Ryan’s Wednesday Afternoon, part 1 – Prep for the Appointment
It’s a sunny day amid a cluster of rainy ones, but that’s not even a little important. I have two hours to eat lunch, figure out how to make copies of documents, make those copies, put together a packet of the documents I copy, and then make my way to the apartment I’m viewing at 3pm.
The part that has me the most nervous is the part about finding out how to make copies. I haven’t seen a Kinko’s in two weeks. What on Earth does a German copy center look like? Do they exist? I’ll start by asking the front desk of our apartment complex. The lady there speaks perfect English, so that conversation will be easy.
“Hallo!” I say to her when I walk in. “Can I make copies in here?
“No, I’m sorry, we don’t have a copy machine.”
“Oh, okay. Where can I go to do that?”
“Ummm, I’m not really sure. The Internet Cafe across the plaza might have one.”
“Okay, danke shoen!”
“Bitte shoen!”
Now, I’m sprinting across the plaza. The Internet Cafe is a closet with three desktop PCs and a guy behind a desk.
“Hallo!” I say. “Haben sie ein…uh…copygerät?” I really hope that “copygerät” is a word.
Desk guy looks puzzled. He says some German stuff that I haven’t learned, yet. Crap, it’s probably not a word. “Danke!” I say and run out the door. Hopefully, he wasn’t offering me some free copies.
I spin around, examining the signs above the shops in the plaza. Kartoffelhaus–no. Discount Store–no. Thai Food–no. Papier–maybe? I run to Papier.
Papier is a larger closet than the Internet Cafe is. The doorway features some stationary, so I’m optimistic. I enter. The clerk is behind the counter helping a woman with some envelopes. The old woman isn’t a copy machine, so I don’t focus on her for too long. I scan the place until my eyes pass in front of the counter. There it is!
Once the clerk finishes helping the woman, I approach him.
“Hallo!” Learning a bit from my last encounter, I open this conversation differently. “Jetzt, ich spreche nicht so gut Deutsch.”
“Ah, ist okay,” he reassures me, but not exactly in a friendly way. Then, he says some B21 German things with an inquisitive face, so I get the message that he wants to know what I need.
“Ich suerche ein,” then I try it again “copygerät.”
“Ja, wir haben,” he says (or something like that). Maybe copygerät is a word? Or maybe he knows English.
Then I have to abandon German–I really can’t wait until we get to the “asking store clerks to help you” part of the class–and I ask “Can I make copies of these documents?”
“Ja, wie viele?” (Or something close to that).
“Drei, und drei, und drei…” I say as I show him my documents. I’m trying to say I need three of each.
“Okay.” And then he makes my copies before telling me how much and collecting his payment.
I’m done! I have my copies. Now, it’s bratwurst time. I’ll need all the energy I can get–it’s only about 20 minutes until I need to put those copies I just made to good use.
1German courses progress from A1, A2, B1…C2, where C2 is Twain-like command of the German language. I’m a quarter of the way through A1 right now.