Day 41: Trialling a Four-Day Week
At a team meeting in a logistics company in Duisburg, the team manager, Torsten Brückner (A), brings news from head office to two young employees, Pia Scholz (B) and Nils Dahlmann (C).
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
Gute Nachricht aus der Zentrale: Der Versuch ist genehmigt, ab März testen wir die Viertagewoche.
Good news from head office: the trial has been approved, and from March we're testing the four-day week.
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B
Endlich! Das lohnt sich doppelt, zumal die meisten von uns über eine Stunde pendeln.
At last! It's doubly worth it, especially as most of us have a commute of over an hour.
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C
Freu dich nicht zu früh, Pia. Bei gleicher Stundenzahl stehen wir täglich zehn Stunden in der Halle.
Don't celebrate too soon, Pia. With the same number of hours, we'll be on our feet in the warehouse for ten hours a day.
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A
Nein, Herr Dahlmann: Die Wochenarbeitszeit sinkt bei vollem Lohn auf 36 Stunden, und die Schichtpläne sind schon erstellt.
No, Mr Dahlmann: the working week goes down to 36 hours at full pay, and the shift rotas have already been drawn up.
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C
Das sind immer noch neun Stunden am Tag. Und die Paletten werden ja nicht weniger, nur weil wir kürzer arbeiten.
That's still nine hours a day. And there won't be any fewer pallets just because we work shorter hours.
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B
Das soll der Versuch ja zeigen. Du erstickst aber auch alles im Keim, dabei stöhnt keiner so über Überstunden wie du.
That's exactly what the trial is meant to find out. You really do nip everything in the bud, and yet nobody moans about overtime like you do.
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C
Meinetwegen, ich mache mit, sofern ich freitags frei habe. Dann fahre ich jedes Wochenende an die holländische Küste.
All right, count me in, provided I get Fridays off. Then I'll drive to the Dutch coast every weekend.
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A
Die Freitage sind leider schon vergeben, Herr Dahlmann: an die, die von Anfang an dafür waren.
I'm afraid the Fridays have already been given out, Mr Dahlmann: to the people who were in favour from the start.
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