0:02

Hi,

0:05

everybody. My name is Shawna and

0:07

this is the American English Podcast.

0:09

My goal here is to teach you the English spoken

0:12

in the United States. Through common

0:14

expressions, pronunciation tips, and

0:16

interesting cultural snippets or stories,

0:19

I hope to keep this fun, useful, and

0:22

interesting. Let's do it.

0:28

Hi, everyone. Welcome back.

0:30

Hope you're having a nice day. A

0:33

while back, I posted an episode

0:36

about French words in English,

0:39

and I got great feedback.

0:41

For that reason, I've decided to follow

0:44

that episode up with another episode

0:47

about a similar topic, 10

0:50

words a day, German words

0:52

in English. Just like in the last

0:54

episode, you'll learn 10 new

0:57

words in English. First, I'll

0:59

present the words in a story. Then

1:02

you'll get the definitions and

1:04

new example sentences. If

1:07

these words in particular are not

1:09

new for you, that's fine. In

1:12

that case, this audio will hopefully

1:14

refresh those words in your mind

1:17

and increase your confidence using

1:19

them. As with the French

1:22

episode, we're dealing with loan

1:24

words. Loan words are words

1:26

that are borrowed from other languages.

1:29

They aren't originally English

1:32

words.

1:32

So, it's important to pay attention

1:35

to pronunciation. You may be

1:37

wondering, well, how do you pronounce

1:39

German words in English? The

1:42

pronunciation of a word depends

1:44

on how common a word is. If

1:47

a German word is common in American English,

1:50

naturally, there's an expected way

1:52

to pronounce it,

1:54

even if it's not how it would normally

1:57

be pronounced in German.

1:59

If a word... is uncommon, the

2:02

average American will do one of three things.

2:04

Number one, they will try to

2:07

pronounce it correctly but not super

2:09

correctly. Number two,

2:12

they'll pronounce it wrong and very

2:14

wrong because they're pretty sure they're not

2:16

going to get it right. Or number

2:19

three, they'll describe whatever

2:21

it is using English words.

2:24

I'm an advocate for trying to

2:26

pronounce a word somewhat correctly.

2:29

However, you should do whatever you

2:31

feel comfortable doing.

2:33

A quick tip for German, their

2:35

W's, which they pronounce as V, V,

2:38

V, we would pronounce as

2:41

a regular W, a W

2:43

sound. For their V,

2:46

which sometimes sounds like an F, a F,

2:48

F, F sound, we would pronounce

2:50

that like an American V. So

2:53

instead of Volkswagen, which sounds a little

2:55

bit like an F to me,

2:56

we would say Volkswagen. Do

3:04

you remember the first time you traveled

3:07

abroad? I do, and

3:09

really well. When I

3:11

was 16, a group of friends and I took a

3:14

trip to six different countries

3:16

in Europe.

3:17

Along the way, I wrote in a journal

3:19

documenting my thoughts on the culture

3:22

and the history of the places I visited

3:24

and also took hundreds

3:28

if not thousands of pictures,

3:30

which of course really helped me remember

3:32

the different places we were.

3:34

The majority of that trip was spent

3:37

in Switzerland, Austria,

3:39

and southern Germany,

3:41

three countries where German is spoken.

3:44

Of course, Switzerland also has Swiss

3:46

German. As cheesy as it sounds,

3:49

I fell in love with the

3:51

landscapes, the lush

3:53

green hills spotted with chalets.

3:57

I loved the coffee culture and

3:59

their afternoon cake,

4:02

Europe left an impact.

4:04

When the following year, a few exchange

4:07

students from Germany came to my school,

4:09

I befriended them. One German

4:12

girl named Nina was extra

4:14

special.

4:15

And almost two decades later,

4:18

we still call each other sisters.

4:20

Meine Schwester. I'll

4:23

be honest, I considered inventing

4:25

a story for today's episode, like

4:27

I did last time.

