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Be a Little Genius Through German Reading Practice
Kids in Germany grow up with some pretty terrifying bedtime stories. Sure, they’re familiar with “Cinderella”
(Aschenputtel) and “Snow White”
(Schneewittchen) but the
Grimm Brothers’ original stories are hardly the watered-down, happily-ever-after fairy tales that Disney created for American kids.
Although darker themes are more common in German children’s stories
(Kindergeschichten) than the stories you probably grew up with, you can learn German quickly by picking up a few children’s stories
auf Deutsch.
Reading German as a newbie isn’t always easy, but if you start with children’s stories or
abridged German books
instead of jumping into newspapers or full-length novels right
away, then you’ll be less likely to get frustrated or experience
Deutschlernen fatigue later on.
Warum? You ask.
Think of it this way: Children’s stories are written for young readers who are just starting to learn their own native language. So whether you’re 6 or 60 when you begin your
Deutsch als Fremdsprache (German as a foreign language) learning, you can easily practice reading German with these stories because you’re on the same reading level as a native German-speaking child. Whether your goal is to
become fluent in German by learning German by yourself, whether you want to get ahead in class, or you simply want to
improve your German vocabulary and learn more about German culture,
Kindergeschichten are a great way to quickly improve your reading comprehension.
Why Learn German with Children’s Stories?
If you’re learning German as an adult then at first it may seem silly to read German
Märchen (fairy tales) or children’s stories, especially if you’re more interested in business German or reading
German newspapers.
But learning a skill takes time, and you can’t go into it expecting to be fluent enough to read an entire issue of
Der Spiegel within a month or two of learning German.
Germany’s national
Fußball team didn’t win the World Cup in
2014 because of pure talent. It took years and years of training—even
simple drills like passing a ball back and forth for hours a day—in
order to win.
Similarly, reading
Kindergeschichten gives you a solid
foundation that will make it easier for you to read more complicated
material later on. If you’re not fully convinced, here are a few more
reasons why you should learn German through children’s stories:
Learn German grammar in a fun, easy-to-comprehend way
No matter how enthusiastic you are about learning German, chances are
you’ll hit a few obstacles when trying to master the grammar
(Grammatik).
Although learning German grammar seems like a daunting task to most of us, there are many effective ways to learn
Grammatik rules without having to slog through a dull grammar book.
Reading
Kindergeschichten can help you organically pick up things such as
German word order,
punctuation (Zeichensetzung), noun genders (masculine, feminine and neutral), noun cases (nominative,
accusative, dative and genitive),
Präpositionen, and so much more!
Through this immersive technique, you’ll be able to learn how German
grammar works in practice—rather than reading about a rule and seeing
just one example in a textbook—and you’ll have fun while following the
story arc.
See verbs in their Präteritum (simple past) forms
In English, the verb forms you use for writing are the same you use
for speaking. In German, however, the verb forms you use for writing are
in “simple past” tense
(das Präteritum) and the verb forms you use for speaking are in “
present perfect” tense
(das Perfekt).
Here are some examples of both.
Simple past (for written German): Present perfect (for spoken German):
Ich sagte, “Hallo.” (I said “hello.”) Ich habe, “Hallo” gesagt.
Wir brachten die Keks. (We brought the cookies.) Wir haben die Keks gebracht.
See the difference? Since many language-learning programs focus on conversational German, reading
Kindergeschichten can help you learn the
Präteritum verb forms as well.
Build your German vocabulary
Even if you’re reading stories meant for German kids between the ages
of 3-13, you’ll probably come across a few words you don’t understand.
Although it’s best to
read straight through the first time and try to
figure out what words mean based on the context of the story, you can
go through the text afterwards and look up what each word means
(it
helps if you’re reading online and can simply copy and paste the word
into Google Translate).
Open the door to reading longer novels and newspapers
Although reading
Kindergeschichten might seem too simple at first, they really do build a great foundation for reading
longer stories in German later on.
