Customer Reviews

Graded German Reader: Erste Stufe

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a first year German student at a local college. Initially, I was a bit shocked when I first recieved the book to realize how small the book was; however, don't let the diminuitive form scare you away. This is a great book for German students. The book is laid out in a 'Graded' fashion with increasingly more difficult vocabulary and grammer being introduced in Parts. The first couple sections of the book are fairly easy, with the introduction of basic vocabulary; however, as the book progresses the level of difficulty increased. The introduction of new vocabulary is typically done with stories and poems. At the end of each chapter, there are questions that can be answered about the stories you just read, and a review of all the new vocabulary that was just introduced. I find this to be an excellent way to pick up new vocabulary and increase my overall understanding of the German language. It really gives one a sense of accomplishment to be able to pick up a German book and start reading and be able to understand most of it.

Graded German Reader is the best reading book for a beginning German student that I have stumbled across. It starts off with short two or three sentence blurbs using opposites: dark and light, thick and thin, tall and short, etc. (Obviously all these antonyms as well as the rest of the book are in German.) There is an emphasis on using words that are similar to English, so it is possible to pick through this first section with almost no English at all. From these it builds to one paragraph stories that use the vocabulary from the opposites section. If you have read through the opposites section and followed it several times then you should be able to pick through this section too (new vocab is defined to the sides). Finally toward the end of the book you are reading short fairy tales in German.

If you are taking German classes but aren't yet able to pick up a book and read then this is the perfect way to get you to that point. I read through it at various points in German 2 and I feel that it helped me greatly when I was learning German.

Also helpful to get fluent at reading German are comic books and children's books in German: Tim und Struppi=Tintin, Asterix=Asterix (but try to crudely translate a specific title into German and search for it ie Asterix und Cleopatra instead of Asterix and Cleopatra), Akira=Akira(but its mostly cussing and cool art, so not so helpful for German anyway), etc Basically find a popular English book that is at your German reading level (underestimate when in doubt) and try to find the German translation here. Buy one book from a German publisher and write away for a catalog of similar books, or look through promotional info in the back pages of the book. Then when you have more money for books you will know what you are getting into better.

I have tried without much sucess to learn German three semesters at our local college. I know one night a week for short semester classes is not enough to learn a foreign language, but I was not learning much of anything and was very discouraged. I thuoght the books we used did not really stress the beginners needs. We were taught things we would never use, and not taught basics. I bought Graded German Reader and began to teach myself. I'm doing great and having fun learning. This book is a great tool. Patricia

This is an excellent way to build vocabulary and reading skills for students and anyone else learning German. Every beginning German class should use this book! The stories, increasing in difficulty and length from the beginning to the end of the book, are fun to read. This book is well worth the [$$$] price.

This is an awesome aide in increasing german vocabulary and understanding of german discourse(Advanced written and spoken german dialogue) this is a book to keep forever. i have had breaks in between my german classes and i just read this little companion book and am instantly refreshed and confident. This is not a book for just anyone. I had german 3 before i got this book. Prior knowledge is required. HOWEVER, what these sellers are doing on here is a crime. For such a wonderul resource there is no real price, BUT it is a small novel size and even my college bookstore (notorious for student murder) didnt even charge that much, it was $16 dollars, one of the few books i have ever bought through the bookstore. i will never get rid of it and wouldnt trade it for the world, but i also wouldnt charge you $35 bucks! explore look around and most of all enjoy! (SHAME ON YOU SELLERS)

This book is written for native or amost-native English speakers. In the very beginning it uses a very nice technique to introduce German words that are spelled/pronounced almost the same way as in English and are thus easy to memorize, and gradually moves on to the rest of the Wortschatz (vocabulary).
It takes a while to get used to the approach, and it takes repetition of material in order to get down all the words, but personally I was pleasantly surprized with positive results.

This really is quite good. The Crossgroves clearly put a lot of thought into Erste Stufe and it is instructive to note how carefully and well the four famous folktales from the Brothers Grimm were simplified. The fables were all new to me and I find they both invite and reward re-reading.

I want to add that the vocabulary the authors have chosen seems aimed at highlighting how similar the basic vocabulary of English and German can be. You cannot go through this book without forming the opinion that the basic vocabulary of English and German must have had a recent common ancestor. This is good because it allows native English speakers to quickly build a useful German vocabulary. While the vocabulary presented is good German and instantly recognizable to German speakers, the vocabulary does not seem to reflect contemporary German as it is written in Der Speigel and Das Bild. However, when you look-up an unfamilir word up you often find that the Crossgroves have provided you with a perfectly acceptable synonom. The feeling I get is that I already speak a dialect of German and that I am moving on to standard contemporary German. Keep in mind it is "Erste Stufe" and that you will have do a lot of work in German grammar.

Because this book is very small, I was a bit concerned about the purchase when it first arrived. But this book has proved very valuable to my understanding of the German language. It is about 185 pages full of material that you would read through, with another forty or so pages of vocabulary. Being an intermediate German student, I still would go slowly over the text, and would have to frequently look at a dictionary, but over time I have been understanding the words without looking them up. This has been such a great way to learn how to read German, and I'm very happy that I purchased this book. I just wish there were more of them, because it would make my studies much easier. >>> I just finished reading this book recently, and have learned so much thanks to this book!

For beginners in German. A basic vocabulary and stories of increasing difficulty.

This was an excellent purchase. The book was clean with no marks as described by the seller. I would purchase from them anytime. Thank you.