German reading material

[Paul Carmichael]

Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.

I like to read dumbed down German. I have tried reading "proper" fiction,
but prose is hard work and riddled with words that even most German
speakers (probably) wouldn't recognise.

I've been buying short stories for the kindle from Amazon, such as these
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B008SS74TQ/
ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_image_o02?ie=UTF8&psc=1, but at 3€ a pop, it's
costing me lots. Each one only takes 90 minutes to read. If that.

So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down German
reading material?

Thanks.

[Aidan Kehoe]

Post by Paul Carmichael
Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.
I like to read dumbed down German. I have tried reading "proper" fiction,
but prose is hard work and riddled with words that even most German
speakers (probably) wouldn't recognise.

What? No, no more than is the case in English.

Post by Paul Carmichael
I've been buying short stories for the kindle from Amazon, such as these
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B008SS74TQ/
ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_image_o02?ie=UTF8&psc=1, but at 3€ a pop, it's
costing me lots. Each one only takes 90 minutes to read. If that.
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down German
reading material?

Anything traditionally popular among teenagers should do. The Harry Potter
books have plenty of text if you can stomach them. Karl Mai isn’t hard work,
see https://www.karl-may-gesellschaft.de/kmg/primlit/reise/gr07/kptl_0.htm

[Silvano]

Post by Aidan Kehoe

Post by Paul Carmichael
Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.
I like to read dumbed down German. I have tried reading "proper" fiction,
but prose is hard work and riddled with words that even most German
speakers (probably) wouldn't recognise.

What? No, no more than is the case in English.

Post by Paul Carmichael
I've been buying short stories for the kindle from Amazon, such as these
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B008SS74TQ/
ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_image_o02?ie=UTF8&psc=1, but at 3€ a pop, it's
costing me lots. Each one only takes 90 minutes to read. If that.
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down German
reading material?

Anything traditionally popular among teenagers should do. The Harry Potter
books have plenty of text if you can stomach them. Karl Mai isn’t hard work,
see https://www.karl-may-gesellschaft.de/kmg/primlit/reise/gr07/kptl_0.htm

I have no idea about Paul's level in German, but your suggestions could
be a bit too hard (and my previous suggestions too much under his
present level). A German novel for teenagers, about 150 pages paperback,
was still pretty difficult stuff for me, well over 50 years ago.

[Aidan Kehoe]

Post by Silvano

Post by Aidan Kehoe
Anything traditionally popular among teenagers should do. The Harry Potter
books have plenty of text if you can stomach them. Karl Mai isn’t hard
work, see
https://www.karl-may-gesellschaft.de/kmg/primlit/reise/gr07/kptl_0.htm

I have no idea about Paul's level in German, but your suggestions could
be a bit too hard (and my previous suggestions too much under his
present level). A German novel for teenagers, about 150 pages paperback,
was still pretty difficult stuff for me, well over 50 years ago.

Paul, would you clarify your level? If you’re managing short stories in 90
minutes it can’t be that low.

Das Komplizierte daran, wenn man als Muttersprachler des Englischen Deutsch
lernt, ist, dass die einheimische Wortschatz viel öfter als im Englischen
eingesetzt wird. (Dazu auch grammatische Fälle, aber das weißt jeder.) So kann
man nicht, wie etwa im Spanischen, mit den lateinischen Wörter aus dem
Englischen klarkommen. Man muss sich früh mit der großen einheimischen
deutschen Wortschatz beschäftigen.

[Peter Moylan]

Post by Aidan Kehoe
Das Komplizierte daran, wenn man als Muttersprachler des Englischen
Deutsch lernt, ist, dass die einheimische Wortschatz viel öfter als
im Englischen eingesetzt wird. (Dazu auch grammatische Fälle, aber
das weißt jeder.) So kann man nicht, wie etwa im Spanischen, mit den
lateinischen Wörter aus dem Englischen klarkommen. Man muss sich früh
mit der großen einheimischen deutschen Wortschatz beschäftigen.

I have so little competence in German that I had to use Google Translate
to understand that. By coincidence, I had had the target language set to
Danish when I opened GT. I had never noticed before how close Danish is
to German.

(But our resident Danes will probably deny that it is close.)

Topic drift: when I was a student I bought a German-English dictionary
for a simple reason. I had noticed that different editions of Reader's
Digest used the jokes in a different order. So, by buying a German
edition of Reader's Digest each month, I could get a lot of the jokes a
couple of months before my friends saw them.

Since those days, I've needed to read German papers a few times for my
research; but that's not so hard when a lot of the content is mathematics.