4:29

But I figured, why not share our

4:32

story? It's real and

4:34

my hope is that it

4:36

gets you thinking about your own

4:38

friendships. Perhaps after this

4:40

episode, you could even write a story

4:43

about a friend you admire and

4:45

share it with them because I know I'm gonna

4:47

share this episode with Nina. Stay

4:50

tuned until the very end. We'll

4:52

do a pronunciation exercise where you can

4:54

repeat after me and you'll get

4:56

the definitions as well. If

4:58

you would like the premium content that

5:00

goes along with this episode, the

5:03

quiz,

5:04

a transcript, which is the

5:06

text for the spoken

5:08

English you'll hear,

5:10

as well as a transcript

5:13

reader to help you work on your

5:15

pronunciation, then be sure

5:17

to sign up to season three or

5:20

all premium content.

5:22

Links to that can be found in the episode

5:24

notes.

5:28

It all started in 2006, when

5:31

I was a sophomore in high school.

5:34

A sophomore is a high school

5:36

student who is in 10th grade.

5:39

They're two years away from graduating.

5:42

At my high school, most people at that age,

5:45

so around 16,

5:46

do sports or they join

5:49

some sort of club. My

5:51

friend Stacy pushed me

5:53

to join the water polo team. And

5:57

I vividly remember thinking that I would get killed. pilled

6:00

playing water polo. If

6:03

you're not familiar with the sport, water

6:05

polo is a contact

6:07

sport in a pool.

6:09

It's like soccer with your hands.

6:12

You pass the ball, you try to score

6:14

goals on an opposing team, all

6:17

while staying afloat, right?

6:20

Or you don't wanna sink. At

6:22

my school,

6:23

the girls who played water polo were tough.

6:27

They had wide shoulders

6:28

and biceps. They were the type

6:31

of girls that you wouldn't wanna pick a fight

6:33

with on solid ground, let

6:35

alone in water while fighting

6:38

for a ball. I was sure

6:41

I'd drown,

6:42

but I joined anyway, and so did

6:44

a girl named Nina.

6:47

Nina was an exchange student from

6:49

Berlin, Germany,

6:51

and at that time, she'd just arrived.

6:54

I wasn't aware she was foreign. All

6:56

I noticed was that Nina bore

6:58

a striking resemblance to my friend,

7:01

Alina.

7:02

In other words, she looked like

7:04

my friend Alina. You could call them

7:07

doppelgangers, and that is

7:09

our first German word we use

7:11

in English. A doppelganger

7:13

is someone who looks exactly like

7:16

another living person. In English,

7:18

we're pretty flexible with this, so if

7:20

two people look alike, you can say, oh, he's your doppelganger.

7:23

So Nina was Alina's

7:25

doppelganger,

7:26

and I told her that. Wow, you look like

7:28

Alina. The funny thing is,

7:31

she didn't respond. I think my

7:33

comment caught her off guard. I

7:36

think it surprised her. Perhaps she didn't

7:38

understand what I was saying. My comment

7:41

caught her off guard.

7:43

It wasn't until later that I realized, oh, this

7:45

girl is German, and

7:46

I soon discovered

7:48

that despite our different backgrounds,

7:51

we were very similar. First

7:53

off, we were both really silly. At

7:56

water polo practice, we wore

7:58

goofy swim hats.

8:00

And I remember jumping out

8:02

of the pool, pretending we were sperm. Which

8:06

was kind of funny.

8:07

We both also had a strong

8:09

sense of wanderlust.

8:12

Wanderlust means a strong desire

8:14

to travel.

8:16

In German it would be pronounced Wändlust,

8:19

but in English, wanderlust. We

8:21

had wanderlust and loved

8:24

the idea of experiencing new cultures

8:26

and foods. I'd ask her. In

8:29

Berlin, do people drink coffee

8:31

with a scoop of ice cream in it? Is

8:34

that a thing? Or do

8:36

people eat ice cream in the shape of

8:38

spaghetti with strawberry sauce on

8:40

top? Those were two popular

8:42

things I'd tried overseas that

8:45

I hadn't eaten or hadn't seen in the

8:48

United States before. She'd of course

8:50

ask similar questions. And

8:53

we'd compare food and school

8:56

and culture and it was just fun.

