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How hard is it to read Hermann Hesse book | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Syed Bilingual Diglot Newbie Pakistan Joined 4613 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English*, Urdu* | Message 1 of 14 17 May 2012 at 1:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi,
I have just started learning German (Pimsleur lvl 1 near end) and was wondering will I be able to read Hermann Hesse in German after completed 4lvls of Pimsleur? Would appreciate some feedback. Thanks 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kyle Corrie Senior Member United States Joined 4820 days ago 175 posts - 464 votes  | Message 2 of 14 17 May 2012 at 2:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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You're asking if after approximately 50 or so hours of study you're going to be able to
understand the breadth of a German Nobel laureate's ability in his native tongue? Is that correct? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5822 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 14 17 May 2012 at 2:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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After completing Pimsleur you'll be lucky if you get the gist of a Harry Potter novel.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Syed Bilingual Diglot Newbie Pakistan Joined 4613 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English*, Urdu* | Message 4 of 14 17 May 2012 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | ||
:) nops, just trying to figure out the level of fluency required to read Herr Hesse. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6142 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 5 of 14 17 May 2012 at 3:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think a Harry Potter novel would be much harder. I read Siddhartha in English a long time ago. The language used is very simple. Take a look at the original German version of Siddhartha. I've never studied German and I can decipher the gist of each paragraph. The four levels of Pimsleur won't take you beyond A2, but you could still give this novel a shot. Edited by DaraghM on 17 May 2012 at 3:30pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4679 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 6 of 14 17 May 2012 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hmm. I think it's a fair question from the OP, but something seems a bit off asking whether an audio-only course will teach you how to read.
My advice: get a free copy online from gutenberg.org, and try going through it. If you're understanding at least a bit of it and enjoying it, keep going. If not, find something else to work on and come back to Hesse later. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Rameau Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6098 days ago 149 posts - 258 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanC1, Danish Studies: Swedish, French, Icelandic | Message 7 of 14 18 May 2012 at 3:20am | IP Logged | ||
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As far as what are usually regarded as the world-class German writers are concerned, Hesse is definitely one of the easier ones (I believe Unterm Rad was my first bit of non-children's, non-popular literature in German, and I don't recall it giving me any serious difficulties). There will be the occasional literary or less common word, of course, but nothing all too incredibly obscure, and the his sentence structure, above all, is fairly straightforward. An while thematically, I've got to admit he's not really my cup of tea, the writing itself can actually be quite beautiful, which makes it feel a rewarding choice for one's first more serious book in German, as it allows one to truly see just what sort of things can be done with the language, making it feel a good deal more "alive" as a medium of expression, so to speak.
I'd still wait until I were a little farther than Pimsleur, though, and probably try tackling a few simper works first--you'll get far, far more out of it if you don't try to get too far ahead of yourself. Edited by Rameau on 18 May 2012 at 2:19pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6428 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 8 of 14 18 May 2012 at 6:43am | IP Logged | ||
If that's true, that's pretty impressive. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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