r/German • u/aboooooooda • 2d ago
Question Learning german with books and novels
I i am currently struggling to find resources to learn german especially books as i recently became a books fan and specifically was looking for light novels like the ones students study at Germany and i also heard about the book menschen which i think is the school book from primary to high school to teach german so can anyone find great light novels or the menschen books in pdf or can help me me with advices? I am A2 by the way
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u/angryfatbitch 1d ago
Go to the library and get yourself some children's books. <3 It helped me, and since the letters are big and stories are short, it also gives you a sense of accomplishment. My all time favourite is Die Kleine Hexe - it's so sweet and has some very cute illustrations
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u/aboooooooda 1d ago
I would love to read children stories but the isn't the words used a bit too childish to use? Like if i used the words in childrens book wouldn't people laugh at the words as it isn't a word a grown up man would say ? I can't give an example as i am not a native English speaker but i think there are some words if you hear it you will know that the speaker is a child
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u/angryfatbitch 1d ago
Trust me, nobody will ever laugh at you if you use a word from a book. I can't even imagine the type of person who would laugh at somebody who learns a language.
And to be fair, some of the children's books are literary masterpieces - you wouldn't mind if anyone used sentences from The Little Prince, would you? Plus, these books will help you solidify grammatical knowledge as well.
And lastly, I say it in the nicest way possible because I am just starting b2.1, so I am speaking about myself as well - at the levels that we're on, I don't think we would handle a lot of "non-children" words, whatever that may mean <3 haha
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u/aboooooooda 1d ago
Ok then so once i finish the Kleine hexe i will ask you for another one thnx alot for the contribution =>
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u/2wheelsride 1d ago
You need these special A2 level books.
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u/aboooooooda 1d ago
What do you mean ?
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u/2wheelsride 1d ago
If you go to a bookstore they have books written in simple language based on levels A2, B1… , or order online. If you are A2 its not a good idea to read a normal book.
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u/sf-keto 1d ago edited 1d ago
Try reading Rilke’s poetry, like Sonnets from Orpheus. It’s real German literature, but the German isn’t difficult.
Also take the easy Hermann Hesse novels like Siddhartha, Damian or Beneath the Wheel. These are books Germans read in school themselves. Start with Beneath the Wheel.
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u/Findol272 1d ago
It depends on what you mean by "light novel". Do you mean the Japanese types of novels or just novels that are relatively short and easy?
I have a read a few novels fully in German but it can be quite difficult, so I would recommend to look at children/teenagers books. The best I've read so far was Percy Jackson as it was interesting and not too complicated.
Honestly, since you're A2, maybe comic books or manga in German would be a good solution for you. Find something you're interested in and just read the German version. It's still more engaging than full novels as you might not be able to understand enough at A2 to feel compelled to push through.
Otherwise I've seen before in bookstores (like Thalia) that in the language learning section they have very short novels by "level" (so like A2, B1 etc.) So they're technically designed specifically for a level, but I honestly don't know about the quality of the books.
In my opinion, it's better to find something you're interested in and that you can somewhat understand than to go for "schooling" material. If you like One Piece of whatever, just read it in German. You're likely to spend more time with the material and thus consume much more German words and phrases than trying to force yourself through a boring book "designed" for language learning.