Short Stories in German for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn German the fun way! (Foreign Language Graded Reader Series)

Purchased for a friend who is also beginning German language. I sneaked a look inside and realised that I was just about OK with the content. I have been doing online German sessions with a familiar language programme for about three days and reached A2 standard (but it doesn't feel like it to me!). The content I read was short but not simple, and the stories just complex enough to challenge me to read it with some flow. If I had had this book a year ago I would have found it about right. (So I got the next book up in the line, Intermediate German: and that is about right for me.) My friend was pleased to see the Beginners Book, and I am confident I might be able to help them out if they need it. This one I think is right for Beginers and I recommend it.

Easy to understand and read

I just wanted to practise my german as I lived there for a few years. The stories are actually entertaining and you can probably work out most of it without resorting to a dictionary. Read it it's fun!

A must have for starting your German learning journey. You’ll find yourself slowly reading and understanding sentences more fluidly. It only has a few English words in the entire book which stops you from translating

I think this book will help me to learn German

Have just taken up learning German again 30 years after doing my A-Level. Whilst I have remembered much, I've also forgotten a lot of the basics, so this book was a real asset. The stories are all 3 chapters long, each chapter between 3 and 6 pages (they get longer through the course of the book). All the stories are fairly simplistic (people getting lost, hiking, travelling, pirates, vikings etc.) but that's not the point - its the ease of reading them and remembering things that counts. There are highlighted words with a matching vocab list at the end of each chapter. The recommendation to read each chapter through once without trying to battle with every word, then read a second time and use the vocab if necessary, is good advice. Also, many words are repeated frequently, which helps with memorising new vocab. For me, I noticed a fundamental shift in my reading about halfway through the book: I stopped translating everything into English in my head when I was reading and just read the German text and immediately understood it and kept reading. It was a lightbulb moment when I realised what I was doing. Very easy to just read a chapter or two before bed. Strongly recommend this book to those with some German knowledge but looking for noticeable improvement over a short period.

Just bought and downloaded Short Stories in German. So far has a quick read of first story. A year ago I bought Short Stories in Dutch. The first story is the same as the German one except a few details like e.g. Amsterdam is substituted for Cologne . I'm not sure how it will help or hinder my learning of German or Dutch , but this is worth pointing out to multi language learners. Overall these books seem impenetrable at first but give a good sense of achievement when you begin to understand the story without grinding through other language learning media and defiantly way quicker method than Duolingo.

I quite like the stories, but it's rather sad for a book that's aimed at learners to contain so many mistakes. I only noticed them while following along with the audio...

This has been very helpful for me as I learn German. It feels natural to work through, like the books you’d read for class growing up. I was surprised following the instruction on the use of this book lead to me catching on even quicker. A great learning tool, plus the stories are neat! So it’s entertaining and keeps your attention

Storie interessanti ed avvincenti, anche se in alcuni punti sembrano mal costruite. Comunque è un ottimo prodotto per chi, conoscendo abbastanza la grammatica, vuole prendere maggiore confidenza con la lingua tedesca e aumentare il proprio vocabulary. Ho trovato anche molto pratica la suddivisione di ogni storia in 3 brevi capitoli così da affrontarle in maniera più leggera (stiamo pur sempre parlando di una lingua ostica come il tedesco, eh!)

Nada más he leído una historia, pero me gustó mucho el formato en Kindle porque si es fácil remitirme al diccionario que viene incluido. No viene la traducción de todas las palabras, pero en general es un buen libro que mezcla una gramática clara con una lectura fluida. No tendría demasiado expectativa con respecto al contenido de las historias, pero si me parece bien con respecto a su precio y su utilidad.

Again, great service!

Great book. Recommend it.