[Silvano]

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by Aidan Kehoe
Das Komplizierte daran, wenn man als Muttersprachler des Englischen
Deutsch lernt, ist, dass die einheimische Wortschatz viel öfter als
im Englischen eingesetzt wird. (Dazu auch grammatische Fälle, aber
das weißt jeder.) So kann man nicht, wie etwa im Spanischen, mit den
lateinischen Wörter aus dem Englischen klarkommen. Man muss sich früh
mit der großen einheimischen deutschen Wortschatz beschäftigen.

I have so little competence in German that I had to use Google Translate
to understand that. By coincidence, I had had the target language set to
Danish when I opened GT. I had never noticed before how close Danish is
to German.
(But our resident Danes will probably deny that it is close.)

You're talking about _written_ Danish, and it's probably not so close to
German as you seem to think, but closer than many Danes would admit.
Spoken Danish is quite different and much less understandable.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Silvano
You're talking about _written_ Danish, and it's probably not so close to
German as you seem to think, but closer than many Danes would admit.
Spoken Danish is quite different and much less understandable.

Yes. It's fair to say - as did my Mexican Spanish teacher - that they
are two different languages. I of course don't see it that way, but I
understand that it is so.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Peter Moylan
I have so little competence in German that I had to use Google Translate
to understand that. By coincidence, I had had the target language set to
Danish when I opened GT. I had never noticed before how close Danish is
to German.
(But our resident Danes will probably deny that it is close.)

Absolutely not. I regularly marvel at the similarity between German and
Danish. Besides at one time German influenced Danish at the same level
as English does today. Carpenters' and bricklayers' words are pretty
much all from German. I have told before about a saying and a wordplay
on same that are almost identical in Danish and German.

The most difficult thing for me with German is prepositions (the same in
any language) and the strict grammatical genders that forces me to say
"he" about a ball.

[Paul Carmichael]

Post by Silvano

Post by Aidan Kehoe
https://www.karl-may-gesellschaft.de/kmg/primlit/reise/gr07/kptl_0.htm

I have no idea about Paul's level in German, but your suggestions could
be a bit too hard (and my previous suggestions too much under his
present level). A German novel for teenagers, about 150 pages paperback,
was still pretty difficult stuff for me, well over 50 years ago.

I had a quick look. At first glance it seems to be pre last spelling
reform. I don't know how much of a problem that is, but I gave up reading
Grimm because it was mostly old saxon.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Paul Carmichael
I had a quick look. At first glance it seems to be pre last spelling
reform.

I wouldn't worry too much about the spelling reform.

[J. J. Lodder]

Post by Aidan Kehoe

Post by Paul Carmichael
Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.
I like to read dumbed down German. I have tried reading "proper" fiction,
but prose is hard work and riddled with words that even most German
speakers (probably) wouldn't recognise.

What? No, no more than is the case in English.

Post by Paul Carmichael
I've been buying short stories for the kindle from Amazon, such as these
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B008SS74TQ/
ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_image_o02?ie=UTF8&psc=1, but at 3€ a pop, it's
costing me lots. Each one only takes 90 minutes to read. If that.
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down German
reading material?

Anything traditionally popular among teenagers should do. The Harry Potter
books have plenty of text if you can stomach them. Karl Mai isn't hard work,
see https://www.karl-may-gesellschaft.de/kmg/primlit/reise/gr07/kptl_0.htm

At the simplest he could start with stuff that doesn't need dumbing
down, like Donald Duck in German.
Learning the different names suffices,
like Scrooge McDuck -> Dagobert Duck

Jan

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by J. J. Lodder
At the simplest he could start with stuff that doesn't need dumbing
down, like Donald Duck in German.
Learning the different names suffices,
like Scrooge McDuck -> Dagobert Duck

I have bought all the Asterix albums in French. It's great fun to read
them, but I miss most of the word plays. My French is not good enough
for that.

[Mike Spencer]

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen

Post by J. J. Lodder
At the simplest he could start with stuff that doesn't need dumbing
down, like Donald Duck in German.
Learning the different names suffices,
like Scrooge McDuck -> Dagobert Duck

I have bought all the Asterix albums in French. It's great fun to read
them, but I miss most of the word plays. My French is not good enough
for that.

Morgens, morgens und wieder morgens, kriecht in seinem kurtzen Schritt
von einem Tag zum anderen bis zum letzten Buchstab unsere zugemessen
Zeit und aller unsere Gestern haben Narren dem Weg zum mordervollen
Tod hingeleuchtet.

