#74 – Kurzgeschichte auf Deutsch – Bloß weg hier!

A young woman who feels trapped in a life that she absolutely no longer wants. That’s exactly what today’s short story is about. You know, learning with stories is very effective because you are interested in what you are currently dealing with, because a good story also contains excitement and simply ensures that you remain fully focused. And stories are also something that stays with us longer. All of these are reasons why learning with short stories is really very effective and why I also offer it at Deutsches Geplapper. In any case, remember that you can use the podcast transcript for this podcast episode, for this short story and for all other episodes. This means that you can also read along to understand everything. And reading and listening at the same time is also a very effective method of expanding your vocabulary and improving listening comprehension. I hope you enjoy the short story.

Welcome to German Chatter. I am Flemming, German coach at Natural Fluent German. This podcast is for you if you want to improve your listening comprehension, expand your vocabulary, get to know real everyday German and find out more about Germany. You can find the transcripts to read along at www.naturalfluentgerman.com. By the way, German chatter is also available on YouTube. And now have fun listening. Hello dear German learner, hello dear German learner, nice that you have tuned in again here at Deutsches Geplapper. And I don’t want to talk to you for too long before I start with the short story. I would just like to say one small thing again, and that is that I am very, very excited about the registrations for my language garden for fluent German. I have been able to take on many, many members who are now devoting themselves to their German and learning very, very intensively with my language garden and improving their German. And that makes me extremely happy. It’s just great to see that there are so many people who are really willing to improve their German. And if you haven’t managed to register for the language garden, then don’t worry. I will definitely open this language garden again in a few months so that you too have the chance to register there. Yes, otherwise, you might see it behind me. I have a different background. If you watch the episode on YouTube, it’s not the background you’re used to. But the podcast remains the one you are used to. I just moved out of my apartment, it was all very stressful, and so I’m in a new environment now. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this short story. I already said, you can just use the transcript, read along as you go, it will definitely help you get a better understanding of the content. And then you should listen to this episode and this short story at least three times. The more, the better the sentence structures and new vocabulary are memorized. Write down everything, all vocabulary, all parts of sentences, all groups of words that you don’t know, so that you can repeat them regularly. Well, otherwise I’ll start with the short story. Have fun! Just get out of here.

