Re: German: Improving Reading Skills (Intermediate and Advanced)
Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2019 8:25 pm
@David1917, most of the reading resources that I listed above were conceived with a view to assisting the student make the difficult transition from handling the basics of spoken German, which is often acquired through exposure to CEFR A1-A2 materials in the classroom, to being able to read, analyze, and discuss a selection of standard texts drawn from German literature. The texts vary in difficulty from B1 through C2. Upon completion, the advancing student should be able to read most native materials fairly comfortably, assuming that he/she continues to engage actively with the language. However, from my own experience in studying German, and as frequently expressed by the authors of these types of textbooks in the preface/introduction, the student will likely continue encountering elements of vocabulary, idiom, and structure requiring more study. In preparation for reading more difficult texts, my approach has been to read through collections of the more advanced bilingual readers and to "butt my head" against some of the more difficult texts in the original.
Your question concerning what level of preparation the above selections might offer a student who wishes to read the works of the great German philosophers is quite valid. I would say that, even if one were to read absolutely everything listed above, including a good deal more, approaching such works would still represent a significant challenge … even in translation! That is, the works of the great philosophers were simply not written for the benefit of the average person who would likely find them quite impenetrable. The problem of comprehensibility does not necessarily lie in the vocabulary or the idioms deployed in these types of works. Rather, the concepts themselves (and the sentence structures used to express them) are highly impermeable to a genuine and deep understanding by the average Joe. I have to admit to shying away from the works of the great philosophers, be they German, French, English, Russian, or whatever. Having been born for “un petit pain”, I see no value in discouraging, or even humiliating, myself.
EDITED:
Typos, tinkering.
Your question concerning what level of preparation the above selections might offer a student who wishes to read the works of the great German philosophers is quite valid. I would say that, even if one were to read absolutely everything listed above, including a good deal more, approaching such works would still represent a significant challenge … even in translation! That is, the works of the great philosophers were simply not written for the benefit of the average person who would likely find them quite impenetrable. The problem of comprehensibility does not necessarily lie in the vocabulary or the idioms deployed in these types of works. Rather, the concepts themselves (and the sentence structures used to express them) are highly impermeable to a genuine and deep understanding by the average Joe. I have to admit to shying away from the works of the great philosophers, be they German, French, English, Russian, or whatever. Having been born for “un petit pain”, I see no value in discouraging, or even humiliating, myself.
EDITED:
Typos, tinkering.