I used to have a German translation of much of Shakespeare that I
found helpfull in extending my "how would you say that in German?"
span. Sadly lost during a move many yeaars ago.

If you (the OP) like Shakespeare, might be worth pursuing.

[Stefan Ram]

Post by Mike Spencer
Morgens, morgens und wieder morgens,

In German, we don't really have that "A und wieder A" thing going on.
It's about as rare as a snowball's chance in Death Valley!
I'm drawing a total blank on what it's supposed to mean.
It's got this kind of dreamy, trippy vibe to it.
Like it's cranking up the repetition or intensity to eleven.
The only time I've ever come across anything like that is
in some far-out poetry by that Celan dude:

|des Steins, den die Waisen
|begruben und wieder
|begruben.

.

[Mike Spencer]

Post by Stefan Ram

Post by Mike Spencer
Morgens, morgens und wieder morgens,

In German, we don't really have that "A und wieder A" thing going on.
It's about as rare as a snowball's chance in Death Valley!
I'm drawing a total blank on what it's supposed to mean.
It's got this kind of dreamy, trippy vibe to it.
Like it's cranking up the repetition or intensity to eleven.
The only time I've ever come across anything like that is

The translation from which I quoted that was by a well-known German
literatus -- I think 19th c. as it was a very old book -- whose name I
sadly forget [1]. Between more than a century of gradual change in
German and the problem of making a literate translation of a 16th
c. text, not surprising that some constructions might not be current.

[1] Not August Wilhelm von Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck, the names that
come up first if you Gwgle for clues.

[Adam Funk]

Post by Mike Spencer

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen

Post by J. J. Lodder
At the simplest he could start with stuff that doesn't need dumbing
down, like Donald Duck in German.
Learning the different names suffices,
like Scrooge McDuck -> Dagobert Duck

I have bought all the Asterix albums in French. It's great fun to read
them, but I miss most of the word plays. My French is not good enough
for that.

Morgens, morgens und wieder morgens, kriecht in seinem kurtzen Schritt
von einem Tag zum anderen bis zum letzten Buchstab unsere zugemessen
Zeit und aller unsere Gestern haben Narren dem Weg zum mordervollen
Tod hingeleuchtet.
I used to have a German translation of much of Shakespeare that I
found helpfull in extending my "how would you say that in German?"
span. Sadly lost during a move many yeaars ago.
If you (the OP) like Shakespeare, might be worth pursuing.

Of course it's best in the original Klingon.

[J. J. Lodder]

Mike Spencer <***@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:
[sorry, Bertel's posting didn't make it to my server,
and I snipped all of yours in replying to him]

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen

Post by J. J. Lodder
At the simplest he could start with stuff that doesn't need dumbing
down, like Donald Duck in German.
Learning the different names suffices,
like Scrooge McDuck -> Dagobert Duck

I have bought all the Asterix albums in French. It's great fun to read
them, but I miss most of the word plays. My French is not good enough
for that.

It is not just your French that is not good enough.
Many of the jokes require prior knowledge that you may not have. [1]
Not only verbal, also some pictural.
There are carricatures for example,
and if you don't recognise Jacques Chirac in the French version
you won't recognise him in translation either.

Even so, the French remains preferable to dumbed-down translations,

Jan

[1] Typical example: You, being Danish, are unlikely to understand
why Jolitorax, the main character in 'Asterix Chez Les Bretons'
answers the first question by Asterix with 'My taylor is rich',
unless you google the phrase.
Most native Frenchman will recognise it immediately.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by J. J. Lodder
It is not just your French that is not good enough.
Many of the jokes require prior knowledge that you may not have. [1]
Not only verbal, also some pictural.
There are carricatures for example,
and if you don't recognise Jacques Chirac in the French version
you won't recognise him in translation either.

The caricatures are easy to spot even if you don't recognize them all.

Post by J. J. Lodder
[1] Typical example: You, being Danish, are unlikely to understand
why Jolitorax, the main character in 'Asterix Chez Les Bretons'
answers the first question by Asterix with 'My taylor is rich',
unless you google the phrase.
Most native Frenchman will recognise it immediately.

I know why that remark is there. In another album there were a lot of
remarks about hair. I knew why but I didn't understand all the words and
thus not the wordplays.

[Peter Moylan]

Post by J. J. Lodder
[1] Typical example: You, being Danish, are unlikely to understand
why Jolitorax, the main character in 'Asterix Chez Les Bretons'
answers the first question by Asterix with 'My taylor is rich',
unless you google the phrase. Most native Frenchman will recognise it
immediately.

