Learn German With Stories: Café in Berlin - 10 Short Stories For Beginners (Dino lernt Deutsch - Simple German Short Stories For Beginners) (German Edition)

This book fit my needs perfectly. The stories are simple, but reasonably interesting. The vocabulary was generally down the middle of the fairway for my level of skill - which is hard to describe, but consists of a year of college German 40 years ago, a couple years of community ed spoken language classes 30 years ago and off-and-on self study, largely for reading comprehension purposes, the past few years. The text is in one sense "over-glossed" - more definitions are provided than I need (I needed maybe 10% of them). But I still found that helpful, partly as a matter of review of something I should have known or once knew and forgot, but also on the basis that my "10%" might be different that someone else's. I also liked what I thought to be a high proportion of idiomatic usages, or even slang, in a loose sense of the word, as a result of the stories being mostly dialogue and only a minority of narrative passages. New (glossed) words are with high frequency used in dialogues where you have a good probability of making a decent guess of the meaning (just we all did when first learning to read English). Also, the author appears to me to make good use of compound words where the components, or portions of them, might be familiar, but the combination takes a moment or a little bit of thought to sink in (an example for me, although not from this particular volume, is "Rastahaar" = dreads). I used the book coupled with a Kindle German dictionary and that also helped fill in the few gaps that I encountered. I also liked the relative brevity of the stories - there are 10 in the book and they are only a few pages long - providing an opportunity for multiple reads to help cement any new vocabulary without getting too bored or frustrated with slogging through a long story or passage. The author throws in a few facts of local geography, history, etc., just enough for flavoring but not turning it overly didactic. New words and phrases also re-pop up in later stories, sometimes glossed and sometimes not, but good for learning. I have now moved on to other books in this series and have similar positive experiences with them. For me, this series hits the Goldilocks standard - "just right". And the price is very modest.

I am extremely impressed with this collection. Through the 10 books the writer took me from almost zero German to a pretty good level of reading comprehension. The books follow a carefully graded progression in terms of vocabulary and grammatical patterns. Each book centers around a different city in Germany, and thus the reader learns the most salient features, cultural aspects and language peculiarities of places like Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, etc. Then there's the story line: Dino's adventures in each city are not only engaging but funny. As the reader reaches book 6, the language gets a bit more complex and the adventures also become, at least for this reader, more interesting. The chain of events slowly start introducing some more serious socio-political situations resulting from Germany’s past and present. Dino’s girlfriend, for example, works as a reporter in a refugee camp. They also help Fadiyah, a Syrian refugee make it from Sicily to Munich where her brother works. I also bought the 10 books read by the author. That proved to be invaluable help while learning how to pronounce what I was reading. I normally listen to the author’s reading while I drive. Some other readers have mentioned the glossary at the end of every chapter. That is a great time saver, but I have also been using the Google translator as extra help. Because I have written in between the lines the translation of all the new words, I recently decided to acquire the eBook version of the 10 books. That way I can read the stories without any translation and thus test my knowledge of the language I’m learning. An interesting grammar point. I have learned that the past tense in SPOKEN German is normally expressed as the Present Perfect in English. That is, instead of saying “I went there,” German speakers prefer to say “I have gone there” [Ich bin dort gegangen]. That trick worked for me very well. However, while reading Dino’s adventures I learned that in WRITTEN German, apparently the real past tense is most frequently used. So it was time for me to start learning all the past tense forms of all the verbs I knew. Until then I was happy to say: “Dino has eaten a Pizza,” [Dino hast eine Pizza gegessen] with these books I learned that in writing it’s more common to write: “Dino ate a Pizza.” [Dino aß eine Pizza]. I am lucky to have a friend who speaks very good German. With him I can discuss the stories and thus practice conversation. In short, This is an excellent way to learn German reading comprehension in a challenging and intelligent way. Very soon I’ll be ready to start Andre Klein’s next collection of stories.

This is a great book for those whom have studied German in the past as a very quick refresher , and also contains per author many common phrases that are not found in a lot of text books. Furthermore, the short stories are of "real world" value and as far as one can ascertain very accurate- i.e. the weather, apartments, heating apparatuses, food (curry wurst, etc..), need to learn German to get a job in Germany etc.... Would have been a better product if had master vocabulary list, like many text books at the end as well as perhaps pull-out/ cut out flash cards- ergo the 4-Star vs. 5-Star rating. Overall very good product and would highly recommend.....

