Day 79: The Hardest Question They Asked
In Lüneburg, Piet (B), eight, is waiting at the door when his mother Maike (A), a senior A&E doctor, comes home from an interview for the job of head of the hospital's A&E department.
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
Piet, du stehst ja schon in der Tür! Hast du etwa die ganze Zeit gewartet?
Piet, you're already at the door! Have you been waiting the whole time?
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B
Nur ein bisschen. Und, bist du jetzt die Chefin von der ganzen Notaufnahme?
Only a bit. So, are you the boss of the whole A&E now?
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A
So schnell geht das nicht. Bis Freitag werden sie sich entschieden haben, und bis dahin grüble ich über jede Antwort.
It doesn't happen that fast. They'll have decided by Friday, and until then I'll be going over every answer in my head.
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B
Was haben die dich denn gefragt? War das so schwer wie meine Mathearbeit?
What did they ask you, then? Was it as hard as my maths test?
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A
Viel schwerer. Die vier von der Klinikleitung haben mich gemustert, als ob ich noch nie einen Notfall gesehen hätte.
Much harder. The four from hospital management sized me up as if I'd never seen an emergency in my life.
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B
Und wenn du Chefin wirst, bist du dann noch weniger zu Hause? Du hast jetzt schon so viele Nachtdienste.
And if you become the boss, will you be at home even less? You already do so many night shifts.
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A
Genau das war die schwerste Frage, nur haben sie es vornehmer formuliert. Ich habe gesagt, als Chefin schreibe ich die Dienstpläne selbst.
That was exactly the hardest question, only they put it more diplomatically. I said that as the boss I'd write the rotas myself.
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B
Dann trag mich gleich mit ein: jeden Sonntag Schwimmbad, auch wenn die ganze Stadt krank ist.
Then put me down too: swimming pool every Sunday, even if the whole town's ill.
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