8:58

Apart from wanderlust and

9:00

our silliness, we also both

9:03

had a sense of schadenfreude.

9:06

Schadenfreude is an advanced

9:08

loanword.

9:09

Well read Americans know it and

9:12

use it. Probably more frequently

9:15

in writing than in spoken English.

9:17

I think just because it looks

9:20

tricky and it's kind of difficult to pronounce.

9:22

Yeah, schadenfreude

9:25

means to experience joy

9:27

from someone else's failure.

9:29

Now let me explain.

9:31

One very memorable day during

9:34

water polo season, someone discovered

9:37

a mysterious pile of poop

9:40

in the deep end of our school

9:42

pool.

9:43

School pool, I have to repeat that. Practice

9:46

that one. Now our coach eventually

9:48

canceled practice for sanitary

9:51

reasons but before doing so he

9:53

asked if anyone would

9:56

be willing to get the poop

9:58

out.

9:59

Tyler volunteered.

10:01

Now Tyler was a funny guy, so don't

10:04

feel so bad that we were laughing at him, but he

10:06

put on a pair of gloves, swam

10:09

to the bottom of the pool, and picked up

10:11

the poop.

10:13

Now Nina and I and the other members of the

10:15

swim team were at the surface with our goggles

10:17

on, watching underwater

10:20

as the poop dispersed in his hand

10:22

and in the water around him.

10:25

You could just see the brown surrounding his face

10:27

and his body, and it was disgusting.

10:30

And none of us could hide our shot

10:32

in Florida.

10:34

We all laughed hysterically at

10:36

his disaster of

10:37

a situation. When

10:40

Nina and I weren't at the pool, we

10:42

were out exploring San Francisco,

10:45

Davis, and their surrounding

10:47

cities in my blue Jetta

10:50

Volkswagen.

10:52

Volkswagen is a German company, and

10:54

Nina explained to me that it's a compound

10:56

word, meaning people's car,

10:59

Volkswagen. In English

11:01

we say Volkswagen. It

11:05

was nothing fancy, it wasn't a Porsche or

11:07

a Mercedes, but as teenagers

11:10

we were thrilled to have our independence.

11:13

My little car also had a great sound system,

11:15

so we would blast loud German

11:17

music, like Xavier Naidu

11:20

or Die Fante Fier or

11:22

Kultchakandela, which

11:23

is kind of embarrassing now, but yeah,

11:27

we weren't embarrassed, and we would both scream

11:29

the lyrics,

11:30

or I would scream lyrics that I actually knew.

11:33

Every day was sort

11:35

of a cultural experience for both

11:37

of us. We discussed how German words

11:39

were used differently in English.

11:42

Kindergarten for us is a

11:44

grade between preschool and primary

11:46

school.

11:47

Usually kids go to kindergarten when

11:50

they're five years old.

11:51

She explained that kindergarten

11:54

in Germany could also be for younger

11:56

kids. We compared social

11:58

systems and hot-tops. topics like homelessness,

12:02

recycling, and how Germany got

12:04

longer vacation time and better parental

12:06

leave. Now she found it odd

12:09

that Gesundheit and bless

12:11

you, were equally common in

12:13

English as a response for

12:16

when somebody sneezes.

12:18

Gesundheit

12:19

in German means health.

12:22

We also talked about weird words like

12:24

German chocolate cake, a popular

12:27

dessert in the US,

12:28

which is a chocolate cake with coconut

12:31

frosting. It's not German

12:33

at all. It was invented by someone

12:35

with the last name German.

12:37

We talked about German shepherds, which is a breed

12:40

of dog that was apparently created

12:43

by Germans and Rottweilers,

12:45

another large dog breed. I had

12:48

no idea that Rottweiler

12:51

was named after a city in

12:53

Southern Germany. Cool, right?

12:56

There was a problem though. Nina went

12:58

through a program that placed

13:01

her with a host family in the US,

13:03

and her host family

13:05

wasn't very nice.

