Tutorial Transcript

Hallo und willkommen zurück bei Learn German for Beginners -- Deutsch für Anfänger. In the last lesson we learned all about the German numbers from 1 - 1 trillion and found out how to say 1st, 2nd and so on! If you missed it, you might wanna check it out first. Otherwise let's get going with German for Beginners Lesson 5. This lesson is all about miscommunication and misunderstandings you may encounter as a beginner of German. It is completely normal to not understand a native speaker at first and there are some ways you can help bridge the language gap. The most simple way is to explain that you don't speak German by saying: Ich spreche kein Deutsch -- I don't speak German. Don't feel defeated if you use this phrase since you're saying it in German anyway. But if you wanna give it a go, here are some other ways you can attempt to better understand a native German speaker when they approach you. First you could ask them to repeat themselves by saying: Können Sie das bitte wiederholen? (formal) Could you repeat that please? Or the informal: Kannst du das bitte wiederholen? (informal) If you still don't understand you might ask them to speak more slowly by saying: Können Sie bitte etwas langsamer sprechen? (formal) Can you speak more slowly please? Or the informal: Kannst du bitte etwas langsamer sprechen? (informal) If you're still completely bamboozled by what the German is saying, don't panic! You still have a few more tricks up your sleeve. You could now say: Es tut mir leid, ich verstehe nicht! I'm sorry, I don't understand! Followed by: Ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch. I only speak a little German. Now it's their turn! Make them as uncomfortable as you probably feel by now by asking: Sprechen Sie Englisch? (formal) Do you speak English? Or the informal: Sprichst du Englisch? (informal) In Germany it is most likely that they say yes if they haven't already jumped at the chance to practice their English skills with a native speaker and they'll most likely be thrilled that you've given German such a good crack! Let's practice those phrases together now! Repeat after me: Ich spreche kein Deutsch! Können Sie das bitte wiederholen? (formal) Kannst du das bitte wiederholen? (informal) Können Sie bitte etwas langsamer sprechen? (formal) Kannst du bitte etwas langsamer sprechen? (informal) Es tut mir leid, ich verstehe nicht! Ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch! Sprechen Sie Englisch? Sprichst du Englisch? Gut gemacht! Well done! Before we go, let's take a look at the some of the words we learned in today's lesson: wiederholen -- repeat langsam -- slowly verstehen -- understand sprechen -- speak In the next lesson of "Learn German for Beginners" we'll talk about German days, months and holidays! If you have any questions or feedback let me know in the comments section below. If you found this video helpful, please give it a thumbs up to let me know and subscribe to my channel to learn about the German language and culture on a regular basis! Make sure to like my Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram to learn even more German and get exclusive access to German words of the day, extra learning German videos and sneak peeks into my daily life here in Germany. Vielen Dank fürs Zusehen, stay tuned for the next lesson and don't forget to get germanized!

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