Formal German
#1 Herr Schmidt, was machen Sie beruflich?
#2 Ich arbeite als Programmierer. Und Sie?
#1 Ich studiere noch.
#2 Was studieren Sie? Studieren Sie Medizin?
#1 Nein, ich studiere Geschichte.
English
#1 Mr Schmidt, what do you do professionally?
#2 I work as a programmer. And you?
#1 I am still at university. (Literally
#2 What do you study? Do you study medicine?
#1 No, I study history.
Informal German
#1 Michael, was machst du beruflich?
#2 Ich arbeite als Programmierer. Und du?
#1 Ich studiere noch.
#2 Was studierst du? Studierst du Medizin?
#1 Nein, ich studiere Geschichte.
Informal English
#1 Michael, what do you do professionally?
#2 I work as a programmer. And you?
#1 I am still at university. (Literally
#2 What do you study? Do you study medicine?
#1 No, I study history.
Vocabulary Sample Sentences
Was ist das? What is this?
Ich mache Kaffee. I am making coffee.
Seine berufliche Zukunft ist interessant. His professional future is interesting.
Ich arbeite als Lehrer. I work as a teacher.
Was machst du als Linguist? What do you do as a linguist?
I be Programmierer. I am a programmer.
Ich studiere Betriebswirtschaft. I study business management.
Die Medizin wird der häufe. This medicine will help you.
Das ist eine schöne Geschichte. That is a nice story.
Grammar Points
So far, we have always used formal language, but this lesson is different. Lena got permission to call
Michael by his first name and now she is using informal language when addressing him. This
involves using the pronoun “du” instead of “Sie” and also the matching verb ending: -st. For example:
du kommst, du wohnst, du arbeitest, du heißt…
instead of:
Sie kommen, Sie wohnen, Sie arbeiten, Sie heißen…
Let’s recap all the verb endings we’ve seen so far, using the example of “studieren”:
studieren – to study
ich studiere – I study
du studierst – you study (informal)
Sie studieren – you study (formal)
And this is all you need to know about formal versus informal German verbs! The distinction betweeninformal and formal is only made on this one occasion and there are no further forms to study, unlikein languages like German.
---
One extra note: you may wonder why so many German words are capitalized. It’s not a typo. InGerman, all nouns are capitalized. In exchange, adjectives like “German”, “English” or the like arenever capitalized, so that you can distinguish for example between “Deutsch” (the German language)and “deutsch” (the adjective for something German). The rest of the capitalization rules are the sameas in English.
Cultural InsightIn
Germany, it’s generally impolite to be too insistent, to force people to reveal too much. That’s whyyou ask “Was machen Sie beruflich?” (What do you do professionally?), a rather vague question,rather than something like “Wo arbeiten Sie?” (Where do you work?). In response to “Was machenSie beruflich?”, people can say just about anything:
?Ich arbeite bei Siemens.“ (I work at Siemens); not revealing whether they are a mechanic or amanager?Ich studiere Geschichte.“ (I study history); not revealing in what semester they are in or what jobthey do on the side?Ich arbeite als Programmierer.“ (I work as a programmer); not revealing whether that’s what theystudied, whether they work for a company or just do the occasional freelancing?Ich bin Diplom-Betriebswirt.“ (literally: I am diploma-manager; meaning I have a diploma inmanagement); not revealing whether they found work in that field, whether they are unemployed orhad to accept a badly-paying jobThis way, they can try to evade the topic if they aren’t comfortable with it, or they can voluntarilyprovide details to indicate that they wouldn’t mind discussing it. No matter what, you should never askthem about their salary though, as it’s taboo in Germany. Very few people want to show that they arerich and very few people want to show that they are poor, so when you investigate, you might findmillionaires trying to make you believe that they are soon going to depend on social money (as fitswith the general fondness of complaining) and the very poor trying to make you believe that they haveeverything they need and decided to save money for later.
What people are really trying to show off is sophistication, not so much money. Hence everyself-respecting German family displays bookcases very visibly and would never admit to readingtabloids like the “Bild”. Evening classes teaching general knowledge and books about manners are alsowidely popular as everybody scrambles not to appear boorish. Part of this is also that Germans try topronounce every foreign word as it should be pronounced in the language it was taken from, and thecloser you get, the better. For example, the French-derived word “cousin” is never pronounced [kusin],but depending on your sophistication you may pronounce it [kuseng] or [kuse~]. And it’s a must topronounce English words correctly of course. Some people even go out of their way to introduceEnglish-derived terms into their papers in order to show off their mastery of English – and to confusereaders.
