Well even as a native English speaker (which they say is supposed to help....) I have this same problem. I find reading boos in German much harder than even in Portuguese which I just started! lol. So try not to get too down about it, I think German just has a lot of vocab and idiomatic phrases... plus the different dialects might not help
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The problem is that even when I look up all the words in a given sentence, it still doesn't make much/any sense. Lately, I've tried to read Disney comic books, some manga, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and some HP fanfics on FF.net.
Just so you have an idea what I'm talking about, here's the first dialogue in a Disney comic book:
- Schiebt ab. Sonst setzt's Senge satt. - Erst spuckt er Töne - dann seine Zähne! - Dir klopfen wir den Lolli aus der Luke, du Lutscher.
I do get the gist of these sentences because I've translated them word by word and also had a native German speaker tell me their meaning, but they still seem like near-gibberish! These sentences - particularly the first and the third one - just aren't the kind of stuff we're taught in textbooks and grammar books! :T
I've been reading translated things (Disney, Harry Potter) precisely because I was hoping to avoid dialects, regional expressions and excessive colloquialisms, but I guess it didn't help much. XD
Hmm, yeah, I can see what you mean, those are very colloquial sentences. Like calling someone "Du lutcher" "you lollypop" sounds pretty strange to me. But the more you read the more I'm sure you will pick up. Since you like comics you might as well keep trying with them!
Lol not a helpful comment but: I had the exact same problem, it kind of stopped me in my tracks, tbh. I learned pretty much all the grammar and thought I had a decent level of vocabulary--but I tried to read both a) books for children and b) books intended for low-level learners, and I was literally having to look up 80% of the words in a given sentence. @_@ Eventually I got so tired of looking things up that I stopped. Though...I feel like if you can get through even a single book, then reading any other book would probably not be so bad...it's just a steep learning curve, or something. -_- I wish you all the luck <3
Haha, yup, steep learning curve is how I would define German. As someone who is now into intermediate/advanced reading it does just take perseverance. If either of you two want to try Skyping in German for practise, let me know xD
Also some easier books I started with were a) ones I'd already read in English like Animoprhs, The Time Traveller's Wife b) Childrens books by Michael Ende (especially Momo), Cornerlia Funke c) moving on to slightly more complex ones - Christoph Marzi (a bit like Neil Gaiman) Heinrich Böll (has quie a few good short stories), Peter Schneider and Christa Wolf were all authors I managed to read at B2 level.
Yes, that's exactly the problem! It's frustrating that even though I've reached quite a good level in German grammar, reading even a simple text is still so difficult! It's tiresome to have to look up every other word. Even Japanese was never this frustrating.
It actually does help to know other people have the same problem. I was beginning to think it was just me. XD
I think it's a pretty common problem with German. They just seem to love weird words and phrases and idioms. I can't remember how much of a problem I had with this because when I jumped from textbooks to real media, I started with anime aimed at very young children and watched hundreds and hundreds of episodes of that stuff, so by the time I moved on to more advanced stuff, I had already built up some tolerance, I guess. I still have to look up some words and phrases every now and then when I read manga, though.
I actually think that really formal stuff like history textbooks and news reports is often easier because it doesn't play with informal language and sticks to the rules. Have you tried anything like that?
Well, I guess it's perfectly normal to have to look up a word here and there. I even do that in English sometimes. Heck, even Portuguese, because we can't possibly know everything there is to know even about our mother tongues. But yeah, German seems to have a particularly big amount of weird words and idioms, and this drives me crazy! @_@ Even Japanese wasn't this bad, although I suspect it's because there's good material out there that actually explains their expressions and idioms.
I guess I should follow your example, take a step back and try to master the simpler structures. Maybe focus more on kids' stuff before I try going into pre-teen material. XD
I haven't tried reading history textbooks, but I read news reports daily and I also read some Wikipedia articles. While the language used is definitely more straightforward than the informal language of comic books, it still is very hard for me to read without the aid of Google Translate. D:
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Just so you have an idea what I'm talking about, here's the first dialogue in a Disney comic book:
- Schiebt ab. Sonst setzt's Senge satt.
- Erst spuckt er Töne - dann seine Zähne!
- Dir klopfen wir den Lolli aus der Luke, du Lutscher.
I do get the gist of these sentences because I've translated them word by word and also had a native German speaker tell me their meaning, but they still seem like near-gibberish! These sentences - particularly the first and the third one - just aren't the kind of stuff we're taught in textbooks and grammar books! :T
I've been reading translated things (Disney, Harry Potter) precisely because I was hoping to avoid dialects, regional expressions and excessive colloquialisms, but I guess it didn't help much. XD
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Also some easier books I started with were
a) ones I'd already read in English like Animoprhs, The Time Traveller's Wife
b) Childrens books by Michael Ende (especially Momo), Cornerlia Funke
c) moving on to slightly more complex ones - Christoph Marzi (a bit like Neil Gaiman) Heinrich Böll (has quie a few good short stories), Peter Schneider and Christa Wolf were all authors I managed to read at B2 level.
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It actually does help to know other people have the same problem. I was beginning to think it was just me. XD
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I actually think that really formal stuff like history textbooks and news reports is often easier because it doesn't play with informal language and sticks to the rules. Have you tried anything like that?
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I guess I should follow your example, take a step back and try to master the simpler structures. Maybe focus more on kids' stuff before I try going into pre-teen material. XD
I haven't tried reading history textbooks, but I read news reports daily and I also read some Wikipedia articles. While the language used is definitely more straightforward than the informal language of comic books, it still is very hard for me to read without the aid of Google Translate. D:
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