13:07

My family wanted her to come

13:09

live with us.

13:10

And eventually she agreed.

13:13

For the following eight months, we spent 24

13:16

hours a day, seven days a

13:18

week together.

13:20

It was kind of funny. It felt like overnight,

13:22

a sister was born into my family,

13:24

a 17 year old sister.

13:28

Nina actually turned 18 while at

13:31

my house. And we talked about how 18th

13:33

birthdays are not

13:35

as big of a deal here

13:37

in the US as in Europe.

13:39

In all honesty, it's

13:41

a bit anticlimactic here. It's

13:44

not so exciting. In the US, when

13:46

you turn 18, the highlight

13:49

is that you can buy cigarettes and

13:51

lotto tickets, you can vote,

13:54

you can get a tattoo without parental consent,

13:57

but none of the big, European

14:00

milestones, I should say. For Nina,

14:03

when she went back to Germany,

14:06

she was able to get her license.

14:09

Regardless of how 18 is

14:11

celebrated in the US, we still

14:13

partied.

14:14

It was a fest. It was

14:16

a German fest.

14:18

Fest is one of those words that has

14:21

most definitely been adopted

14:23

into English. We add it

14:26

to any type of festivity

14:28

or event to indicate what

14:30

type of party it is.

14:32

In the US, you'll see Oktoberfest

14:35

in lots of places now,

14:36

sometimes with Oktober spelled with a K, sometimes

14:39

with a C. You'll see seafood

14:41

fests, Swedish fests, color

14:44

fests, taco and music fests. We

14:46

even have the word sausage fest,

14:49

which means that there are too many

14:51

males at a party and not enough females.

14:55

Wow, guys, this club is a real sausage

14:57

fest tonight. Nina's party

14:59

wasn't a sausage fest from what I remember.

15:02

We had nine close girls that

15:05

hung out regularly and we

15:07

had a little smaller group of guy friends. But

15:10

yeah, with them, we celebrated her 18th in

15:13

all of the different time zones.

15:16

Over the course of the school year, Nina

15:18

and I studied. We went to Friday

15:21

night football games and other

15:23

sporting events. Somehow we

15:25

even ended up going to Mormon Prom

15:28

where we dressed up very

15:31

modestly and waltzed. Now

15:34

it was pretty lame for

15:37

us, but it was fun because we had each

15:39

other. At Real Prom, which

15:41

is a big deal in the United States,

15:44

it's an official dance for juniors

15:46

and seniors in high school,

15:49

Nina was actually nominated for Prom

15:51

Queen, which essentially means she was popular,

15:53

people liked her. At Real Prom,

15:56

in juxtaposition to this Mormon

15:59

Prom, There was most definitely

16:01

no waltzing, just a lot

16:04

of dirty dancing,

16:05

which I think was also a bit of culture

16:08

shock.

16:11

The thing

16:11

with good friends is that downtime

16:15

makes moments memorable.

16:17

When you have nothing to do, you figure out

16:20

what to do. Apart from

16:22

long conversations over frappuccinos

16:25

at Starbucks, which we called our cups

16:27

of fat, we pushed each other around

16:30

in shopping carts at Walmart, rearranged

16:33

traffic cones so that cars

16:35

would drive in circles,

16:37

and a bunch of other weird,

16:40

crazy activities.

16:41

We were just teenagers.

16:43

Growing up in the United States in suburbia,

16:46

there's not always a lot to do. It's

16:48

not Uber crazy or Uber

16:50

exciting, but that's

16:52

typical. It's high school life. It's fun,

16:55

though. You find things to do. And

16:57

I think for her being an exchange

17:00

student, it was all unique.

17:03

In July, Nina left my house after

17:06

eight months with my family, and

17:08

I was distraught.