Lisa sat silently in front of her desk and stared blankly out the window. It was a lovely afternoon. Warm, sunny, the birds were singing their songs and the leaves of the oak tree that stood outside her window in the yard rustled in the gentle summer breeze. On days like this, Lisa usually didn’t stay in the apartment, but went outside to capture life. But today they didn’t care about the weather or the people passing by on the street below. She didn’t want to know anything about it, didn’t want to see or hear anyone. She just wanted to get away from them. Away from this city where she felt like a prisoner. Crammed in between walls and concrete and nothing but concrete. He had promised her, her friend. Simon wanted to move to the country with her. Somewhere where she would step out the front door in the morning and see meadows and forests. That’s how he pictured it for her. Lisa had been looking forward to this day, longing for it. Now that she thought about it, the morning view from the terrace was the only thing that kept her going in the hell of rocks and wheels and smog that had been her home for the past two years. “How could people voluntarily spend their entire lives here?” she asked herself. But Simon had promised her that everything would change soon. Yes, he did. And yet nothing had changed except his promise. “Lisa, you have to understand me. I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for three years and now it’s finally here. I can’t move away now. Not now that my career is really taking off. Let’s stay here for a few more years. There’s also a lot more going on here. You can do something here every day.” He’d said that after telling her about his promotion. She was happy for him and immediately asked him if the daily driving wouldn’t annoy him. He would have to drive more than an hour every day from their new apartment, which they had looked at last week. She had been perfect. Spacious and quiet, not far from a small lake, but from the industrial landscape further north. Lisa had already seen herself jogging the few kilometers to the lake every morning in the summer, then taking off her sweat-soaked clothes and diving into the refreshing water, into the life she wanted so much. She was very excited for days and had even started packing a moving box with all sorts of small items, even though she knew that the move wouldn’t take place for two months at the earliest. Everything had already been clarified with the landlord. The rental agreement was now on the desk in front of Lisa. She had already signed it. She couldn’t wait to finally feel free again, like between the firs and spruces and small streams of her Polish homeland, which she had left for him. to move to Gelsenkirchen. Gelsenkirchen, a chapter of her life that she had already mentally closed.
And now this bastard told her that she had to understand him. He even cracked a stupid joke in response to her question. “Driving? You mean the few minutes of cycling through the city center?” At that moment she hated him and his stupid grin. That grin that stole her future and trapped her in a corset she had let him put on her in the hope that he would be the one to take it off her again one day. The argument that followed was terrible and lasted forever. Outside, the seasons passed by the window. Finally he was gone. The door behind him slammed shut with a loud bang as he left the apartment. Lisa was left alone. Alone with her resentment, her questions, her despair. And now she sat there, not knowing what to do with her feelings, with a small stack of papers in front of her that could be her ticket to a new world. But she knew deep down that Simon wouldn’t give an inch. She knew him too well, his stubbornness, his egoism. She loved him for other qualities. She had gotten used to the fact that she had to take a step back from time to time in the relationship. Mostly it was about trivial things. But this time his stubbornness stood in the way of her happiness in life. And she didn’t want to, she couldn’t, accept any compromises. Because who knew what cards life would deal her in a few years? Simon had once broken his promise. He could do it again if he got enough out of it.
“No compromises, not this time,” Lisa whispered into the silence. And immediately she felt her stomach tighten. Because she was sure that Simon wouldn’t sign the rental agreement, there were only two options. Either she stayed with him, in this city she hated so much, continued to deny herself and live a life beyond everything she had ever wanted, or she left him to live her own life, not to give up Waiting for someone with whom she might eventually be happy. She felt her chin tremble as she exhaled and tears welled up in her eyes again. And then she remembered something she’d learned from one of the audio books she’d been listening to for several months. One of those self-help guides that she hoped would provide answers to questions that she wasn’t yet able to formulate herself. “During periods of inner turmoil, deep sadness, anger, and emotional chaos, close your eyes and take several deep breaths in and out while focusing only on your breathing. The chaos will not be gone afterwards, but you will feel for a moment the mental clarity that, in the best case scenario, allows you to see things as they are. And every decision you have to make in this moment will be less at the mercy of your fleeting emotions.” So Lisa closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. On, off, on, off. She actually calmed down, feeling the tightness beneath her stomach slowly easing. A few more breaths and then she saw herself, clear and distinct. Without Simon. Her life independent and free from all constraints and expectations that cut her off from her true self, that plowed through her mind and left nothing but uncertainty and disorder. Free from all the compromises that squeezed her until there was nothing left of her but a crumpled shell with no will of its own that acquiesced. She saw Lisa, free to go wherever she wanted. Free to fill her shell with life again and with the desire for it, with the energy that was violently strangled by her current life and that once made her the person she always wanted to be and would be again, that’s what she swore to herself at this moment. She would leave Simon in pain, but that pain would free something inside her that her desire for shared happiness had locked away for far too long: herself.

That’s the short story for today, dear people. I hope you liked it. There were some more complex sentence structures in this short story. There were definitely some difficult expressions, but in principle, I think all of this is clear in context and as I said, if you didn’t quite get along here, then use the transcript so that you really understand everything and especially through this written German, which in many cases is simply much more sophisticated and also contains more complex vocabulary, you have the chance, if you are already at a high level, to significantly expand your vocabulary. Because what you simply hear and get to know in podcasts, in conversations, in everyday life is always spoken German. Of course, we have a significantly smaller vocabulary in spoken German because we more or less always say the same things. In the written area, this vocabulary is much larger and you always have the chance to expand your vocabulary. So use stories like these and also use written German to develop yourself further. That’s all for today. There will definitely be another guest next week. This will be a very, very exciting episode because I will announce a little news there that will also help you to improve your listening comprehension and vocabulary in particular. So stay tuned, tune in next week. And if you want to help me, if you say that this podcast has been helping you for a long time and that you always learn something new here, you can return the favor a little bit, you can definitely tell all the people who are also learning German about it, that this podcast is good, that you like it if you like it. You can leave a rating, five stars, a like, a comment, whether on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes or anywhere there are podcasts. Yes, and then you can definitely always follow my podcast by subscribing to my podcast on YouTube or on Spotify. That would definitely help me make this podcast even more popular. Thank you very much for your support, then have a great week, continue learning German diligently, be sure to listen to this short story several times in order to absorb the content and memorize new words and phrases and then I look forward to seeing you again next week you’re there. See you soon, take care, ciao, ciao!