German
I
learnt a little German when I was at school, and when I left (at the age of
nine) I continued to study it from time to time with my father. However, it was
not until I began to take an interest in German for myself that I made any
progress.
Instead of studying course books I began to read simple
stories, many of which were quite short, and all the words I did not understand
I looked up in a dictionary. I knew nothing about grammar, but this did not
affect my enjoyment of what I was reading. Recently I did work my way
through a German course book, and I was amazed to find how complicated even the
simplest sentences can be. If I had decided to study German grammar, before
coming to appreciate the language, I think I would have given up very early on.
This is why I recommend beginners to start off with something they can really
enjoy.
Some Interesting Things About German
At first the German language can look rather difficult. It seems to be full of words which are unlike any in English, and many of which are extremely long. When I had been studying German for a little while, I realised that these words were actually made up of shorter words, and that these shorter words were often made up of certain basic elements.
For
instance, the word Geschwindigkeitsbeschränkung- meaning "speed
limit" - can be broken down to Geschwindigkeit- speed - and beschränkung
- limit.
Geschwindigkeit can, in turn, be broken down to to make the two words Geschwind
- meaning swift, and keit - a word added to a describing word
(adjective) to make it a naming word (noun).
What's more, whereas in English there are many words which come from Greek or Latin and don't really mean anything, in German most words are easily understood. For example, the English word "chiropodist" is made up of the Greek words for hand and feet; the German equivalent is Fusspfleger - literally "foot-carer" - a word which any German speaker would immediately understand.
It
is also interesting to note that English is actually more similar to German than
it is to French, Spanish or Italian (languages that have all come from Latin).
Words such as cow (Kuh), hound (Hund), house (Haus), spindle (Spindel), field, (Feld), needle (Nadel), man (Mann) etc. are almost identical, and there
are many others which are
just as easy to recognise.
Reading German
There are many books, stories and poems written in German. I have not read very many as yet, but the following is a list of those I have enjoyed.
Von
Weisen und Narren - Folktales and other Stories for Intermediate Students of
German
by Kurt Reiter
This is the book that made me want to start learning German. It is a collection of stories, retold in simple language by the author, with translations of all the difficult words in a glossary, and in the margins. I was particularly impressed with it because, unlike so many books written for language learners, it really does explain every word, and never introduces a new word out of the blue. I also liked the retellings of the traditional stories, in particular "Kasperl", and "Heinzelmenschen".
Heidi - by Johanna Spyri
I always loved this story about the little girl who goes to live with her grandfather in the mountains. It is simply written and, like everything else, is much more enjoyable in the original. I bought my copy in Germany, where it was sold in two separate volumes "Heidi: Lehr-und Wanderjahre" and "Heidi kann brauchen, was es gelernt hat".
Brüder Grimm-Märchen
Ever since I was little I have loved fairy stories, and when I realised that many of my favourites were originally written in German I decided that I would
like to read them.
It would probably have been hard to find anything simpler,
easier, or more enjoyable. My knowledge of German was very slight when I
embarked on the first story, and it took me hours to read one page, but because there
were no wasted words I always felt as if I was getting somewhere. It is probably
a fact that language learners are the best judges of literature. When you have
to look up every word you appreciate simplicity and succinctness, and stories
like Snow White (Sneewittchen), in which momentous events are covered in a few
sentences, are highly satisfactory.
The Brothers Grimm stories are very famous, but I have to say that any translation I have read of them does not do them justice. Perhaps they are hard to translate because they are so close to perfect in the original German. The Brothers Grimm wrote down the traditional stories they had collected, and they managed to retain their beauty and simplicity.
The full collection comprises almost 300 stories, all of which are well-known, but these are ones which I have particularly enjoyed:
Die Sterntaler (Stardollars) - This a good story to begin with, as
it is very short.
Allerleirauh (The coat of all colours)
Die Sechs Schwäner
(The Six Swans) - This is a beautiful story, that is one of my
favourites.
Spindel, Weberschiffchen und Nadel (Spindel, Shuttle and
Needle) - This is a nice, little story.
Der Eisenhans (Iron Hans) - This is a fantastic story
Die Nixe im Teich (The Sprite at the Pond)
Aschenputtel - Another version of Cinderella.
Das Eselein (The Little Donkey)
Die Gänserhirtin am Brunnen (The Goosegirl at the Well)
- An unusual story, that deserves to be more well known.
I have not yet been able to get hold of a complete collection of the Grimm stories in German, although I know they exist. However, the stories are widely available in both English and German on the following websites:
http://www.rogerlie.de/maerchen
(These sites have the stories in the original German)
http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/grimm/maerchen
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/grimm (This site has accurate translations of the stories)
N.B. I bought a collection of seventy-four Brothers Grimm fairytales three years ago. They are accompanied by beautiful illustrations by a nineteenth century artist called Paul Hey. The book is published by Thienemann, and is probably still in print.