17:10

Even if I didn't show it, I think she

17:13

was a little surprised when she was leaving and I didn't

17:15

have much expression on my face. But

17:17

there was a deep-seated angst

17:20

that we would grow apart with the distance,

17:22

that the relationship we'd built

17:25

would go kaput. The

17:27

lovely thing about life is that when you truly

17:30

want somebody in it, you make

17:32

sure they stay. It's a choice.

17:35

Of course, it has to be mutual. It's

17:37

not like this can be a one-sided choice.

17:40

For the next year, we were pen

17:42

pals. These are people that live

17:45

at a distance, but send letters

17:47

to each other from overseas or

17:50

from across the nation, from

17:52

a distance. And

17:55

we sent snail mail. So very

17:57

slow mail. Sometimes it would take up to three weeks.

18:00

weeks to get a letter. We also

18:02

sent each other Christmas presents

18:04

in large packages.

18:06

Hers had delicious European

18:09

sweets and chocolate. She

18:11

sent me cinnamon star cookies and gingerbread,

18:14

Raphaelos, which at the time we didn't have

18:16

in the US, and Mozart balls,

18:19

and Marzipan, and bread flour,

18:21

all these things that I loved.

18:23

And it's funny because I would send her a bunch

18:26

of crap back. My

18:28

box had Cheetos, her favorite

18:31

cereal, which was Golden Graham's,

18:33

Pop Tarts, Maple Syrup, Cholula

18:36

sauce for her dad. And yeah,

18:38

these packages would be sent for years

18:41

to come

18:42

because our relationship didn't end.

18:44

As I mentioned in the beginning, she's

18:46

still my sister today.

18:50

To hear the second part of our story

18:52

and more adventures, stay tuned

18:54

for part two.

18:55

You'll also learn 10 more German

18:58

words that are commonly used in English.

19:02

Let's do some pronunciation.

19:04

I'll read a list of the German

19:07

loan words used in this

19:09

audio. Repeat after me.

19:12

Doppelganger.

19:15

Wanderlust. Schadenfreude.

19:24

Volkswagen. Kindergarten. Rottweiler.

19:31

Gesundheit. Fest.

19:40

Angst, or Angsty. Waltz.

19:49

Uber. Uber.

19:53

Uber. Caput.

19:58

Now let's go. Let's go through the definitions

20:01

and explanations of some of these.

20:04

Number one, doppelganger. Once

20:06

again, this is someone who looks

20:09

strikingly similar to someone

20:11

else.

20:12

Repeat after me. I saw your doppelganger

20:15

yesterday. It's a guy that works at McDonald's.

20:23

In German, doppel means double and

20:25

ganger means walker.

20:27

So I suppose you can imagine someone else

20:30

living in the world that looks like your double,

20:32

like a second version of you.

20:34

And in English, we kind of are flexible

20:37

once again with this. If someone looks similar,

20:39

you can just say, hey, it's your doppelganger.

20:41

It doesn't have to be like spot on in the

20:43

same exact person.

20:46

Number two, wanderlust. Repeat

20:48

after me. I follow Instagramers

20:51

who post a lot about travel

20:53

and it gives me an overwhelming sense

20:56

of wanderlust.

21:02

So wanderlust is that

21:04

desire to travel.

21:07

Once again, this is a compound word.

21:09

So if you're learning German, it's fun because

21:11

if you understand one word, you can

21:14

kind of guess the meaning of the full

21:16

word. For example, here we have lust,

21:19

which in German is lust, and that means like

21:21

a desire or a passion to do something.

21:24

And wander. So in the end, you have this desire

21:27

to hike or roam around.

21:30

Number three, schadenfreude.

21:33

Pleasure derived from someone else's

21:35

misfortune. Here are

21:37

some examples I got from chat

21:39

GPT because I was playing around with it.

21:42

Repeat after me.

21:44

When the rival team lost the game,

21:46

the fans couldn't help but feel a

21:48

sense of schadenfreude.

21:55

One more example. Repeat after

21:57

me. I know it's wrong, but I can't. I

22:00

can't help feeling a bit of schadenfreude

22:02

when my annoying neighbor has car

22:04

trouble. Number

22:12

four, Volkswagen Porsche Mercedes.