There are many
German classics
that no avid reader should miss, but it helps to fully understand what
verbs in the simple past tense look like (as well as German word order)
before jumping into more complex material.
4 Steps to Use Children’s Stories to Improve Your Comprehension
Ready to dive into the world of German children’s
literature? Here are 4 steps to maximize your language learning
potential while reading.
1. Read straight through
As I’ve mentioned previously, it’s usually best to do the i
nitial read-through without a dictionary by your side.
Why? Because it’ll encourage your brain to try and understand the
meanings of unknown words based on the context of the story, rather than
stopping every couple minutes to look up a word.
You don’t want to become reliant on a dictionary for everything, and
it’s perfectly okay to keep reading even if you can’t figure out what some of the words mean.
2. Read through again with a highlighter or notepad
Once you’ve read through a story and you understand the overall plot
and characters, your next step is going through it again with a
highlighter.
Kindergeschichten are relatively short, so you don’t have to worry about wasting too much time on a single story.
At the end of the story, go back and look up (or copy and paste into
Google Translate) the words you didn’t understand and write them down in
a notepad. Studies show that
writing notes by hand improves memory, so you’ll be unlikely to forget these words in the future.
3. Try audible Kindergeschichten
Reading stories aloud can improve your pronunciation, especially when you have access to
German audiobooks.
Not only will you be able to pick up on the same grammatical rules as
you do when reading texts of stories, but you’ll also be able to hear
how native German speakers pronounce each word.
4. Move up the ladder with more difficult books
Many children’s books have appropriate age ranges, which can help you
determine what level you’re reading comprehension is at and how well
you’re progressing.
For example, some stories may say “
ab 6 Jahren,” which means
the story is appropriate for ages 6 and older. The more stories you
read, the faster you’ll be able to progress to more difficult stories
until you graduate from
Kindergeschichten and can start reading regular novels and newspapers with relative ease.
Where to Find German Children’s Stories
Unless you live in Germany, finding children’s stories published in
German at your local bookstore might be a challenge. Luckily, there are
dozens of websites available where you can find original texts of the
stories that you can print out or simply read from your laptop or
tablet.
Here’s a few of those websites to help get you started:
- GrimmStories.com: This site includes many of the Grimm Brothers’ Märchen in their original German texts. You can choose familiar stories such as Rapunzel or Rotkäppchen (Little Red Riding Hood) or lesser-known stories such as Der süße Brei and Hans im Glück.
- Familie.de: This is a fantastic resource for all sorts of German stories including Weihnachtsgeschichten (Christmas stories) and Fabeln
(fables). These stories also conveniently offer an age range next to
the links to the stories, which you can use to determine which one is
best for your current reading level.
- Gute Nacht Geschichten:
This one consists of more than 400 German bedtime stories. You can
search for specific stories or choose from the sidebars, which include “Beliebteste Gutenachtgeschichten” (most popular bedtime stories) and “Neuste Gutenachtgeschichten” (newest bedtime stories).
- Max und Moritz: Max und Moritz
is a series of stories about two tricksters. In Germany these serve as
stories to teach children about morality and obedience, but for you,
they can teach you more about lesser-known German grammar and words.
This website is particularly helpful because it has “dual language”
format, which means you can read the story in English right next to the
story in German. They also include quizzes for each story to test your
comprehension at the end.
- Märchen-Podcasts:
Are you more interested in hearing German stories than reading them?
Then check out these fairytale podcasts, which you can download to
your computer or smartphone or even listen to online. This website
includes a few classics, including Schneewittchen and Aschenputtel. Once you move beyond Kindergeschichten, you’ll also be able to find many more podcasts in German, including history lessons.
- Children’s Books Forever:
This website has a fantastic assortment of children’s books in many
different languages, including German. They come in PDF form and
include pictures, which can greatly boost your foreign language reading
comprehension!
Now get out there and take your first step!
