Reddit reviews Learn German With Stories: Café in Berlin - 10 Short Stories For Beginners (Dino lernt Deutsch) (German Edition)
We found 8 Reddit comments about Learn German With Stories: Café in Berlin - 10 Short Stories For Beginners (Dino lernt Deutsch) (German Edition). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
I originally completed the first German tree almost exactly one year ago and decided in the last few months to make an effort to revisit the tree, seeing the new lessons/topics and attempt to regild everything. Like the last time I posted my shiny golden tree, I thought I'd do a small write-up of sorts just in case anybody would be interested in hearing what I think, along with some suggestions that could help other learners.
So since November I have actually been able to move to Germany! I came with the intention of staying for around a year, and with the primary intention of improving my German and joining a language course (I went for an integration course as it was a lot cheaper, I will be finished with B1 level soon but I feel in some regards a bit more advanced than this, with reading for example). So now I have had the experience of a real language course, I feel better placed to comment on Duo's effectiveness. People often say on here something along the lines of 'Duolingo will be able to take you somewhere around the A2 level, if you supplement yourself with other resources'. This of course largely depends on those other resources, but I find it very hard to believe it is anything more than high A1 level, possibly low A2 level in some things. The best thing Duo can do is improve your reading skills. I visited Germany before moving here for 3 weeks, and I was very surprised to see that I could understand most signs, newspaper headlines, restaurant signs, etc etc. but when I tried to listen to people on the street or tram, I was utterly clueless. Also, in terms of speaking, I was also extremely short. This is something that can only be improved outside of Duolingo, but I know this is easier said than done because I admittedly never sought this out alongside my own learning. Writing is a bit of a mixed skill, because when I was using Duolingo the first time, I noticed that I would be fine at writing the sentences on the website itself, but when it came to writing my own sentences, I found that I lacked the grammatical knowledge to help construct sentences. I think Duolingo could do a little bit more in that respect. Overall however, despite sounding like I am slating it a bit, I think Duolingo is a fantastic introductory resource, but must be used alongside other things!
Edit: One thing I forgot to mention.. The god damn abstract objects! No matter how much practice and memorisation I do with them words, I simply cannot remember them for more than a few hours at a time. They were by far the hardest part of the tree both last year and this year!
Okay I think I'm doing rambling for now. I know there are many resources around reddit, but here are a lit of my personal favourites that I used quite a lot. My personal favourite things are;
http://www.nthuleen.com/teach/grammar.html This website in general is incredible, but in particular the grammar worksheets are fantastic. They explain the topic in very simple terms (in English) and then tend to ease you in with simple exercises building up to harder exercises. It also has many 'answer sheets' so you can check your own work. It can be frustrating when you attempt the worksheets without knowing if you are correct or not, but I found that even practicising after reading the help was still a hugely useful exercise. You can attempt the sheets with just a notebook, but I found it best to physically print the sheets - but that's just me.
www.memrise.com I'm sure everyone knows this website as it is heavily recommended. It is excellent for vocabulary. Another option you could use is Anki. I personally found it a bit fiddly but I know a lot of people swear by it.
'Learn German with Stories' (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-German-Stories-Berlin-Beginners/dp/1492399493/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462113831&sr=8-1&keywords=berlin+cafe+stories) - This is incredible if you own a Kindle with a built in dictionary function. These books are written in extremely simple German, and are a great introduction to reading things fully in German. I think for this first book, anyone that is close to finishing the tree would have a good time with it. There are some words you won't understand, but once you look them up, or even work out what they mean by context, they become part of your vocabulary!
German music/film. This can be difficult as they are often quick, but just listening to things in the target language of German can be a huge help. If anyone would like any recommendations I can try my best.
http://slowgerman.com/ Another resource for listening comprehension is this website. It is essentially German news podcasts, but spoken slowly, and if I remember correctly, the handy app even gives you a transcript so you can follow along.
There are a few more things I could possibly recommend but I think that's enough for now, I am aware that this post is becoming long! If there are any other questions, don't hesitate to ask as I'd like to help, and sorry if this post is a bit of an unorganised mess!
Maybe a graded reader like Café in Berlin? Not free, but good materials can cost a couple bucks
https://www.amazon.com/Learn-German-Stories-Berlin-Beginners/dp/1492399493
Ich habe in meinem "Deutschkurs" dieses Buch gelesen:
https://www.amazon.de/Learn-German-Stories-Berlin-Beginners/dp/1492399493/
Das ist ziemlich einfach und ganz lustig geschrieben.
Hmm, yeah that's a bit trickier. Some ideas:
Not sure if any of these will be helpful - I wish I had something better to suggest! If only the world had more Assimil lol.
Edit: formatting and comment on last link.
This was perfect for me, for what you're describing. There's a bunch of these little books with different short stories in them.
I also like reading books I love in translated to German. I find novels I read as a teenager (so they're a bit easier, without being super young) really great to read in German, as I can use context to figure out any confusing bits.
Yes! As for books these one's have really helped me:
I know I have more but these are my favorites! As for movies/shows.. when I watch like youtube videos (try 'easy german') or kids shows I tend to watch them without subtitles. If I'm watching an adult movie/show I pretty much have to use subtitles otherwise I can't pick up anything. I usually put the subtitles in German though, because I read better than I listen!
Let me know if I can help you with anything else :)
Children's books might be helpful in a way. I think with just duolingo you might be able to start tackling stuff like "german learning" books.
https://www.amazon.com/Learn-German-Stories-Berlin-Beginners/dp/1492399493
I own that book and it's very slow/simple. He also makes "choose your own adventure" books which I think are more difficult. I own one but haven't gotten into it yet.
There was also a post recently that had a bunch of resources in it https://www.reddit.com/r/German/comments/4symbk/82_german_youtube_channels_to_practice_listening/