- Drucken. The first word I learned. It means "push". As in, push open a door. The opposite is "Zeihel". All the doors here have pull handles on both sides. I just can't get the hang of it. My co-worker Craig apparently has a better engineering degree than I do and said he looks at the hinges, so that is helping, but it's a problem. Again, one of the little things I like about the US - different style handles for "push" and "pull" sides of the door.
- Weizen Bier. Wheat beer. There is a dunkel Weizen (dark wheat beer), lieght (or something like that) weizen (light wheat beer) and hefeweisen (somewhere in between).
- Prost. Cheers. As taught by some random old man in a bar. But I did confirm the meaning with people at work to make sure it wasn't some sort of bad word!
- Damen. Women. As in, which bathroom to use. And Herron, as in the other bathroom to avoid!
- WC. Restroom. Easy enough. But it's pronounced "Veet cee," almost. So if you go into a gas station trying to get the key to the outdoor restroom the best bet is to ask for the toilet. That's universal.
- Danke. Thanks.
- Salat. Salad. And "mit" is with, so on a menu if I want to make sure to get some sort of vegetable I can go for something that says "mit salat"
- Radler. Wheat beer mixed with lemonade. Really good, actually! Or that may be a Russo. I honestly don't remember which is wheat beer with lemonade and which is regular beer with lemonade.
- Cola Weizen. Wheat beer mixed with coke. Not so good, in my opinion. It probably didn't help that I asked for diet coke. I'm not sure why so many of the words I know have to do with beer!
- Malhzeit. This is my favorite German word! It essentially means "Happy lunchtime" as far as I can tell. According to Google Translate it just means mealtime, but it's the greeting people use around lunchtime. It can be a question, like "time to go to lunch?" or just a greeting as you pass someone at lunchtime. I think we need a "happy lunchtime" greeting in the US!
I know I've learned more than that, but that's all I can think of right now and it's bedtime! :)
Looks like you've learned enough to navigate lunchtime and happy hour!
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