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A "German for reading" plan | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| nystagmatic Triglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4300 days ago 47 posts - 58 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, English, French Studies: German | Message 1 of 6 05 November 2013 at 1:49am | IP Logged | ||
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So things have been falling in strange ways these last couple of weeks and now I suddenly have to be able to read complex texts in German — literature and philosophy — as soon as possible, as well as attaining an overall B1-B2 level before December 2014.
I've been learning French since January, so I'm no stranger to self-study; but I'd like to see if you guys have any suggestions regarding this plan. My priorities are, in this order, reading > listening > writing = speaking. I'm thinking of beginning with Michel Thomas, then after the basic level doing Sandberg's German for Reading and April Wilson's German Quickly together. When I'm about halfway into them, which I hope will take me no more than a month, I'll start French-base Assimil (L'Allemand and Perfectionnement Allemand). I am also planning to L-R, at my own pace, Hesse's Siddhartha and Steppenwolf, Rilke's The Notebooks of Malte Laurids-Brigge, and maybe Bernhard's The Loser, though I figure that last one may be too nuts for L-R. :P I've also heard a lot of praise for the stuff in Deutsche Welle, but I'm not sure if it would be worth spending time with it on top of all I've got planned. What do you guys think? Anything to add, anything to swap, anything to delete, or should I wrap? Suggestions for easy reads would also be welcome. (In French, for instance, I've had luck with Pierre Hadot and, to a lesser extent, Albert Camus and Jules Verne.) Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4225 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 2 of 6 05 November 2013 at 12:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've no suggestion, but a question: is German for Reading really made in order help to actually read German texts with almost no knowledge of German at the beginning?
It's just because I asked a question on Russian forum, how to learn German for a reading-translating only. I got one answer: fight through old university textbooks for those who studies German professionally. I quickly realized that this was was impossible for me and forgot about it for a while. This while seems to be finishing right now... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nystagmatic Triglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4300 days ago 47 posts - 58 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, French Studies: German | Message 3 of 6 05 November 2013 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, you're in luck! I used French for Reading right after MT French and it's absolutely spectacular. It's a lot of work, but by the end — it will take you maybe 80-100 hours of study — you'll be able to read pretty much any academic text, with a dictionary.
German Quickly is aimed at the same purpose and also has a good fame, so I was thinking of using both (especially since German will be much harder than French for me, because French has loads of cognates with both English and Portuguese). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4819 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 4 of 6 05 November 2013 at 1:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd like to suggest trying some Theodor Fontane. "Effi Briest" is quite interesting. I
think the German text on Gutenberg is complete, and the audiobook on Librivox is mostly very good IMO. However, the English translation on Gutenberg is incomplete. I'd recommend getting the one translated by Helen Chambers and Hugh Rorrison. For audiobook versions of other Fontane novels, you might try looking around for commercial versions. There are some very good ones around. For 20th century writers there is Heinrich Böll, and there are English translations of the most popular titles. Günther Grass as well of course, although I think he's a bit more difficult. And someone I've recently discovered: Friedrich Dürrenmatt. I've been reading "Der Richter und sein Henker" and its sequel "Der Verdacht" recently. The German is not too difficult, and the stories are very interesting. .... Ah, I now realise I misread the first part of your post, and I now realise it's easy reads you want. Well, I think I'd start with "Graded Readers", if you can easily get hold of them. (You may be lucky with libraries). And I'd suggest Erich Kästner. I'm not sure if there are many translations of his work around, but there are certainly "Easy Reader" versions of some of his books, like "Emil und Die Detektive". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5660 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 6 05 November 2013 at 1:54pm | IP Logged | ||
I think you are being extremely ambitious there. I have been working through German for Reading for three months now, and it is an excellent book but I am still only part way through it, because it takes time for the material to sink in. Maybe rushing through it will work short-term (just like all "cramming" does), but for the material to really sink deeply into your brain takes longer. Of course, my own slow pace may be due to lack of brainpower and laziness on my part, and you may be a super-genius with infinite energy so my own caution may not apply to you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TehGarnt Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 4843 days ago 33 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 6 05 November 2013 at 3:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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For reading, be aware that the language has changed rather quickly over time in
vocabulary and some aspects of grammar, so reading slightly older works such as those by Hesse might not be the best preparation for modern German. If your task is to be able to read German from any epoch, well then, your task is harder. I don't know if there are forum rules about linking to businesses, but the British shop linked in this post has an excellent selection of dual-language German-English books. I found reading dual-language language versions of works from a specific author to be good preparation for unaccompanied reading of the author's other works. For instance, I was able to satisfactorily read "Der Prozess" after reading through a compilation of other work from Kafka a couple of times. As for what is easier - basically, the newer the easier. http://www.languages-direct.com/books/parallel-texts?languag e=3&p=3#.Unj8H3BUx8E Edited by TehGarnt on 05 November 2013 at 3:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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