Short Stories in German for Intermediate Learners

by Olly Richards

An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young adult and adult intermediate learners of German.

"Olly's top-notch language-learning insights are right in line with the best of what we know from neuroscience and cognitive psychology about how to learn effectively. I love his work - and you will too!"
- Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for Numbers

Short Stories in German for Intermediate Learners has been written especially for students from a low-intermediate to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to B1-B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages, these eight captivating stories will both entertain you and give you a feeling of progress when reading.

What does this book give you?

· Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making reading fun, while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary
· Controlled language at your level, to help you progress confidently
· Realistic spoken dialogues, to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability
· Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free way
· Beautiful illustrations accompanying each story, to set the scene and support your understanding
· Pleasure! Research shows that if you're enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration - 'It's too hard!' 'I don't understand!'

With intriguing plots that will spark your imagination and keep you reading, Short Stories in German for Intermediate Learners will take your grasp of German to the next level with key features to support and consolidate your progress,

· A glossary for bold-face words in each text
· A bilingual word list
· Full plot summary
· Comprehension questions after each chapter.

As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying reading, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in German for Intermediate Learners uses reading as the perfect tool to not only delight in learning German, but to accelerate your journey towards fluency.


These stories are appropriate for intermediate low-mid ACTFL levels

Use the codes inside the book and ebook to access a bonus story for free and the discounted audiobook on our Language Readers Library site or on the Language Readers app.

Genres: German Literature, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 6, 2021

Reviews

[Irena Pasvinter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The purpose of this book is to help the intermidiate level learners of German improve their reading skills. The stories are well-adapted for this goal: the language is simplified; the content, although devoid of any literary value, is not too boring or bizarre (as in some other books of this kind) and for the most part is relatively entertaining; the stories are split into chapters with each chapter followed by a summary of the content, a short vocabulary and a few questions which help readers to verify their comprehension of the text.

I listened to the audio version of the book because I was particularly interested in improving my listening comprehension skills. The audio book (bought on audible.com) suited my goal quite well: it was accompanied by a pdf with illustrations and vocabulary (which I was too lazy to peruse, but that's nobody's fault), and the audio included the chapters' summary and the comprehension questions and answers. This was very useful and convenient. The similar German book for beginners by Olly Richards had the summaries and the questions in the pdf but not on the audio, which made the usage of the audio much less convenient for me.

So all in all, this book is a useful and helpful instrument that puts readers one step further on the long and arduous way towards German reading fluency.;) And if you get the audio version, it might help you improve your listening comprehension as well.

[Anmol]

Ich habe dieses Buch meistens einfach gelesen. Darüber bin ich sehr überrascht. Danke Duolingo und Nicos Weg! Aber jetzt vielleicht brauche ich euch nicht mehr. Aber ja, weil es gibt viele Wörter in jedem Kapitel die ich noch nicht kenne, konnte ich trotzdem die Thema erfolgen und verstehen. Jetzt muss ich viele Kinderbücher auf Deutsch lesen. Vielleicht werde ich eines Tages deutsche Philosophie und Literatur ohne Übersetzung lesen? Nicht bis ein paar Jahre von heute.

I'm sure there are at least some grammatical errors here, but hey, it took me a fair bit of time to type this :p

[Petar Vukoja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prima

[Granger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich hab dieses Buch auf Deutsch gelesen! Ich kann das kaum glauben, und ich bin sehr stolz auf mich. Mein Deutsch ist noch nicht sehr gut, aber ich habe [the plots] in diesem Buch verfolgt! (Oder gefolgt?) Ich weiß es nicht. So fun!

[Emiliano_Schiatti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein hilfreiches Buch für Leute, die ihr Deutsch verbessern wollen. Die verschiedenen Geschichten sind nicht schwer zu verstehen, ansonsten ist der Wortschatz etwa groß. Ich empfehle dieses Buch.

[Josh Pearce · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a real gap in the market for language learning reading material at a beginner to intermediate level. For contributing to the lack of material, and that reason alone, I give this book two stars.

Other than that, this book consists of some of the worst stories I have ever come across. I appreciate that the purpose of this book is to upskill language learners on their reading ability, and not to awe the readers with fascinating literature. However, I feel like the author takes this a few too steps too far, spending little to no effort on producing quality content. Rather than focusing on German vocabulary and sentence structure, I felt constantly distracted by frustratingly bad stories.

My recommendation is to save yourself the time, money and frustration and find alternate sources of reading material. André Klein has a variety of short story series' that consist of well-written, enjoyable stories that are an absolute pleasure to read.

