LTTS, beginning with this hotly anticipated episode from May 8th. After a scheduled interview with the head brewer at Päffgen, a famous Kölsch brewery, fell through, I was left guestless. But thankfully it was a sunny day, and the good people of Cologne were out in droves. I decided to pounce on the opportunity to have – for the first time in LTTS history – a completely random guest on the show. So I made my way to the University, filmed my introduction, then went ahead and asked people if they’d want to be on the Lernen to Talk Show. As luck would have it, the very first people I asked were up for it! Not only that, our chat was so delightful that it ended up being the longest episode yet. So sit back and join me, Matze, and Philipp as we talk about Stephen King books, inauspicious business cards, and what exactly am I doing in Germany anyway.

0:24 – IRONY ALERT – “confident” is not a word in German. Oops. “Bei meinem Deutsch” is also something nobody would say. As far as hilariously bad starts go, this is up there with the worst.

0:48 – It took me a long time to memorize this question… but I got it in the end! “Wären Sie daran interessiert, an einem Projekt über die deutsche Sprache teilzunehmen?”

2:37 – For MONTHS I was making the mistake of saying Vorschritte for “progress”, which is not a word at all. The correct word is Fortschritte.

4:02 – I believe Matze was mistaken and that he is indeed talking about the book Der Anschlag and not Das Attentat. Das Attentat is the German title for Stephen King’s 1979 horror novel The Dead Zone. His recent novel, which has a plot very similar to what Matze goes on to describe here, is called 11/22/63, or Der Anschlag in German.

5:36 – I’m sure I said this incorrectly, despite having had to explain this about a thousand times to people before this conversation…

5:40 – The Parliamentarische Patenschaft Programm! Technically that word Patenschaft is better translated as “godparenthood”, but “sponsorship” works too. My “godparent” in the Bundestag was MIA all year long…

5:59 – Here I reversed a mistake I had a tendency to make. I would always overuse the words “um… zu” when connecting sentences, which means “in order to”. Here I actually was trying to say “in order to visit my host family”, but I forgot to say “um”!

6:54 – I said, “Jetzt bin ich dabei”, but “Jetzt bin ich daran” would have been better. “Ich bin daran” is what you say when you’re currently doing something, or when it is your turn in a game. I was at that time doing my internship, so if someone asked me, “Wann fängst du mit deinem Praktikum an?” (When do you start your internship?) I could have answered “Ich bin jetzt daran.” (I’m doing it now).

6:57 – Bei einer Firme, die Bildundtonfabrik heisst. Once again I accidentally said the verb too early. While I’m on the subject, congratulations to BTF for winning a Deutscher Fernsehpreis last night!!!

8:52 – I just think it’s hypocritical to refuse to take part in a talk show because the talk show permits smoking and drinking, but then to headline a festival whose primary sponsor is Beck’s.

10:41 – “Ich bin hinterher wegen Hochladung”. Not right. How should I have said this? – UPDATE – “Ich bin im Zeitplan hinterher mit den Videouploads“ would be how to say this. Thanks Flo for the input!