Day 103: Emails After Ten at Night
In the kitchen of a Berlin advertising agency, Levi (A), just back from a workshop on stress, asks his colleague Zoe (B) about an email she sent late last night.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a German word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native German, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Morgen, Zoe. Deine Mail an den Kunden kam um Viertel nach elf, arbeitest du jetzt auch nachts?
Morning, Zoe. Your email to the client came in at quarter past eleven. Are you working nights now too?
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B
Erwischt. Ich lese abends im Bett noch Mails, und je öfter ich nachschaue, desto unruhiger werde ich.
Guilty. I read emails in bed at night, and the more often I check, the more restless I get.
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A
Genau darum ging es gestern im Stressworkshop. Das Einzige, was nachweislich hilft, ist eine klare Grenze zwischen Arbeit und Feierabend.
That's exactly what the stress workshop was about yesterday. The only thing that's proven to help is a clear line between work and time off.
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B
Leicht gesagt. In unserer Branche wird ständige Erreichbarkeit stillschweigend vorausgesetzt, gerade bei Kunden wie Brandtner.
Easier said than done. In our line of work, being reachable all the time is quietly taken for granted, especially with clients like Brandtner.
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A
Das dachte ich auch, bis die Trainerin fragte, welche unserer Nachtmails wirklich nicht bis morgens hätten warten können. Bei mir keine einzige.
That's what I thought, until the trainer asked which of our late-night emails really couldn't have waited until morning. For me, not a single one.
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B
Stimmt schon, meistens geht es um nichts, worüber man sich nachts den Kopf zerbrechen müsste. Trotzdem liege ich danach wach.
Fair enough, it's mostly nothing you'd need to rack your brains over at night. Still, I lie awake afterwards.
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A
Dann gib mal dein Handy her. Da kannst du einstellen, dass die Mail-App ab sieben Uhr abends pausiert.
Then hand over your phone. You can set it so the email app pauses from seven in the evening.
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B
Schon ab sieben? Je früher die App schweigt, desto mehr Mails warten morgens auf mich.
From seven? That early? The earlier the app goes quiet, the more emails will be waiting for me in the morning.
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A
Die warten sowieso, ob du sie um elf liest oder um neun. Nur hast du dann vorher geschlafen.
They'll wait anyway, whether you read them at eleven or at nine. It's just that you'll have slept first.
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