Stefan's log [DE] [FR] [DK]

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Stefan
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Re: Stefan's log [DE] [FR] [DK]

Postby Stefan » Thu Jun 28, 2018 6:26 pm

Olly Richards - German Short Stories For Beginners

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Improve your comprehension, grow your vocabulary and ignite your imagination with these eight unconventional German short stories!

I'm not great at finishing books (currently reading eleven) so I stumbled upon this in my bookmarks and thought I might give it a try. It's a quick read and it would tell me if the French version would be useful for future language learning. Sadly it ended with me asking for a refund for the French version.

The layout is better than Mord am Morgen. Each chapter consists of a few Kindle-pages, summary, vocabulary list, questions and answers. The main two advantages are that you get a summary and that the answers are located on the page after the questions so you can actually skim them. Again, placing answers at the back of a Kindle book is a terrible idea.

Why did I ask for a refund then? Well, because everything else was subpar. Sentences were duplicated, character names changed from sentence to sentence (Emil/Theodor) and above all - the stories made little sense. Expect every story to be a buildup, spanning several pages only to be finished in one or two paragraphs.

Another reviewer commented on the exact same thing:

Besides, the logic was so far out there that I doubt that anybody would do anything like that. For example, "Die Truhe" was really a mess of a story. Its ending was very unsatisfactory, and that wasn't the only story that I found utterly confusing.

With this said, a lot of people give it 5 out of 5 so maybe it's just me not being a fan of graded readers.

Read more: German Short Stories For Beginners on Amazon.com
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Stefan
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Re: Stefan's log [DE] [FR] [DK]

Postby Stefan » Sun Jul 01, 2018 6:14 pm

On a positive note, I've read 60 pages today and my Kindle hasn't crashed once.

The latest update seems to be a major improvement*.
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Stefan
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Re: Stefan's log [DE] [FR] [DK]

Postby Stefan » Thu Jul 05, 2018 6:25 pm

Sadly DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) recently decided to geoblock all their YouTube channels. It's still possible to watch full shows on DR.dk but I did enjoy the 3-5 min reviews by Troldspejlet. I can still access them by using a VPN on my computer but it's annoying and limiting. I should try to find more Danish content though considering that Troldspejlet is only a total of 6 hours a year.
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Stefan
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Re: Stefan's log [DE] [FR] [DK]

Postby Stefan » Tue Jul 10, 2018 4:10 pm

Der Tatortreiniger

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Der Tatortreiniger is a comedy series following Heiko „Schotty“ Schotte, a crime scene cleaner. The outline for most of the episodes were fairly similar: Schotty shows up at a crime scene after the police is gone. There he stumbles upon a relative, neighbour, colleague, ghost, employer or basically anyone who knew the victim. They talk for 25 minutes while he continues to clean. As soon as he solves the strangers problem, the episode is over.

Der Tatortreiniger is often recommended when people search for German TV series and I can understand why since short (<30 min) comedy series in German seems to be few and far between - they love their 90 min crime dramas. I did enjoy some episodes but had difficulties enjoying 25 min long conversations on topics such as "can you give a German boy a Turkish name". Other themes are autism, mysophobia, sexism, NSDAP, productivity and growing old.

I can understand it being mentioned when talking about German TV series but I did not find it very funny. I will not watch future episodes and I'm a bit surprised by the high ratings.

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Kat
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Re: Stefan's log [DE] [FR] [DK]

Postby Kat » Thu Jul 12, 2018 6:30 pm

Wenn du von Schweden aus Zugriff darauf hast, schau dir doch diese Serie einmal an:



Ich kann nicht einschätzen, ob sie für Deutschlerner einfach oder schwierig zu verstehen ist, aber ich fand sie ganz lustig.
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Transcription challenge: 1. episode of De Ijzeren Eeuw (The Iron Century)
Minutes: 6 / 43

Stefan
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Re: Stefan's log [DE] [FR] [DK]

Postby Stefan » Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:02 pm

Kat wrote:Wenn du von Schweden aus Zugriff darauf hast, schau dir doch diese Serie einmal an. Ich kann nicht einschätzen, ob sie für Deutschlerner einfach oder schwierig zu verstehen ist, aber ich fand sie ganz lustig.

Thank you for the recommendation. I'll definitely check it out.
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Stefan
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Re: Stefan's log [DE] [DK]

Postby Stefan » Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:16 pm

There's a second season of Professor T released and the subtitles reminded me (25 times in the first episode) about my old review:

Stefan wrote:they play melancholic music every other minute which numbed me from feeling anything


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eido
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Re: Stefan's log [DE] [FR] [DK]

Postby eido » Fri Jul 13, 2018 10:24 pm

That last image could be a meme. I approve.
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Kat
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Re: Stefan's log [DE] [FR] [DK]

Postby Kat » Sat Jul 14, 2018 11:48 am

Kat wrote:Thank you for the recommendation. I'll definitely check it out.


Don't expect too much, we might have a completely different tastes. I actually liked Professor T and I didn't mind the music. After all, his almost-girlfriend just died and his private life doesn't look too bright in general, so the guy is entitled to some melancholy.

As most German TV productions, Sankt Mike doesn't have a huge budget. There are definitely some plot holes but hey, it's entertaining and it's not a crime series. :lol:
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Transcription challenge: 1. episode of De Ijzeren Eeuw (The Iron Century)
Minutes: 6 / 43

Stefan
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Re: Stefan's log [DE] [FR] [DK]

Postby Stefan » Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:11 pm

Sankt Maik

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I ended up watching the comedy show Sankt Maik on recommendation from Kat.

It's about Maik Schäfer, a charismatic con artist and thief that is mistaken for father Vicar Sanman when trying to escape a crime scene in the small town Läuterberg. He decides to embrace the role and end up helping people through somewhat unconventionally methods while simultaneously trying to come up with a heist to get the €50.000 his younger brother Kevin owes a criminal in Berlin. The local police Eva Hellwarth is constantly one step behind Maik but he can't help himself from developing feelings for her.

I thought it to be a very funny show and only about three of the episodes were fillers so most of the time the main story progressed without interfering with the weekly cases. All of the actors were great and the younger brother reminded me of Costa Papavassilou from Türkisch für Anfänger. At times I had difficulties following the dialog and I reckon I missed out on jokes here and there but it's possible that I'm just not used to following native comedy series without subtitles.

Overall I thought it to be good and I'm looking forward to season 2 which is scheduled for 2019.

Read more about it on Wikipedia.
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