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Rating: 
Summary: Teach yourself German
Review: For the avid self-teacher, this book will be very useful. Textbooks give you sentences here and there that are translated, and that's very useful. However, having entire stories translated for you is an even better way to learn a language. You have sentence after sentence of correct grammar and vocabulary. You can see how a proper sentence is constructed time and time again.The translation looks like this: German on the left page, English on the right page. The five stories are by some of German's most famous writers...Hoffmann, Kafka, Kleist, Mann, and Schnitzler.
Rating:
Summary: OK study at a German 3 or higher level
Review: This book provides five short stories, with English and German versions provided side-by-side: German on the left hand side, English on the right. This can definitely save time with a dictionary (but can also be a crutch - so watch out and discipline yourself). The stories are listed in the product description.
I'm assuming that you will be reading this to help study German. After about two years of a language you should be able to read a book on your own (slowly but surely). But many books will still be too complex. These are borderline. The stories here are at a level that could be read during a German 3 class, or between classes to maintain and build skills. I don't recommend this book during a German 1 or 2 class. Instead try Graded German Reader by Cossgrove during German 1. (It is expensive, but is very good if you know almost no German.) At a German 2 level move onto comic books like Tintin and Asterix, which have more complex grammar but use pictures to reinforce. Oh and by the way try replacing .com with .de on large websites for the German version. (This works on Amazon!) Especially look for fashion pages and "light" reading. You can understand more than you think!
Basically if you can already read moderately complex German then this is an economic book to read through. If you can't already pick up a book and read through it then this is not for you. However to get a book at your level ask advice from a German instructor. Chances are they will have had to study German, including literature, in college and will be familiar with the authors here. They can recommend authors to you and tell you if this is over your level. This is a book that you will never "outgrow", which means you have to be pretty skilled already to read it.
(And if you are German and trying to learn English, then you should be fine. Afterall you read this review;-)
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