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Help with German please

  Tags: German
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
15 messages over 2 pages: 1
anime
Triglot
Senior Member
Sweden
Joined 6361 days ago

161 posts - 207 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Portuguese, French, Russian

 
 Message 9 of 15
22 August 2013 at 8:02am | IP Logged 
There's no doubt though that books contain more "bang for the buck" especially if you're short on cash like I
am. A good idea is probably to start with an autobiography or similar about a person or subject you're already
familiar with and interested in.

I've studied my fair share of languages at the University and normally in the beginning they focus on watered
down "easy read"-versions of works by the "Great Authors" etc, in French it was like Cyrano de Bergerac and
such. Not only do I find these incredibly boring most of the time, but I also don't like this artificial type of
watered down text for beginners.
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patrickwilken
Senior Member
Germany
radiant-flux.net
Joined 4534 days ago

1546 posts - 3200 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 10 of 15
22 August 2013 at 10:11am | IP Logged 
I started reading German books on a Kindle when I was high-A2/low-B1. The Collins German/English dictionary (8 Euros) works very well with it. At first it can be a bit of a hard slog, but after a few hundred pages it gets much easier to read. I would recommend books aimed more for teenagers as they tend to have a simpler syntax (so Hunger Games or the Harry Potter series - HP is a bit easier - Game of Thrones is also relatively easy).

There are lots of comics and graphic novels in German if that's what you want. I personally find these harder to read than e-books, as you don't have a pop-up dictionary at hand, but I know some people swear by them.

Deutche Welle has a lot of free resources for German language learners at all levels so you should definitely check them out.

Edited by patrickwilken on 22 August 2013 at 10:12am

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anime
Triglot
Senior Member
Sweden
Joined 6361 days ago

161 posts - 207 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Portuguese, French, Russian

 
 Message 11 of 15
22 August 2013 at 10:39am | IP Logged 
I would read everything online, it will save you a lot of money, unfortunately I don't find it very relaxing to be in
front of a computer screen all the time, especially at night before sleeping

Harry Potter is a good suggestion, I think I will try that first for German

Edited by anime on 22 August 2013 at 10:40am

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Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
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3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 12 of 15
22 August 2013 at 12:27pm | IP Logged 
Than invest in a Kindle. You can put your ebooks there and the screen was specifically developed to imitate paper (unlike computer screens) so that the eyes wouldn't hurt. My boyfriend got one and it is realy comfortable.
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anime
Triglot
Senior Member
Sweden
Joined 6361 days ago

161 posts - 207 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Portuguese, French, Russian

 
 Message 13 of 15
22 August 2013 at 3:14pm | IP Logged 
Sounds cool, do you have one? Can you put your own pdf files on there you think?
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Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5010 days ago

3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 14 of 15
22 August 2013 at 5:22pm | IP Logged 
I don't have one, I've got ipad. I can still cary many books with me in it and it's great in many ways. But the display is a classical one and therefore not that comfortable for the eyes. But I spent some time with my boyfriend's kindle and it is awesome. It feels nearly like reading paper, I can get lost in a book similarily to a paper one for ours without realizing I am not holding paper and without my eyes or head aching. It doesn't support pdf but most ebook formats can be either transfered right away or very easily converted to the kindle ones.
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patrickwilken
Senior Member
Germany
radiant-flux.net
Joined 4534 days ago

1546 posts - 3200 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 15 of 15
22 August 2013 at 5:25pm | IP Logged 
anime wrote:
Sounds cool, do you have one? Can you put your own pdf files on there you think?


You can look at PDF files on a Kindle, but I find it too difficult to read.

My old Kindle recently broke and I bought the Kindle 5 e-ink (not the PaperWhite) for about 60 Euros. It works really well, and it's probably a bit easier to look up words using an in built dictionary.

Calibre is free software that allows you to store and convert across different ebook formats. So if you have books in, say, EPUB format, you can use Calibre to convert them to MOBI format for the Kindle.


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