2.6 Conversation: Im Café
Das Café
An English tourist Peter Withe (standing, left) strikes up a conversation with a German local Klaus Wagner (seated, right) whilst sitting outside a café in Bavaria in summer. What sort of questions do they ask each other, and how do they respond?
| Conversation 1: Im Café |
| Peter Withe |
Guten Tag. |
| Klaus Wagner |
Guten Tag. Sind Sie vielleicht Ausländer? |
| Peter Withe |
Ja, ich bin Engländer. |
| Klaus Wagner |
Woher kommen Sie? |
| Peter Withe |
Ich komme aus Birmingham. |
| Klaus Wagner |
Sie sind also kein Amerikaner? |
| Peter Withe |
Nein, ich komme nicht aus den USA. Und Sie? |
| Klaus Wagner |
Ich bin Deutscher. Ich komme aus Norddeutschland. Aber ich wohne hier in Bayern. Mein Name ist Wagner, Klaus Wagner. Und wie heißen Sie? |
| Peter Withe |
Ich heiße Withe, Peter Withe. |
|
| Glossary |
| das Café |
The café |
| im Café |
In the café |
| der Ausländer |
A male "foreigner". A female foreigner would be "die Ausländerin". |
| Sind Sie vielleicht Ausländer? |
"Are you a foreigner by any chance?" Peter's German accent is not as authentic as he thinks! Note that "Ausländer" is used in exactly the same way as all other nationalities - without a definite article. The literal translation is "Are you perhaps foreigner?" |
| vielleicht |
In almost all other contexts, "vielleicht" would be translated as "perhaps". |
| also |
Be very careful of this word in German! It doesn't mean English "also" but "therefore" or "so". |
| Sie sind also kein Amerikaner? |
"So you're not American?" The word "kein" literally means "not an". |
| Norddeutschland |
"North Germany". This is one word only in German - a compound noun. |
| Bayern |
This means "Bavaria". Many German regions with which we are familiar turn out to have very different names in German. |
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 Chapter 2.7: Conversation: Im Sitzungssaal
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