"20 Captivating German Short Stories for Beginners: An Engaging Way to Learn the German Language"

Manuel Melendo Cruz: I'm using this book to improve my German language skills.

Germany on Oct 23, 2023

Josep: Very good. Useful, realistic and funny.

Spain on May 06, 2023

D. Geller: This is a nice idea. The stories do get a bit harder s you go through them. Some are cute some bit weird, like the one about the young woman who can't afford to fix up the house she inherited, so she squirts gasoline around, burns the place down, and walks away.
What I find bothersome is that a good idea is handled sloppily. In each chapter the supposed new words are boldfaced, and the translations are at the end of the chapter, in the order theywere encountered in the story. The problem is, in many if not most chapters, some of the boldfaced words don't appear in the chapter glossary, or appear out of order. This is not fatal (you'll need a dictionary anyway) but can sometimes be frustrating and, to me, suggests that the book ws not well proofread -- which might mean that there are errors in the text that will confuse a learner. It would also have been a friendly idea to bring all of the glossaries together at the endm in alphabetical order. Where each chapter may have 50 or more new words, it can be difficult, when reading a story and encountering a word that maybe you saw before in an earlier chapter, to find the definition. These are little things, but the frustration makes...

United States on Sep 15, 2022

Alex: Fue un regalo y a la persona le gusto mucho . Aunque me ha comentado que hay alguna errata pero todo lo demás genial.
Por el precio y por el mercado recomiendo este libro para principiantes.

Spain on May 18, 2022

Moonpie: This book will be a frustrating challenge for a true beginner. I have two years of learning German on Duolingo. I would not have understood anything in this book at the beginning stage of learning. It is a welcome challenge now, but two years ago, no way.

United States on Apr 01, 2022

Dan: These stories are enjoyable to read and help with expanding vocabulary and sentence structure. If I were to find one fault it is that it's impossible to start a project such as this in mid-stream and have a vocabulary that everyone knows and present definitions for new words that are not known to anyone reading the story. I find a dictionary, "Wörterbuch", to be useful in reading the stories.

United States on Oct 07, 2021

MRizzo: There are no articles listed on the vocabulary pages. Articles are very important for learning new words in German.

I still really enjoy this book. I bought it too early in my studies, but noticed that after a few months of individual practice I was able to work my way through the stories very well.

United States on Jun 09, 2021

Amazon Customer: The stories are amusing, engaging & stimulating BUT! In the vocabulary session noun genders are omitted! How could the authors overlook such an important aspect! Especially if they claim that book focuses on grammar too! I guess one can always look the gender up. Maybe it is better to write it down in the book itself, so you will have a mini vocabulary section. Genders are crucial! I would like the authors take this into account. And one more thing - after each story you are supposed to answer the questions pertaining to the story you read. So, instead of a multiple choice, I would want just questions, so students have more opportunity to construct their own sentences, even if they are basic ones. Overall, the material is good.

United Kingdom on Nov 14, 2019

MR R W BURNS: I have been learning german now for about a year using various audio books and online learning material. This book is perfect if you are looking for something to supplement your other learning material and get used to reading and listening more than a sentence or phrase at a time. As each story has translated words at the end it is a great reference book too.

If you get the book the audio file really helps to get the pronunciation correct. After reading a story or two it is good to go back to after a few hours or a day to keep refreshing and the words come up more frequently in the later stories so it helps solidify the learning. Nice work, hope to see lots more books and stories coming in different levels.

A side note - this isn't absolute beginner but if you want a challenge and again to supplement your other learning material is a great resource.

United Kingdom on Apr 04, 2019

John O'Dwyer - Author of 6 LIFE CHANGING ENERGY HEALING METHODS: 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...

United States on Mar 22, 2019