Day 108: Before the Swimming Pool Meeting
In the press office of Magdeburg city hall, Dagmar Kühn (A), the head of the press office, prepares her new colleague Saskia Wendorf (B) for tonight's residents' meeting about closing an old indoor pool.
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
Frau Wendorf, heute Abend wird es ungemütlich: Wir erwarten 300 Leute, die ihre Schwimmhalle nicht kampflos hergeben.
Ms Wendorf, it's going to get uncomfortable tonight: we're expecting 300 people who won't give up their swimming pool without a fight.
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B
Die Fragen der Bürgerinitiative haben wir ja zum Glück vorab zugeschickt bekommen. Die meisten drehen sich ums Schulschwimmen.
Luckily we've had the campaign group's questions sent to us in advance. Most of them are about swimming lessons for schools.
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A
Zu Recht, die Grundschüler müssten künftig quer durch die Stadt fahren. Und für uns gilt heute: Reden ist Silber, Schweigen ist Gold.
Rightly so: the primary school children would have to travel right across town. And tonight the rule for us is: speech is silver, silence is golden.
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B
Ich hätte trotzdem einen Vorschlag: Wir übertragen die Versammlung live im Netz, für alle, die keinen Platz mehr bekommen.
I've got a suggestion all the same: we stream the meeting live online, for everyone who can't get a seat.
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A
Live? Dann landet jeder Versprecher der Oberbürgermeisterin noch heute Nacht in den sozialen Medien.
Live? Then every slip of the tongue the mayor makes will be all over social media by tonight.
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B
Da landet er sowieso, im Saal filmt doch jeder mit. In unserem Stream sähe man wenigstens die ganze Debatte, nicht nur Ausschnitte.
It'll end up there anyway: everyone in the hall films it. In our stream people would at least see the whole debate, not just clips.
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A
Hm, da ist was dran. Aber wer sich aus dem Publikum zu Wort meldet, muss vorher einwilligen.
Hm, you've got a point. But anyone in the audience who asks to speak has to give their consent first.
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B
Das lässt sich auf die Wortmeldezettel drucken. Und eine Kamera bekommen wir vom Stadtmarketing geliehen, ich habe schon angerufen.
That can be printed on the slips for requests to speak. And we're getting a camera on loan from the city marketing office: I've already rung them.
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A
Sie haben also angerufen, bevor Sie mich gefragt haben? Wer A sagt, muss auch B sagen: Den Livestream moderieren Sie selbst.
So you rang them before you'd asked me? In for a penny, in for a pound: you're hosting the livestream yourself.
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