Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to DutchPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 3 - Choosing a Restaurant in the Netherlands. Eric here.
Jacob: Hallo. I'm Jacob.
Eric: In this lesson you’ll learn how to choose a place to eat in Dutch. The conversation takes place in a bar.
Jacob: It's between Mark and Tina, two colleagues in their thirties.
Eric: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Dutch. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation

Tina: Zullen we na dit glas wijn samen iets gaan eten?
Mark: Ja, een goed idee. Ken je restaurant Taco? Heel gezellig.
Tina: Is het erg druk? Ik houd van kleine, stille plaatsen.
Mark: Ja, het is wel druk. Welk eten vind jij lekker?
Tina: Oh, ik vind heel veel dingen lekker, vooral Zuid-Europees eten.
Mark: Zullen we Spaans eten? Ik ken een leuk en klein Spaans restaurant.
Tina: Ja, leuk! Kan je daar met een credit card betalen? Ik heb nu geen contant geld.
Mark: Ik nodig je uit.
Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation.
Tina: Shall we have dinner together after this glass of wine?
Mark: Good idea. Do you know the restaurant Taco? It's very cozy.
Tina: Is it crowded? I like small and quiet places.
Mark: Yes, it's quite busy. What food do you like?
Tina: Oh, I like a lot of things; especially Southern European cuisine.
Mark: Shall we have Spanish food? I know a nice and small Spanish restaurant.
Tina: Sounds nice! Can you pay with a credit card? I don't have any cash now.
Mark: It’s my treat.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Eric: Jacob, is it true that Dutch people are totally fine with inviting someone to dinner, even if they’ve just met?
Jacob: Yes, that’s true. We’re always trying to establish new friendships, so that scenario is common. We also like to have drinks with a new friend before or after dinner too.
Eric: I see. If you’ve met someone for the first time and want to have dinner together, what types of places would you choose?
Jacob: Well...among students, Italian or Chinese restaurants are popular, because they serve good food at reasonable prices. Pancakes are a common choice too, because they’re a quick and light meal for having dinner together for the first time.
Eric: Good to know. Okay, now onto the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is..
Jacob: glas [natural native speed]
Eric: glass
Jacob: glas [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Jacob: glas [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Jacob: wijn [natural native speed]
Eric: wine
Jacob: wijn [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Jacob: wijn [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Jacob: restaurant [natural native speed]
Eric: restaurant
Jacob: restaurant [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Jacob: restaurant [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Jacob: gezellig [natural native speed]
Eric: cozy, comfortable
Jacob: gezellig [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Jacob: gezellig [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Jacob: druk [natural native speed]
Eric: busy
Jacob: druk [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Jacob: druk [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Jacob: stil [natural native speed]
Eric: quiet
Jacob: stil [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Jacob: stil [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Jacob: ding [natural native speed]
Eric: thing
Jacob: ding [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Jacob: ding [natural native speed]
Eric: Next we have..
Jacob: klein [natural native speed]
Eric: small
Jacob: klein [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Jacob: klein [natural native speed]
Eric: And last..
Jacob: contant [natural native speed]
Eric: cash
Jacob: contant [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Jacob: contant [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is..
Jacob: gezellig
Eric: It means “cozy” and “comfortable.” You can use this word to say that the period of time you're talking about was nice, everybody felt comfortable, and everyone enjoyed it.
Jacob: Right. If you had a nice conversation with your friend, you can say - was het gezellig?
Eric: Which means “Was it cozy?” It’s something like “We had a nice conversation, didn’t we?”
Jacob: You will also hear the word gezellig commonly in different phrases, too. For example, Dit was een heel gezellige avond.
Eric: ..which means “This was a very cozy evening.” Okay, what's the next phrase?
Jacob: wel druk
Eric: meaning “rather busy.”
Jacob: druk is the word meaning “busy” and at the beginning of this phrase we have the word wel. This word has several meanings.
Eric: And one of the main functions is to make a positive answer to a negative question. For example, let’s say someone asked you..
Jacob: het was niet leuk?
Eric: “It wasn't nice?” It’s a negative question. And if you want to answer this positively with an answer like “Yes, it was nice,” you can say..
Jacob: Het was wel leuk.
Eric: It means “No, it was nice.”
Jacob: If you just say Het was leuk without the word wel, it still means “It was nice.” But when you answer a negative question, make sure to add wel, as in Het was wel leuk.
Eric: And there’s another way to use it, right?
Jacob: Yes. Like it was used in the dialogue, it can be used to mean “rather” as in “rather good.” For example, Het is wel druk can be translated as “it is rather busy” or as “however, it is rather busy, even though it is nice.”
Eric: Can you give us another example?
Jacob: Sure. Ja, dit cafe is altijd wel druk.
Eric: “Yes, this cafe is always rather busy.” Okay, what's the next phrase?
Jacob: Ik nodig je uit.
Eric: It means “It's my treat” or literally “I invite you.” You can use this phrase with the meaning of “don't worry, I'll pay, I am inviting you.”
Jacob: The full verb uitnodigen means “to invite,” but it’s an irregular Dutch verb that is split up in certain constructions. For example, when you say.. ik zal je uitnodigen
Eric: “I will invite you.”
Jacob: the verb uitnodigen remains as it is. But when you say ik nodig je uit,
Eric: meaning “I invite you,”
Jacob: the verb uitnodigen gets broken into two- nodig and uit with je in between.
Eric: Can you give us an example using this phrase?
Jacob: Sure. For example, you can say.. Ik nodig je uit want ik vind je lief.
Eric: .. which means “I’ll invite you because I think you're sweet.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus.

