Day 112: Radon in the Cellar
In a shared flat in Freiberg, a university town on the edge of the Erzgebirge mountains, Valerie Böttcher (A), a geology student, calls her flatmate Fiona (B) when their landlord, Mr Kunze (C), comes round about the cellar.
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
Fiona, Herr Kunze ist da! Er stellt wegen dieses Fernsehberichts ein Radonmessgerät in den Keller.
Fiona, Mr Kunze's here! He's putting a radon meter in the cellar because of that TV report.
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B
Radon, davon kann man doch Lungenkrebs bekommen! Und ich hänge da unten jede Woche meine Wäsche auf.
Radon? You can get lung cancer from that! And I hang my washing up down there every week.
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C
Genau deshalb messe ich ja. Im Fernsehen hieß es, im Erzgebirge liegen viele Keller weit über dem Grenzwert.
That's exactly why I'm measuring. On TV they said lots of cellars in the Erzgebirge are way over the limit.
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A
Das ist übrigens kein Grenzwert, sondern ein Referenzwert: 300 Becquerel pro Kubikmeter, gemittelt über ein ganzes Jahr.
It isn't a limit, by the way, it's a reference level: 300 becquerels per cubic metre, averaged over a whole year.
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C
Sie kennen sich ja aus. Das Gerät ist jedenfalls schon aufgestellt, direkt am Kellerfenster, und in einer Woche weiß ich Bescheid.
You know your stuff. Anyway, the meter's already set up, right by the cellar window, and in a week I'll know where we stand.
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A
Das Fenster ist aber gekippt, da misst es vor allem Frischluft. Und für ein Jahresmittel braucht man mindestens drei Monate, besser zwölf.
But the window's tilted open, so it's mostly measuring fresh air. And for an annual average you need at least three months, ideally twelve.
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B
Und bis dahin? Gibt es etwas, was wir selbst tun können, außer meine Wäsche woanders aufzuhängen?
And until then? Is there anything we can do ourselves, apart from hanging my washing somewhere else?
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A
Lüften, denn der Keller ist nicht abgedichtet, und das Gas dringt durch jeden Riss im Boden. Das ist alles, was kurzfristig hilft.
Air it, because the cellar isn't sealed and the gas gets in through every crack in the floor. That's all that helps in the short term.
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C
Na schön, Frau Böttcher, dann stellen Sie das Gerät bitte selbst auf. Ich bin nur der Vermieter, die Fachfrau sind Sie.
All right, Ms Böttcher, then please set the meter up yourself. I'm only the landlord; you're the expert.
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