You usually use the present perfect for the past, so if I saw you yesterday I might say ‘ich habe Maria gestern gesehen’, which is why German people often say things like ‘I have seen Maria yesterday’ in English. There is a version of the simple past, but nobody uses it much. There’s also something about ‘gewesen’ which I completely avoid because it does my head in.
I was confused with Sein’s past participle gewesen also, when to use it.
When I was saying ‘I was in Berlin’ I would have said Ich bin in Berlin gewesen’ or I went to Berlin, ich bin nach Berlin gegangan, my tutor said no ’ in Germany they say ‘Ich war in Berlin’ or ich ging nach Berlin. She said they don’t use the past participle gewesen with sein and haben much.
Then she said, ignore the präteritum for now and concentrate on Perfekt! 
I agree with your tutor. I get by without ever using ‘gewesen’. I’d say ‘ich war in Hamburg’ for I was in Hamburg. ‘Ich ging’ or ‘ich bin gegangen’ both seem ok to me, but I’m not a native speaker and I have only had one month of lessons. All the German I know is what I’ve picked up over the years. It’s not really accurate, but I can get by in almost any situation.
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What’s the healthcare system in Germany like? I met a person who complained that it takes a long time to get an appointment and the doctors don’t pay attention to the patients.
It’s mixed. I still can’t find a decent GP, bit I do have a couple of good specialists. There’s a two tier system of public and private health insurance, with a private insurance waiting times are no problem, but with public insurance it can be an issue.
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Both are correct and are used.
You wouldn’t use ‘gehen’ for a simple visit to a city though, unless you go by foot or intend to stay there for a long time.
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Your tutor is correct though in saying that for most purposes in normal conversation you should focus on Perfekt, as generally speaking Präteritum has more of a literary/narrative ring to it.
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You thinking of leaving our shores @Maria - sad day if you are
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It’s been around 25 - 30° every day for a couple of weeks now.
Just saying…
Not really, maybe have a year’s experience, that is it. It started off as a challenge when Covid happened. I wanted to do something worthwhile instead of watching Netfix all the time, when i was in isolation at home. Couldn’t go to work.
I stopped for a year after mum, now i feel can’t give up now. If i can get to B1 level, I will have achieved something.
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You can now watch the German boxsets on Netflix eh :0)
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I am also learning Turkish 
. I watch too much Turkish tv Soap 
. I seem to pick it up faster than German There are similar terms and words used in my language which are the same in Turkish.
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What language is that?
Pashto.
They also have some words which mean the same or a slightly different context and they are used in urdu, which i know abit of.
From bits i understand in the dialogue, Turkish sentence structure have prefixes aand suffixes.
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An Indian-Scottish friend of mine pointed out the relationship of some words in Urdu (and Punjabi) to Western European ones. Specifically, he said that “bread” was related to the Urdu “roti” but he never made the connection until he learned German: roti-brot-bread.
I’m not sure whether that is the official connection but it is interesting how all the Indo-European language have shared elements.
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It is funny, when you try to translate literally in English, the meaning is hilarious, we also use alot of metaphors when describing things and people. The translations in some of these shows seem to be done by teenagers as they use alot colloquial terms which is hilarious.
For example, when you say to a little child in a term of endearment way “ya qurban” when you translate into english, it means "my sacrifice"
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Hi Fellow Deutschers,
Is it just me, or have things slipped a lot in the last five years or so?
Berlin has always been full of Baustellen, but these days it’s very rare to make a journey around the city that isn’t interrupted, diverted or delayed. The airport is a total shambles, and yesterday we were seeing a visitor off from Hauptbahnhof, his train was 45 minutes late, the one after it was an hour late, and we heard numerous announcements about delays and cancellations. My bank has no staff, getting a doctor’s appointment takes forever, and they are incompetent when you finally see them.
Punctuality and efficiency have always been stereotypes about this country, but now blundering incompetence seems to be the norm.
Anyone else notice this, or is it just a Berlin thing?
I’ve not particularly noticed it but we do live rurally. There is a huge demand locally for younger workers and my wife is constantly being pestered to take extra nursing shifts. I think the paediatric nursing that she does is particularly short of qualified workers although they have taken on some Ukrainian staff to fill gaps.
I haven’t had any particular problems with doctor’s appointments. Having any work done on the house has a long lead time but they are pretty efficient once started.
As far as the public transport goes, I don’t think we have noticed problems locally and my son gets around Bremen quite happily on the trams.
I was back in Scotland last week and some places look a mess. Falkirk in particularly seems to have collapsed as a retail centre. It was quite depressing.
Ah the good old days before privatisation … 
Sir Humphrey Appleby on the Proper Function of Government
Interesting. Obviously the staff shortages are a global phenomenon, and Berlin is always more chaotic than Germany as a whole, but I am away a lot, and particularly this time, I noticed this on my return. I’d been in the North of England, so it wasn’t as if I was comparing with somewhere particularly well run.
It feels as if the solid dependability of this country is no longer as stable as before.
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