Learn German with The Great Gatsby

by Diglot

Timeless stories brand new language learning potential.Here at Diglot, we believe that traditional language education, with its painful memorisation, repetition, and tedious grammar classes, have failed students around the world in their pursuit of learning a new language, and over 50 years of education research supports us on this.Studies show that the best way of encouraging language acquisition is reading and listening to engaging and accessible content, and with that vision in mind, we created the Diglot Weave.Your Weaved novel will begin with a single translated word and as the book progresses, there'll be more and more, until, by the end, you will have learned 150 translated words, without a grammar exam, or tedious written exercise in sight! With a word acquisition rate of up to 20 new words an hour, compared to only one word every ten hours in a school setting, you'll never want to learn a language any other way.Its the roaring 20’s, a prosperous post world war 1 setting of Long Island New York where affluence and debauchery are in no shortage. Is it all too good to be true? Follow the journey of the honourable Nick Carraway as he unravels the mystery of the allusive Jay Gatbsy and his infinite wealth. All while learning German in the most seamless and efficient way possible.

181 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I really enjoyed the experience of reading a book and learning a different language at the same time. By the end, I effortlessly knew most of the words throughout the book! What a great beginners intro into another language.

[Abi Pellinor]

Do I rate the concept or just the Great Gatsby itself? I'm not sure. But in my review I'll be talking about the Diglot specific aspect. I'll do a full review at a later date but essentially, this is cool! I like the steady increase in the number of German words throughout. I don't like that they're underlined and in bold though. And also there are quite a few editorial errors. Spelling mistakes, missing grammar, some German words underlined and some not. It could've done with another pass with an editor. But the concept is really good and executed mostly well, I'll definitely be picking up more books they release in German!

FULL REVIEW:

I saw Diglot on Instagram, and instantly I knew that I needed to try it! A few months later and I bought my mum the Italian version of The Secret Garden, and myself the German version of The Great Gatsby. So. What is Diglot?

Simply this is a small Irish business which edits classics to intersperse words of the chosen language to help you learn the language naturally, similarly to how you'd learn your native language as a child whilst reading.

Now I've only read one book, so I can't speak for that, but I can speak about the book itself. Quickly I'll actually rate Gatsby, cause I've never read it before. It's... fine? Gatsby is a bit of a creepy dude, but it was interesting to learn about 1920s America and it was a quick read.

It's just, fine. Not a classic that I'm going to be raving about or re-reading at any point.

Back to the concept. So. The German words in my edition were in bold, but in my mum's Italian edition they're the same as the rest of the font. I would prefer them to be the same and not stand out so much because I think that would help more with the "learning the language naturally".

Also there were typos through the book, which I know is just because they're a small production, but I feel like it's worth noting. And some of the German words didn't have any translations in the lists provided. I was fine as I have a basic knowledge of the language already but for someone who's just being introduce this would be confusing.

Overall, I think that this is a really cool idea and I can't wait to see where the guys go next. I'll definitely be picking up more books from them once they publish more in German! Most of their books are in French and Spanish with a few other languages sprinkled in.