Customer Reviews

Selected Folktales/Ausgewahlte Marchen: A Dual-Language Book (Dover Dual Language German)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a German student of three years, and I got this book in hopes to improve my German skills. I think that this is absolutely the best book a German student can get.
-A German-English Dictionary is not necessary to read this book
-Most stories are well-known, so even a student that doesn't have strong skills in either language can generally understand the stories
-On the left page is the German version, and the right page has the English version
-Most of the stories were intended for children anyway, so there aren't too many complicated words.
This book is great. I can practice German even when I'm not in the classroom! I recommend it for a student of German or English.

This is an excellent book with fine historic background. Do not assume that this is for beginners though. The old style german is probably better for intermediate to advanced readers.

This book was an excellent choice for me with my limited German reading skills. I can read the familiar fairy tale in English to help me piece together the meaning of the words I do not know in German. I love that it is full of classic fairly tales. It is not for beginers, but it's still like having "training wheels". I am am very pleased with the purchase.

Similar to other reviewers, I bought this book in the hopes of improving my German. I've had around two years of German classes, which I think is about the right stage (i.e. intermediate student) for taking on a book like this. The stories do not use complicated words and it is convenient to have the translations on the facing page. The book helped me with vocabulary and sentence structure. It makes a nice change from a workbook or from trying to read a normal German text with continual recourse to a dictionary.

However, this book could have been much better. The editor seems to have put a considerable effort in describing the history of the stories and remaining faithful to the 1857 version of the Grimm brothers. I suppose this is nice for folklorists but it isn't so helpful for students of German, particularly those interested in the modern language. In other words, a version of the stories which uses the most modern German expressions would probably be more helpful for a student of the language.

Another annoying aspect was the editor's decision to remain faithful to the original paragraphing. At least one story (Danced Out Shoes) is only one paragraph. It is good idea to remain as faithful to the original German edition as possible, unless there is a good reason not to, such as to make smaller paragraphs for easier reading.

Finally, I saw only 7 footnotes. These appear to be directed to the student and it would have been nice to have had more. It would also have been helpful to have a section at the end of each story explaining new or difficult words/expressions. Beyond the translations and the 7 footnotes, there is nothing further in this book to help the student. That's a shame.

If you do buy this book, I suggest visiting [...], where you can download a number of the stories in mp3 format, read aloud by native speakers. The stories at vorleser.net appear to use more modern expressions than the stories in this book. Also, many if not all of these stories, English and German, can be found online for free. If you want to spend an hour or so surfing the web, you can probably put together a word document that has all the stories in this book, with English translations, and which includes some other stories as well.

Das Buch ist nicht schlecht fuer jemand der noch viel Hilfe beim lesen braucht und in der englischen Uebersetzung nachschauen kann wenn es Probleme gibt. Die Geschichten sind unterhaltsam. Die Sprache ist zwar etwas altmodisch aber die Unterschiede zu modernem deutsch sind nicht so gross das dies ein ernstes Problem waere.

Ebenfalls gut gefallen haben mir Sagen und Legenden (German Edition) und Die schönsten Weihnachtsmärchen der Welt: Christmas Fairy Tales in German (German Edition).

See my list "Great German Books".

This has been a terrific tool, both in increasing my German vocabulary, as well as in improving my grammar. The fairy tales themselves are very well written German -- which, from my point of view, is what I want to be reading: I might as well develop good habits. And it's a great deal of fun, to boot. I've doubled or even tripled my reading speed, and I just notice that vocabulary comes to my mind much more easily than before. I strongly recommend it, for English speakers learning German, as a supplement to whatever German language course you might be using.

This dual-language edition of Grimm's famous fairy tales provides an accessible, immediate translation of German and English. Also, because fairy tales often include repetition of various scenarios or actions, the reader has a chance to become familiar with new words and expressions during the reading. Use of idioms and elements inherent to German culture that are contained in the writing also contribute to a fuller understanding of the German language and perspective.

bought this book for a 70 yr. old woman who is doing the Rosetta Stone german program. She seemed thrilled with this item. She is learning a second language to fight off memory loss.

This book is the perfeect addition to any study regime as it shows side by side translations of the original Brothers Grimm's Fairtales. The translator made special effort to keep the english as much as a "transcription" as possible, sacrificing of course some flow, but the learning advantage this presents is immense.

However, the cover is a LITTLE flimsy.

I am VERY happy with this book as it has facilitated my learning to write in German. It is exactly what I wanted doing exactly what I needed it to do.