Berlin

This bustling capital city is a contradiction in and of itself. It has a wealth of waterways, many museums, excellent eateries, larger than life clubs that seem to never close, and it's brimming with history due to its significance in both WW2 and The Cold War. They say New York never sleeps, but this spectacular place gives my pretty gritty city a run for its money. So grab a frothy beer and a curry wurst and let's get going! Hey, what's the worst that could happen? Join me as me ramble around Berlin on this week's episode of FYI! 

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[Music] this bustling capital city is a contradiction in and of itself it has a wealth of waterways many museums excellent eateries Larger than Life clubs that seem to never close and it's brimming with history due to its significance in both World War II and the Cold War they say New York never sleeps but this spectacular place gives my pretty gritty City a run for its money so grab a frothy beer and a curry worst and let's get going hey what's the worst that could happen all free men wherever they may live are citizens of Berlin and therefore as a free man I take pride in the words[Music] ish join me as we ramble around Berlin on this week's episode of[Music] FYI welcome to for your info engl you got it you got it[Applause][Music][Applause][Music] hello hello hello and welcome to this another exciting edition of FYI thank you so much for listening to this podcast and for learning with me and by the way if you love learning English then you'll love learning with me on my radio program it's a daily radio program called the show with no name and it's on Von radio plus I have five books with tons of content audio and video they are chock full of all the content you need to help you not just learn English but enjoy the learning process before we get started I'm going to play a little clip from one of my books this is from my latest book this book is the [ __ ] and you'll see that there are QR codes in the book so when the ending the s iix AG G comes up in the book then you scan your QR code and it will take you to this video and in this video we'll look at that ending and how to pronounce it do you know how to pronounce the word bridge then you know how to pronounce Village language let's listen to the audio from my latest book this book is the[Music][ __ ] Alber language age age what's your age bridge bridge language on bridge bridge language wow P package package no package package package[Laughter] package Village Village village Village baggage or lug or luggage okay Advantage Advantage bridge if we cross the bridge we have an advantage have an advantage re chicken oh I'm sorry I'm sorry H cabbage cabbage cabbage cabbage cabbage Cabbage Patch kidsage pale kits yeah garbage pale were the cabage patch is to is to manage manage manage manager manage manage I managed to make a bridge nice job you can pick up my book wherever f books are sold as we say and as always when you look at a certain sound or an exercise come up with your own examples as well all right so let's get going Bongos Mara we are going to Berlin in today's episode have you guys been to Berlin it is an amazing City full of contradictions I mean you got to remember it used to be East Berlin and West Berlin and you can tell even in the arc Ure but we'll get into its contrasts later on it has a wealth of waterways as we'll see many museums excellent eateries this is another way to say restaurants for all you Foodies out there and Larger than Life clubs their night life is off the hook or off the chain as we say and they have clubs that never close well almost never but we'll get into that a little bit later on I also said it's brimming with history and to be brimming is to be full of and that's due to its significance in both World War II and the Cold War and a lot of times they talk about New York being the city that never sleeps well I beg to differ I think Berlin gives it a run for its money as I said and that means it gives it some strong competition these are some really good expression s in the intro jot them down if you weren't familiar with them and more importantly try and put it into practice think of an example in your life think of some elections or something or a time when the underdog almost beat the big guy the typical David and Goliath Story the example I can think of is Real Madrid is obviously a bigger team and Al media is not such a big team but when Alia play against Real Madrid they really give them a run for their money they don't make it easy and many of my students have heard me refer to New York as the pretty gritty City pretty obviously is lovely beautiful but also gritty is dirty but it's this kind of dirt that means experience it's a really rich word and from there we can get the noun grit there's even a movie called True Grit then I said grab a froy beer I I love frothy beers why well I love the beer mustache especially on a hot day and if you've got a pretzel to boot life is good I love pretzels and we're going to talk a lot about German food today especially the best German dish ever now it's got an Indian influence it's called Curry worst I didn't try it in Berlin in fact I tried it for the first time in Frankfurt but it it is absolutely delicious and there are all different kinds of Curry flavors there are different levels of spiciness you must try a curry worst if you're in town it's basically sausages in curry it's absolutely delicious I still dream of Curry worst and then did you catch my joke I said hey what's the Worst That Could Happen Curry worst what's the worst that could happen I know I know I won't quit my day job so are you ready to join me as we ramble around Berlin and to ramble is to walk around you know me I like