22:16

So these are some German car companies.

22:19

Repeat after me. Are Volkswagen's

22:22

Porsches and Mercedes reasonably

22:24

priced in Germany? I

22:31

don't know. I always found it funny that

22:33

there are Mercedes as taxis. Not

22:37

something you would see in the US.

22:39

Number five, kindergarten.

22:41

And notice here, I'm pronouncing these

22:43

like an American because we have an

22:45

expected pronunciation for them. It's not

22:48

kindergarten.

22:49

It's kindergarten, kindergarten.

22:51

So you can't almost hear that D

22:53

or the T in the word. Repeat

22:56

after me.

22:57

The kindergarten class did many arts

23:00

and crafts projects.

23:05

Number six, Rottweiler.

23:07

So once again, that's that dog breed. It's

23:10

usually black or tan

23:12

with the sort of very strong body

23:15

and muscles and they usually have big

23:17

heads.

23:18

Repeat after me. A Rottweiler

23:21

that wasn't on a leash chased

23:23

the mailman down the street. Number

23:28

seven, Gesundheit.

23:31

Repeat after me. A Choo!

23:34

Gesundheit. Number

23:38

eight, fest. Once

23:40

again, fest is a

23:43

party or a type of festivity. Repeat after

23:45

me. There's a language

23:47

and culture fest this week. Do you want to

23:49

come? Number

23:53

nine, angst

23:55

or angst? Angst means

23:56

fear and And

24:00

angsty means fearful or worried.

24:03

Repeat after me, I've been so

24:06

angsty recently, I think my boss

24:08

is going to fire me for screwing

24:11

up his file cabinet.

24:19

I asked a bunch of native speakers how

24:21

they would use these or if they would use

24:23

these. And interestingly,

24:25

the older generation said they would use

24:28

angst more and people

24:30

in their 20s would use angsty.

24:33

Repeat after me,

24:35

I was feeling angsty that our friendship

24:37

would go kaput.

24:43

Number 10, waltz. It's

24:46

a very formal dance. The

24:48

type of dance you could imagine Cinderella

24:51

and Prince Charming dancing to.

24:54

Repeat after me, can you waltz?

24:58

Number 11, uber.

25:00

Uber can mean above or

25:02

over, but in English it's used

25:05

as an adverb to intensify

25:07

an adjective.

25:09

For example,

25:11

I should probably wear a nicer dress

25:13

to the wedding.

25:14

The venue looks uber fancy.

25:16

So very fancy. When

25:19

someone is described as being uber nice,

25:22

it means they're very, very nice. Repeat

25:26

after me, he's uber

25:28

friendly. There's no way he won't

25:30

get the job. All

25:35

right, so this is slang and you're probably thinking,

25:37

why is Uber called Uber? The

25:39

car pulling company. Well,

25:42

they're the superlative, they're the best,

25:44

they go above and beyond.

25:46

Number 12, kaput. Broken

25:49

or useless?

25:51

No longer effective. Repeat

25:53

after me. My remote

25:56

control lasted for a week before

25:58

it went kaput. Things

26:04

can go kaput. They can also be

26:06

kaput. So what's wrong

26:08

with your car? It's kaput.

26:12

That's the end of this episode.

26:14

And if you're interested in signing up to premium

26:16

content, be sure to do that. The

26:18

links to premium content can be found

26:21

in the episode notes.

26:22

Also, be sure to stay tuned for part

26:25

two.

26:25

Once again, that will have 10 additional

26:29

German words that are commonly used in English

26:31

with the pronunciation exercises

26:34

and also those descriptions.

26:37

So yeah,

26:38

stay tuned. Bye. Thank

26:41

you for listening to this episode of

26:43

the American English Podcast. Remember,

26:47

it's my goal here to not only help you

26:49

improve your listening comprehension, but

26:52

to show you how to speak like someone from

26:54

the States. If you want to receive

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26:59

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on AmericanEnglishPodcast.com.

27:07

Thanks and hope to see you soon.