Day 20: Two Hundred Mugs by March
At the kitchen table of their flat in Köln-Ehrenfeld, Charlotte (A), a potter, and Lisa (B), her flatmate and business partner, hold a proper meeting about their small pottery business.
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
Hiermit eröffne ich die Sitzung. Einziger Tagesordnungspunkt: die Anfrage der Café-Kette.
I hereby open our meeting. The only item on the agenda: the café chain's enquiry.
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B
Die Inhaberin schreibt, sie brauche zweihundert Tassen bis Mitte März und zahle 28 Euro pro Stück.
The owner writes that she needs two hundred mugs by mid-March and will pay 28 euros each.
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A
Das wäre unser mit Abstand größter Auftrag! Wo ist der Haken?
That would be our biggest order by far! What's the catch?
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B
Der Haken ist unser bei Kleinanzeigen gekaufter Ofen, der gerade mal zwanzig Tassen pro Brand schafft.
The catch is the kiln we bought on Kleinanzeigen, the classifieds site, which only manages twenty mugs a firing.
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A
Dann brennen wir eben Tag und Nacht. Zehn Brände, das ist doch zu schaffen.
Then we'll just fire it day and night. Ten firings, that's doable, surely.
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B
Zwanzig: Jede Tasse wird zweimal gebrannt. Mit Abkühlen sind das sechs Wochen, und die Frist endet in vier.
Twenty: every mug gets fired twice. With cooling, that's six weeks, and the deadline is in four.
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A
Dann beantrage ich offiziell einen zweiten Ofen, finanziert durch die Anzahlung der Café-Kette.
Then I formally move that we get a second kiln, paid for with the café chain's deposit.
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