[Chamsae · Rating 1 out of 5]

If the stories of the beginner book were a little dry but okay-ish, the stories of this book are the most boring piece of writing I've ever read. This morning I decided to bite the bullet and finish it all so I can move on to something else... I would recommend the beginner book, but honestly, if you can follow along the intermediate book, no reason to read it... Just go and read children's books in German. I knew I could finish it up quickly, so I did, just to say I did... But I almost regret it.

[Craig Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book does its job well enough, but it's a little bit disappointing that the stories are the same ones as in the equivalent book for intermediate Italian learners. The stories themselves are okay, but not really interesting enough for me to want to read them over again, different language or not, at least not so soon after I read them in Italian (about three months). I gave the Italian book four stars, so I'm docking one for this.

[Paul Iepan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good enough collection of short stories written to fulfill their purpose. The method proposed by the author is intuitive and can be effective in improving your vocabulary and understanding when reading.

[Emerson Knapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the stories were weird, but overall was a great way to learn vocab and get the feel of written German.

[Matthew Kell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this after finishing the first in the series (for Upper Beginner to Lower Intermediate) and this is more of the same but with a significantly wider range of vocabulary.

Olly Richards seems like he really has a genius for languages - he not only speaks 8 languages (if I recall correctly) but has been able to write a range of short stories for each of them with graded vocabulary.

The stories themselves aren't anything special, but there is a certain childlike charm in their simplicity. They are also diverse enough to maintain interest - there is a story about a woman who has premonitions in her dreams, a story about some lads trying to get into an exclusive club where the bouncer takes a dislike to them, a fantasy adventure, a sci-fi story about a cyborg, a boy who foils an attempted robbery of a secret recipe after sneaking away from a boring school trip at the lemonade factory, a western, a story about a love triangle, and a story about Dracula hosting a monster competition. The range of genres and stories also means you get exposed to a broader range of vocabulary.

It definitely improved my German by reading this, and you can also get familiarised with spoken and informal German as every story features quite a lot of dialogue. Like the Short Stories for Beginners book there is a vocabulary list at the end of each chapter to look up challenging words, and these words tend to be repeated in later chapters/stories so you will be able to be reminded of them. There are also 5 multiple choice comprehension questions after each chapter (there are 8 stories, divided into 3 chapters each), and compared to the Beginners book these are a little more challenging and sometimes require you to understand the story well enough to infer information, rather than finding the answer directly in the text.

I would definitely recommend this book for intermediate learners of German. My only criticism is that, in the foreword of the book, he advises against trying to understand every word. I think this could be slightly dated advice because while looking up words constantly takes the pleasure out of reading, it is quite convenient these days to get Google translate up on your smartphone. I did this for the entire book (and its predecessor) and underlined and translated any words I wasn't sure about. More time consuming for sure, but I also learned a lot this way.

[Ivaylo Petrov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some stories were better than others, but it helped me improve my vocabulary and reading skills.

[Curtis Hartwig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting reading, but!

There are a number of interesting stories, but there is a problem with the implementation. New words and expressions are highlighted. Their translations are provided in two places., at the end of the chapter and, in alphabetical order,at the end of the book. When I tap on the word I am taken to the meaning at the end of the book. Then if I tap on the same word I am taken back to the text, so I can continue. However, if the word is used in multiple chapters I am not necessarily taken back to my current text. Now I am lost if I did not record where I was. Very frustrating. Tapping the word should take me to the list at the end of the chapter!

[Francisco Lima · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took this one after reading the preceding title, for beginners. To me this really is an engaging way to learn German. I would only point out the few errors in the German text - perhaps worth revising

[Oleg Abrazhaev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting stories to read in German