Lesson focus

Eric: In this lesson you’ll learn how to choose a place to eat in Dutch. Choosing a place for dinner usually starts with a proposal.
Jacob: In this case, you can start your sentence with the modal verb zullen, meaning “shall,” as in the dialogue phrase Zullen we na dit glas wijn samen iets gaan eten?
Eric: “Shall we go and have dinner together after this glass of wine?”
Jacob: You can also start your invitation with the word laten, meaning “let's.” For example.. Laten we samen iets gaan eten.
Eric: “Let’s go and eat something together.” You can also start your sentence with “How about…?”. For example you can say...“How about a nice bite to eat?”, which in Dutch is..
Jacob: Wat dacht je van een lekker hapje eten? Listeners, this phrase is a bit informal, so you should use it with people you already know well.
Eric: Jacob, how can we suggest eating together in formal situations?
Jacob: You can simply say...Ik zou het heel leuk vinden als u iets met mij zou willen eten!
Eric: It means “I would very much appreciate it if you would agree to eat something with me.” Now, after receiving an invitation, we should reply.
Jacob: Right. To give a positive answer and accept, you can say...Ja, een goed idee.
Eric: meaning “Yes, good idea.”
Jacob: In formal situations you can answer Dat lijkt me heel leuk, dank u wel.
Eric: “That would be very nice, thank you.” By the way, discussing likes and dislikes is a very important part of choosing a restaurant.
Jacob: Right. You will probably hear the question...Welk eten vindt jij lekker?
Eric: “What kind of food do you like?”
Jacob: Sometimes you will hear a more direct proposal, such as...Zullen we Spaans gaan eten?
Eric: “Shall we go and eat Spanish food?” Jacob, how can we answer this question in Dutch?
Jacob: First, you can say...Ik houd, meaning “I like” and then add what you like.
Eric: For example, you can say...
Jacob: Ik houd van kleine, stille plaatsen.
Eric: “I like small and quiet places.” Or you can say…
Jacob: Ik houd van drukke, volle restaurants.
Eric: “I like crowded and full restaurants.”
Jacob: If you don’t like the place or have a different suggestion, you can say...Zullen we ergens anders heengaan?
Eric: “Shall we go somewhere else?” Listeners, we covered a lot of phrases in this lesson, so please make sure to check the lesson notes to learn more about them.

Outro

Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye!
Jacob: Tot ziens!

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