If it had been the other way around, with English people visiting
France, the conversation would have started with "La plume de ma tante
est sur le bureau de mon oncle".

Or possibly "My hovercraft is full of eels".

[charles]

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by J. J. Lodder
[1] Typical example: You, being Danish, are unlikely to understand
why Jolitorax, the main character in 'Asterix Chez Les Bretons'
answers the first question by Asterix with 'My taylor is rich',
unless you google the phrase. Most native Frenchman will recognise it
immediately.

If it had been the other way around, with English people visiting
France, the conversation would have started with "La plume de ma tante
est sur le bureau de mon oncle".
Or possibly "My hovercraft is full of eels".

or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

[Kerr-Mudd, John]

On Wed, 11 Sep 24 08:45:02 UTC

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by J. J. Lodder
[1] Typical example: You, being Danish, are unlikely to understand
why Jolitorax, the main character in 'Asterix Chez Les Bretons'
answers the first question by Asterix with 'My taylor is rich',
unless you google the phrase. Most native Frenchman will recognise it
immediately.

If it had been the other way around, with English people visiting
France, the conversation would have started with "La plume de ma tante
est sur le bureau de mon oncle".

French (obv)

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan
Or possibly "My hovercraft is full of eels".

Dirty Hungarian

"Do chyou whaaant to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?"

Post by charles
or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

French

[jerryfriedman]

Post by Kerr-Mudd, John
On Wed, 11 Sep 24 08:45:02 UTC

..
..

Post by Kerr-Mudd, John

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan
If it had been the other way around, with English people visiting
France, the conversation would have started with "La plume de ma tante
est sur le bureau de mon oncle".

French (obv)

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan
Or possibly "My hovercraft is full of eels".

Dirty Hungarian
"Do chyou whaaant to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?"

Post by charles
or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

French

Just about any European language, according to

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_postillion_has_been_struck_by_lightning

--
Jerry Friedman

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by jerryfriedman

Post by Hibou

Post by charles
or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

French

Just about any European language, according to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_postillion_has_been_struck_by_lightning

Luckily I haven't been subjected to such nonsense phrases in any of the
languages I have learnt. The texts have been relatively meaningful, and
the supplementary ones very good. My first extra reading in English was
"The Speckled Band" in an easy-reader version.

[Sam Plusnet]

Post by Kerr-Mudd, John
On Wed, 11 Sep 24 08:45:02 UTC

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by J. J. Lodder
[1] Typical example: You, being Danish, are unlikely to understand
why Jolitorax, the main character in 'Asterix Chez Les Bretons'
answers the first question by Asterix with 'My taylor is rich',
unless you google the phrase. Most native Frenchman will recognise it
immediately.

If it had been the other way around, with English people visiting
France, the conversation would have started with "La plume de ma tante
est sur le bureau de mon oncle".

French (obv)

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan
Or possibly "My hovercraft is full of eels".

Dirty Hungarian
"Do chyou whaaant to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?"

Post by charles
or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

And that, boys and girls, is why buses carried conductors.

[Adam Funk]

Post by Sam Plusnet

Post by Kerr-Mudd, John
On Wed, 11 Sep 24 08:45:02 UTC

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by J. J. Lodder
[1] Typical example: You, being Danish, are unlikely to understand
why Jolitorax, the main character in 'Asterix Chez Les Bretons'
answers the first question by Asterix with 'My taylor is rich',
unless you google the phrase. Most native Frenchman will recognise it
immediately.

If it had been the other way around, with English people visiting
France, the conversation would have started with "La plume de ma tante
est sur le bureau de mon oncle".

French (obv)

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan
Or possibly "My hovercraft is full of eels".

Dirty Hungarian
"Do chyou whaaant to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?"

Post by charles
or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

And that, boys and girls, is why buses carried conductors.

A down-to-earth answer.

[Sam Plusnet]

Post by Adam Funk

Post by Sam Plusnet

Post by Kerr-Mudd, John
On Wed, 11 Sep 24 08:45:02 UTC

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by J. J. Lodder
[1] Typical example: You, being Danish, are unlikely to understand
why Jolitorax, the main character in 'Asterix Chez Les Bretons'
answers the first question by Asterix with 'My taylor is rich',
unless you google the phrase. Most native Frenchman will recognise it
immediately.

If it had been the other way around, with English people visiting
France, the conversation would have started with "La plume de ma tante
est sur le bureau de mon oncle".

