Day 158: A School Street Without Cars
Walking to school in Mönchengladbach, Fenja (A) asks her mother Corinna (B) about the parents standing at the school gate with clipboards.
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
Mama, warum stehen da vorne am Schultor schon wieder Eltern mit Klemmbrettern? Die haben mich gestern gefragt, ob du auch unterschreibst.
Mum, why are there parents with clipboards at the school gate again? Yesterday they asked me whether you'd be signing too.
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B
Die sammeln Unterschriften für einen Antrag an die Bezirksvertretung. Unsere Straße soll morgens eine halbe Stunde lang für Autos gesperrt werden, als sogenannte Schulstraße.
They're collecting signatures for a petition to the district council. Our street's supposed to be closed to cars for half an hour in the mornings, as what they call a school street.
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A
Gesperrt? Und wo sollen dann die ganzen Elterntaxis hin, die sich jeden Morgen bis vors Tor drängeln?
Closed? Then where are all the parent taxis supposed to go, the ones that jostle their way right up to the gate every morning?
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B
Genau um die geht es ja. Man will Unfällen vorbeugen, indem man die Autos einfach aussperrt, und die Kinder steigen eben an der Ecke aus.
They're exactly what this is about. The idea is to prevent accidents by simply keeping the cars out, and the children just get out at the corner instead.
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A
Und die Leute, die hier wohnen? Der Kiosk bekommt doch jeden Morgen seine Zeitungen geliefert.
And what about the people who live here? The kiosk gets its newspapers delivered every morning.
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B
Deshalb muss so etwas gut geplant werden. Laut Antrag dürfen Anwohner in der halben Stunde nur rausfahren, und Lieferungen müssen vor dem großen Andrang erledigt werden.
That's why something like this has to be planned properly. According to the petition, residents can only drive out during that half-hour, and deliveries have to be done before the big rush.
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A
Kann ich mithelfen? Ich könnte nach der Schule mit so einem Klemmbrett bei allen Nachbarn klingeln!
Can I help? I could go round ringing all the neighbours' doorbells with one of those clipboards after school!
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B
Gern, aber unterschreiben müssen die Erwachsenen. Und fang bei der alten Dame von gegenüber an, die hat sich nämlich schon beschwert, dass sie keiner gefragt hat.
Of course, but it's the grown-ups who have to sign. And start with the old lady across the road: she's already complained that nobody's asked her.
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