Ebook German Short Stories for Beginners 20 Captivating Short Stories to Learn German Grow Your Vocabulary the Fun Way! Easy German Stories Audible Audio Edition Lingo Mastery Kai Powalla Books

Product details Audible Audiobook Listening Length 6 hours and 29 minutes Program Type Audiobook Version Unabridged Publisher Lingo Mastery Audible.com Release Date March 9, 2019 Language German, German ASIN B07PGLCHXZ

German Short Stories for Beginners 20 Captivating Short Stories to Learn German Grow Your Vocabulary the Fun Way! Easy German Stories Audible Audio Edition Lingo Mastery Kai Powalla Books Reviews

• There is a LOT in this book but I believe it not for beginners (which IS after all, part of the title).
  
  PROS
  
  Each story (chapter) has this format, which I like
  
  a. The story (with certain words in bold)
  b. German summary
  c. English summary
  d. Vocabulary (translation of words shown in bold in story)
  e Questions about the story (5 questions with multiple choice answers) - good to check story understanding
  f. Answers (to the 5 questions about the story)
  
  The stories are highly creative and cover many topics such as household disagreements. pets, travel, online dating, unusual situations, etc.
  
  Many words are shown in bold within each story and they are shown in a Vocabulary List following the summaries.
  
  I love the 2 summaries. The first is in German which makes you struggle in a nice way, then the second summary is in English, which is very helpful when you can’t (like me) figure out all the German.
  
  Questions about each story are shown after the Vocabulary List and they are a nice touch for checking your understanding of the story.
  
  CONS
  
  Each story was supposed to cover a particular tool of German, but did not do so, as far as I could tell. There was no indication as to which story covered verbs, pronouns, nouns, etc.
  
  For a beginner, I believe most stories are too long with too many vocabulary words shown in bold (Chapter 20 has about 65 words in the Vocabulary List).
  
  ”Repetitio est mater studiorum” is a Latin phrase (something I remember from 4 years of Latin) which means “Repetition is the mother of learning” but, unfortunately, I find that there is NOT enough repetition in this book.
  
  New words are fine, but most bold words are just used a SINGLE time in the story, so you can’t figure out the meaning of most of them by their context. I’d prefer shorter stories with fewer vocabulary words used MANY times within the story.
  
  CONCLUSION
  
  While this book has a lot to offer a higher level German learner it is, in my opinion, NOT for beginners (otherwise, I would have rated it higher). I do not believe I am a German beginner, having done 4 Pimsleur German Courses, a Michel Thomas (much shorter) German Course, 3 years of DuoLingo and having gone through various grammar books, etc., and I speak several languages to a fair extent.
  
  OK, I like to read a story and enjoy it, but having too many (mostly new) words in bold within a single chapter is not fun for me, which is why I have only done a few chapters (out of 20) so far.
  
  However, some highly motivated (not me) beginners may may enjoy the challenges this book provides.
• This book is a great supplement to any German language course and/or anyone learning on their own. Its layout is great story, summary, translation, vocab. Super helpful material to let you see the language in a contextual way rather than a boring textbook with no context or explanation. Really helped me learn how to read the language and understand the sentence structure in a natural way that rivals what you learn in school
• Customer WILLIAM G. CALLAWAY Review OF GERMAN SHORT STORIES FOR BEGINNERS purchased 23 Feb 2019 is set forth herein. Overall Rating is 4 of 5 stars is based on book's 5 star outstanding FORMAT, Q & A. Excellent rating of 4 stars reflect's customer--not author- limitations understanding multiple phrases and unfamiliar words. Excellent 4 star ratings are shown below.
  a. Useful story topics/4
  b. German summary/4
  c. English summary/4
  d. Translation of words shown in bold (Vocabulary)/5
  e. Questions check story understanding./5
  f. Answers for questions about key story content./5
  
  Areas to improve I did not understand which story explained verbs, pronouns, & nouns. Shorten length of stories. For instance 65 words were in shown in bold for Chapter 20.
• Excellent book for everyone who has a desire to learn German. I find it easy and fun to read. It suits me fine even for night hours when I am already tired. It is structured in a good way, so you are really left with new knowledge after spending some time reading.
• My grandson is taking German in high school, and he enjoyed reading this book to practice what he had learned in class.
• These are super helpful--they're just at the right level for me and help me get a better understanding of sentence structure in a mostly organic way instead of just memorizing out of grammar books. Highly recommend!
• This is exactly the kind of resource beginner students want. It's probably best for students with 1/2 or 1 years of formal German instruction, depending on how challenging you want the experience to be. If you have B1 understanding the vocabulary targets and sentence complexity will probably feel just right. The stories aren't incredibly fascinating, but they are of a good size to read for simple practice and they are no better or worse than any other language-learning stories. They are a little less noxious than reading children's books and if you need this resource, you're not ready for adult fiction, so of course the stories read like a primer, that's the point. The topics are practical and oriented toward what you might discuss in real life -- for example, the first story has housework vocabulary -- which is a lot more helpful than stories for 6 year olds!
  
  In the e-book version, the format is perfect. You get a story with a good amount of white-space in the pages so the bolded vocabulary words don't clutter up the page and become a distraction. It may sound like a silly detail, but the eyes slip easily down the story, and if you're already tired while studying, this matters. The stories are followed by a summary in your target language and native language, vocabulary list, and multiple choice questions. It's obviously not a stand-alone course of study, but it's a good tool to increase your immersion in the language when your level of understanding is still too low to replace your regular media consumption with the target language, and the supplemental comprehension tools are very helpful without becoming too close to a textbook.