I absolutely loved this Book! I am trying to learn German in a very informal way by self teaching, and found this collection of books filled with small stories made specially to help you learn the language in a very simple and practical way. You can see in the picture some additional material that I printed. That's additional material you can find in the link the book has (it doesn't come physically with the book). It is super helpful, and am really loving it. I guess it's too soon to say how much I've learned from it, but I'm feeling confident and motivated. I know there's also an audio version but I don't have it (yet... maybe I'll get it at some point). The only downside is that there isn't a French version (am also trying to learn French but had to put it a side for a while so I can focus more on German and advance a little faster). Anyway, I'm very happy with this lovely book and will certainly continue with the rest of the collection once I finish this one. Thank you!

I was very impressed with this book! It introduced me to a very engaging way of learning German. The book is perfect for A1-A2 level, but though I have a B1 level, it helped me refresh many words I already knew and learn many new ones. The story is very interesting and engaging, which encourages the reader to continue reading and, consequently, learning. I highly recommend it to everyone wanting to level up their German proficiency.

For a beginner this is ver practical. The stories with the glossary make it fun and you won’t forget what you learned.

I like how the book puts translations at the end of the chapter for the story. It helps me learn new words when a new word is inserted with a bunch of other words I already know. Some people complain about the stories being too short, but I like the shortness of the stories. I think it makes it easier to get through with some new knowledge and not have to take too much in at once. Each story is probably less than 10 paragraphs. There are only 10 stories in this book. I wouldn't mind seeing a few more stories in each one of these books. I noticed the person who gave this book 1 star was upset at how simple the stories. I personally like the simpleness, because I'm still getting started with German. They definitely aren't very funny or entertaining though as the book suggests. They basically read like this: I have a car. It goes fast. My roommate has a car. He drives slowly. So I can see the point of the 1 star reviewer, but I personally need a book with this simplicity for where my current learning level is.

So I've been studying German on and off for about two years now but this year I started to really kick it into gear as I want to go to school in Germany. I would say I'm almost at the A2 if not on the cusp of it. However, as expansive as my vocabulary was I was procrastinating like HELL to improve my listening skills because, lets face it, listening is problem the hardest obstacle to overcome to acquire a language. Anywho, I knew I had to listen to podcasts, audiobooks, movies, shows, youtube videos, news, etc. in German to at least TRY to improve my listening skills. I looked überall for audio that was beginner friendly to no avail. I think stumbled upon these audio books. When I do my listening exercises I like to close my eyes to try to heighten my other senses especially meine Ohren lol. Thus I closed my eyes, clicked play and BAM....one paragraph into the first chapter of the stories I was absolutely SHOCKED that I understood what he had said. I just didn't hear the words. I was able to translate the words in my head fast enough to keep up with the speaker. I opened my eyes in SHOCK! I took off my headphones and smiled den ganzen Tag about finally getting through some German audio and understanding over 90% of the content. These stores are GREAT! Cohesive and entertaining theme(s), right tempo, and not too much to bite and chew. Highly recommend for beginners.

Since I began learning German on Babbel, I felt the need of some book to test my progress. After passing many different books "for beginners", this was the first that I found suitable for my level. Sentences are shorts and the construction is simple, but the text is by no means boring! the story is indeed pleasant and fun. Suitable for A2 Level, in my opinion.

This book is perfect for people that are learning german. It's really easy to read, most of it is present tense and you learn lots of vocabulary and idioms. At the end of each chapter there's an english translation of the highlighted words and phrases. The story is funny and entertaining. And if you buy the audio book too is amazing to practice your pronunciation.

Enjoyed the ease of reading and learning with the Kindle version. The story is engaging with a lovely storyline and some light humour.

This is really an excellent book for anyone looking to expand their German vocabulary. Each short story is full of phrases and specific words that are defined at the end of the chapter, which makes understanding the language a breeze. The stories are also funny and interesting, which makes it a real page turner. As difficult as the German language can be to learn, I found this book really helped me understand and appreciate the language to a whole new level.

Just what I have been looking for. Most of the ‘beginners’ German short story books are too advanced for beginners at A1/A2 level. This bridges the gab - but is not a children’s book! It is entertaining and the story is genuinely amusing and would be entertaining in English. The translation assistance is absolute genius. After each story, there is a page of key words and phrases that appear in the story. These are highlighted in the text. By reading these you do not need a full translation as long as you know a few basics. I read through the key words before I read the story. Because the chapters are very short it’s really not a chore and you want to read the next chapter. I read the first book in a hour and immediately ordered the next 11. I learnt more German per minute than I ever have on Duolingo or anywhere else. You probably benefit most with a Duolingo score of 20-40 before tackling the first book. I assume the books get a little tougher as they go along. I will find out. He should definitely keep writing these. Very talented writer of simple stories. And he drops in lots of phrases and vocab that I know are going to be of practical use. And I should add, it’s not 10 short stories. It’s one story with ten chapters. Each chapter is a different ‚story‘ but they are linked. This makes it far more engaging than ten unrelated short stories.