to use synonyms so you can learn lots of exciting words in every intro now this isn't my advice but you could technically listen to the intro and learn 10 to 20 words a week words and idiomatic expressions but then you'll miss the rest of the episode now did you hear that voice in there who was that did you recognize him did the voice ring a bell it's John F Kennedy JFK and he went to Berlin and gave a speech and it's a famous speech but it's also an Infamous speech because he uttered the phrase Bina and a lot of people said that he said that he's a donut instead of a citizen of Berlin but I looked in into this and it turns out it's an urban legend this Legend emerged a couple decades after JFK made this speech and it's not true that the residents of Berlin in 1963 would have understood the word Berliner to refer to a jelly donut or that the audience would laugh at Kennedy's use of this expression and supposedly a donut is called a panin I don't know if I said it correctly but it's literally pancake and the third thing that makes that a misconception is that the word Berliner is only really used outside of Berlin to refer to this dut which by the way is anybody getting hungry yet Curry worst Donuts frothy beer oh by the way we've got an episode on beer and on Donuts I wouldn't recommend mixing the two should we do an episode on Curry worst my mouth is watering already so that's a famous line that Kennedy saidina with his Massachusetts accent let's take a look at the Edy where does the word Berlin come from well it has its roots in the language hey there's that AG G ning the language of the West slaves and the word comes from the word Burl which means swamp I think you say theena because the city is built on a swamp and I guess that's why there's water everywhere and the fun facts I have for you today are going to blow your mind but we'll get to that Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany both by area and population it has more than 3.85 million inhabitants which makes it the European Union's most populous city this is if you measure it by population within City limits Berlin is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg we'll talk about the Brandenburg gate later when we talk about the Berlin Wall the urban area of Berlin has a population of over 4.5 million so there are about a million people who live on the outskirts which don't think that's a bad thing it's a very Green City they say it's the greenest city in Europe Berlin was built along the banks of the Spree river which flows into the havl in the western burrow of spanda and this is absolutely amazing about onethird of the city's area is composed of forests parks and Gardens Rivers canals and lakes hey that sounds like it's right up my alley it has a whopping 180 km of navigable waterways here's a fun in fact it has more bridges than Venice and 44% of the city is waterways that's more than Venice or Amsterdam and all the forests and Parks make it the greenest city in Europe and if you want more fun facts like that we'll take a look at them in the bonus episode just remember every week There's a bonus episode with fun facts idiomatic expressions and much more in this week's bonus episode we'll take a look at some of the sites we'll take a look at the Berlin wall and the falling of the Berlin wall and the cool concert that took place there we'll talk about the city's Night Life we'll talk about fun facts and we'll look at Germanic words in English all that and much more in the bonus episode and if you want access to the bonus episode every week all you have to do is join us over on patreon.com Alberto Alonso if if you're in our group you can get the bonus episode every week you can get PDF documents and you can even get classes with me we have weekly group classes and monthly private classes if you want more information go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso and you can talk to any of my patrons they're all making progress and I'm proud of each and every one of them so a shout out to all of you is especially my super duper students Mara Javier and Paco and my Interstellar students Carin Lena Issa Paco David Jose Maria Patricio and Edgard if you want to join us go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso we're expecting you let's rewind here we are back in the 13th century this is when this city was first documented it was at the Crossing of two important historic trade routes at that time Berlin was designated the capital of the magri ofit of Brandenburg that was from 1417 to 1701 then it was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia that was from 1701 to 1918 from 1871 to 1918 it was also the capital of the German Empire from 1919 to 1933 it was the capital of the viar Republic I think everybody knows what it was the capital of between 1933 and 1945 Nazi Germany naturally it has also served and continues to serve as a scientific artistic and philosophical Hub it's not only a very big city now but it was big during the age of Enlightenment during neoclassicism and also during the German revolutions during a period called the grite which reminds me of the word gazuntite it's a word we say after people sneeze well this was a period where there was an industrialization which triggered an economic boom which obviously triggered rapid population increases and by the 1920s Berlin was the third largest city in the world by population so it's always been a very important city I mean also look at where it is on the globe what about its economy well the economy of Berlin is based on high-tech and the service sector there are also creative Industries there are a lot of startup companies there's a lot of research done and also media corporations it's also a continental hub for air and rail traffic