The German Language
Welcome to the place to learn the German Language! Come here to discuss topics or quirks related to the German language, ask any questions about learning German, provide tips to current learners, and share your journey through the German-learning process!
RULES
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Make sure anything you plan on asking has not already been answered.
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No harassing someone over their level of the language of German. Everyone starts somewhere.
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No harassing period actually. Obviously no bigotry falls under this category.
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In general, no low effort posts or spam. If you ask a question and it didn't receive much engagement, don't go on to ask it again immediately, at the least remove the original copy.
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No NSFW. This rule has its loose limits and some exceptions (i.e. commenting on German "dirty talk" and whatnot is alright).
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Mods are the interpreters of these rules, and have jurisdiction over other cases where a rule isn't explicitly mentioned here, but it is a common sense rule.
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This community is largely for English speakers learning/discussing German. Other languages aren't outright banned yet, but expect minimal support. If other communities arise for German help in other languages, then those languages will be barred from this community in favor of the new one.
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Thank you! I tried Steppenwolf some while ago but found it a bit tought. Will go for Siddhartha. I know Hesse is well praised and I am waiting to be at the level of German to read it as he wrote it.
Regarding translations: I bought a bilingual Animal Farm with one page english, one page german and when I first opened I thought what a brilliant idea to make a book like that! But then I quickly realized that the constant difference in sentence structure pains my brain. I think that is a major obstacle when it comes to translations (especiall ger/eng).
Also, thanks for this too - I don't see Harry Potter as a children's book. It cannot be I am that old no no no :)
Steppenwolf is imo a whole new level in difficulty. I think it's partly because of the vocabulary, but mostly because of the genre. Everything changes so fast that it makes it really difficult to catch up if you relay too much on context. It is an awesome book. Note aside, as a spanish speaker, most of what i read is translated from other languages and reading Hesse and Mann in their original language made me realize how good "high literature" can actually be.
About HP, I had a pretty good experience re-reading it. The hardest part was having to catch up with the vocabulary (for some reason, "the prisoner of Azkaban" felt harder to read than LOTR), but once I was on track, I couldn't stop and ended up reading from the third up to the end of the series.