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learning languages is a bit like juggling. Two present a certain number of challenges, but three is where things get tricky, especially for people whose native language is English. Because English is still the world’s lingua franca (though that could change soon), there isn’t much incentive for us to learn other languages.
Thankfully, though, there’s Olly Richards, here to make learning other languages not just easy, but entertaining. Right now, in addition to reading this to brush up on my German, I’m reading his Spanish-language history of Rock & Roll. His style is engaging enough, his prose clean and direct enough, that it’s always a pleasure.
This book would be ideal for students in high-school, more precocious grammar school students, and maybe some of the slower/more stoned kids in college.
“Short Stories in German” features eight tales, all amusing, with just enough narrative heft to keep the reader engaged. Readers will benefit from reading the stories aloud, as German, while not as tricky on the tongue as Spanish, still requires using muscles differently than English. There are a lot more fricatives and weird plosives, and unless you’re also fluent in Klingon or Yiddish, you need all the practice you can get. Their diphthongs are also challenging for anyone who doesn’t naturally know how to mimic the basso mooing of a cow. Might I suggest that those who really want to master the umlaut take a cue from Ralph Wiggum and enroll at Bovine University?
The best tales, for me, were the last three in the collection. Skull Tooth is about a sheriff who saunters into an outlaw town one fine day and brings rough justice to the deserving, and peace to the simple townsfolk. Gespräche über Beziehungen (Conversations about Relationships) involves dishing and gossip between two young men and women at Uni in Deutschland. They flirt and debate the pros and cons of going out with each other, how their parents might react to them bringing prospective partners home, and how they’re going to spend their summers. The left brain’s Broca’s Region—heavily involved in talking—is supposedly more active and larger in females than males, but this one still kept me engaged, despite my being a person of penis.
Der Monster-Wettkampf (The Monster Competition) rounds up Universal’s bestiary of famous monsters and puts them in a remote castle in the heart of the forest primeval. The baddies have been getting lazy of late, with the Werewolf spending more time channel surfing and munching popcorn than terrorizing the countryside. Dracula is eager to reinvigorate his ranks, and also to do something about the Mummy, who for some reason he despises. Meanwhile H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man, in a noncanonical appearance, is smarting over being excluded from the monsters’ inner circle. All because he’s still human, and thus a misfit among the ghastly menagerie.
To rectify this, the Invisible Man decides to make himself their leader, by suggesting a contest to determine which monster deserves the mantle of King. It goes without saying that, as he is human, he proves the most devious in his quest to prove his supremacy. Also, it’s not that hard to be sneaky when no one can see you, provided you elect not to wear clothes and you know how to walk softly.
These things are always fun, and I can’t recommend them enough for learners in the intermediate stage of their journey, or old hands like me who need an occasional refresher. Genug gequatsch meinerseits. Lesen sie and genießen!

[Freddie LR]

Purely on a language learning level this book is ok, I like how words are repeated both in and across stories. However, the content is really stale. It doesn’t have any cultural or educational value, and lacks imagination. 7.5/8 stories are about male main characters and the .5 with a female main character revolves around being jealous and petty about relationship problems with their boyfriends. Quite shocking for a book ostensibly aimed at a broad audience of learners.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The vocabulary is good, and the practice questions for comprehension are even better. The stories are wack. Do with this information what you will - if reading short stories is a good method for your language learning, you can probably overcome the weird plot lines, but others may not be as able to go along with the crazy stories.

[Alžběta Kubitová · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book serves its purpose. Reading anything will always improve your German. However, I found the stories to be really boring and poorly written. There are better books for German learners (I loved Dominic Butler's horror short stories to name one).

[Stanislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helped me with German, thus 3/5. The stories are 1 or 2/5 , rather annoying and empty, and characters dont make much sense.
I would not recommend it overall, I guess its possible to find better books/stories with same vocabular level and same learning helpers.

[Selen_ium · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich fand dieses Buch nützlich. Trotzdem sind manche von der Geschichte ein bisschen langweilig, aber für Deutsch als Fremdsprache ist es egal und total gut deine Vokabeln zu verbessern. Schließlich empfehle ich dieses Buch für denen von B1-B2 Niveau.

[Alix 🌻]

After reading the first beginner version, I tried the intermediate one. It was far more challenging but still very well adapted to my beginner level. However I have to admit that the stories were less enjoyable and interesting than the first version for me !

[Luby K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is so lazy of Olly Richards to copy and paste the same stories into different languages and just change the names to sound more German (I read the intermediate Italian first). I get that repetition is important in language learning, but this move felt cheap.

[aranchis]

creo que tendré que releerlo y ahora si intentar entenderle ups

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great practice with
German reading!

[Ivka_daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What's with "die Augen verdrehen" at the end of every lesson? 😂😂
Otherwise great learning tool

[Terry Hunter Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the stories in this collection a bit more interesting than those in the beginner book.

[Jonathan Lifferth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories are genuinely entertaining, surprisingly so for language-learning material. They were well suited for my current reading level in German, climbing from B1 to B2.

[Alex Zaicu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very bad literature

[Sebastián · Rating 4 out of 5]

It delivers what it promises. It is a good and fun way to improve your german level by reading.