and we're going to talk about their very controversial airport in the bonus episode but the public transport there is amazing and I guess all of these things make Berlin a very popular Global destination I've been to many German cities I've been to Frankfurt I've been to Hamburg but the one I wanted to go to the most and I wouldn't rest until it was checked off my list was Berlin and it didn't let me down Not For a Moment and it was so easy to get around I felt like the transport system got you wherever you needed to go quickly and efficiently and here's another fun fact Berlin's transport system is so long that it actually travels around the planet Earth 8.7 times every day and if you add another 120 km of tram lines you have one of the most impressive public trans Transportation Systems in the world just by comparison Paris has 214 km of public transit and London 400 km so it's easy to get around this city 24/7 365 oh and speaking of something that's around 247 365 here's a top tip do you know the spottis I don't know if I'm pronouncing it correctly well these are late night stores that are all over Berlin Berlin is sprinkled with them there's nearly one on every corner and the concept started in East Germany and this was designed to cater to the needs of the late night workers the people who were working the late shift who couldn't get to the grocery store or the supermarket on time hey Supermarket there's another German word we'll take a look at more Germanic words that are used in English in the bonus episode so yeah these spotties were for the workers but now they're for people who are working naturally and on the night shift people who are coming back from the club or going to the club as we said they love their nigh life and you don't have to go home and I'll tell you why in the bonus part lots of exciting fun facts in the bonus Park guys but these spotties really caught on and now berliners can't imagine their life without them I remember I frequented them a lot when I was there you know your typical beer oh and I learned the hard way that hell beer doesn't mean that it's hardcore you know hell Inferno no hell in German means light I'll never forget I was in Frankfurt and I told my friend I got some hell beer he's like okay that's the light stuff I'm like oh really he's like yeah hell I'm like oh okay well now there there's a word I'll never forget in German there's another one that it reminds me of they say nine for no obviously n is a number in English so there are over a thousand of these spotties that you can find these late night convenience stores all over Berlin what do you need some aspirin some drinks don't worry they've got their own version of 7-Eleven but a lot more German and I'll tell you about my experiences in Berlin in the bonus episode as well if I can remember them I drank quite a lot of beer well hey when in Rome do as the Rome humans do right there's nothing like a cold one a brui after your sightseeing and enjoying some of the amazing sites and like Rome Berlin is a city where you don't even have to go to a museum you don't have to ever enter a building to see art or to see history all you have to do is walk around and explore because there's something around every corner and as I said before it's contrasting so depending on if you're in the Eastern part or the western part you'll feel like you're world's apart and that's awesome and you'll find that Variety in their food you'll find it in the Arts there and of course in Z beia they have their own beer of course they do Bina Viber I don't know if I'm pronouncing it correctly but this is a sour beer that is crafted from wheat and barley malt if you haven't listened to our episode on beer I explain all that either way if you're a patron you've got all this in the PDF documents but supposedly this beer is made with local ingredients which makes sense and it goes really well with the Local Foods and I'm drooling already we haven't even mentioned some of the foods there we mentioned the curry worst we mentioned pretzels but what about pork knuckle well you in Spanish you call it goo I love that stuff and the J Germans seem to love it as well well think about it all of that stuff goes well with beer also you've got sauerkraut in Spanish you call that chukut it's very popular when people have it on their sausages and you know the Germans love their sausages but did you know that they love them with curry hey they're Multicultural they're open-minded and that's another thing the city is so Multicultural there are people living there from every corner of of the globe but don't expect to get married there no way Jose according to the statistics I saw about half of the population is single and on purpose they say they look at marriage as something that ties you down so it seems like berliners are not in a rush to tie the knot which is different than other cities in Germany which are more traditional so Berlin even though it's the German Capital it's its own world World in and of itself as I said in the intro and if you've never been there I highly recommend it you can get some lowcost airfare there you can find some lodging pretty cheap especially if you go with a group of friends and you can share some lodging lodging or accommodations you can call it and even though the city's got some hoyy toyy restaurants it's also got some hidden Nooks that have amazing food and beer which is as cheap as chips as my British friends say as I said my mouth is watering right now in fact I think I'm going to crack a beer and get ready for the bonus episode why don't you crack one with me Amigos let's have a brew together as we discuss the sights of Berlin tons of fun facts and so much more in the bonus episode of this week's FY I[Applause][Music][Music]