French (obv)

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan
Or possibly "My hovercraft is full of eels".

Dirty Hungarian
"Do chyou whaaant to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?"

Post by charles
or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

And that, boys and girls, is why buses carried conductors.

A down-to-earth answer.

I'm sure there is some good reason why the people who collected fares on
omnibuses were called "Conductors", but I don't want to google, since I
suspect there will be an unsatisfying answer.

[Peter Moylan]

Post by Sam Plusnet

Post by Adam Funk

Post by Sam Plusnet

On Wed, 11 Sep 24 08:45:02 UTC charles

Post by charles
or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

And that, boys and girls, is why buses carried conductors.

A down-to-earth answer.

I'm sure there is some good reason why the people who collected fares
on omnibuses were called "Conductors", but I don't want to google,
since I suspect there will be an unsatisfying answer.

From Old French conduitor = leader, but in today's French the conducteur
drives the vehicle.

A bus conductor was arguing with a passenger who didn't want to pay the
correct fare. As the bus was crossing a bridge the conductor, in a rage,
picked up the passenger's suit case and threw it into the river.

"Not only do you want to cheat me on the fare", said the passenger. "Now
you drown my son."

The conductor was eventually convicted of murder, and sent to the
electric chair. But it didn't kill him. He was a bad conductor.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Peter Moylan
The conductor was eventually convicted of murder, and sent to the
electric chair. But it didn't kill him. He was a bad conductor.

Is this a joke or a true story?

[Peter Moylan]

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen

Post by Peter Moylan
The conductor was eventually convicted of murder, and sent to the
electric chair. But it didn't kill him. He was a bad conductor.

Is this a joke or a true story?

Joke. Sorry if that was unclear.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Sam Plusnet
I'm sure there is some good reason why the people who collected fares on
omnibuses were called "Conductors", but I don't want to google, since I
suspect there will be an unsatisfying answer.

ODS (Dictionary of the Danish Language) explains that "conduktør"
(French conducteur, Latin conducere) means "driver/leader". In Danish
the word has been used 1. about a person who is supervising a
construction unit and 2. about the driver of a mail-passenger waggon.
This lead to the modern meaning of a train person.

[lar3ryca]

Post by Adam Funk

Post by Sam Plusnet

Post by Kerr-Mudd, John
On Wed, 11 Sep 24 08:45:02 UTC

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by J. J. Lodder
[1] Typical example: You, being Danish, are unlikely to understand
why Jolitorax, the main character in 'Asterix Chez Les Bretons'
answers the first question by Asterix with 'My taylor is rich',
unless you google the phrase. Most native Frenchman will recognise it
immediately.

If it had been the other way around, with English people visiting
France, the conversation would have started with "La plume de ma tante
est sur le bureau de mon oncle".

French (obv)

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan
Or possibly "My hovercraft is full of eels".

Dirty Hungarian
"Do chyou whaaant to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?"

Post by charles
or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

And that, boys and girls, is why buses carried conductors.

A down-to-earth answer.

Spoken by someone currently well grounded.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by lar3ryca

Post by Adam Funk

Post by Sam Plusnet

Post by charles
or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

And that, boys and girls, is why buses carried conductors.

A down-to-earth answer.

Spoken by someone currently well grounded.

And also having a certain capacity.

[Snidely]

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen

Post by lar3ryca

Post by Adam Funk

Post by Sam Plusnet

Post by charles
or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

And that, boys and girls, is why buses carried conductors.

A down-to-earth answer.

Spoken by someone currently well grounded.

And also having a certain capacity.

I have a reluctance to continue this loop.

/dps

[lar3ryca]

Post by Snidely

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen

Post by lar3ryca

Post by Adam Funk

Post by Sam Plusnet

Post by charles
or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

And that, boys and girls, is why buses carried conductors.

A down-to-earth answer.

Spoken by someone currently well grounded.

And also having a certain capacity.

I have a reluctance to continue this loop.

Ohm my goodness! I wanted to be crystal clear.

[lar3ryca]

Post by charles

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by J. J. Lodder
[1] Typical example: You, being Danish, are unlikely to understand
why Jolitorax, the main character in 'Asterix Chez Les Bretons'
answers the first question by Asterix with 'My taylor is rich',
unless you google the phrase. Most native Frenchman will recognise it
immediately.

If it had been the other way around, with English people visiting
France, the conversation would have started with "La plume de ma tante
est sur le bureau de mon oncle".
Or possibly "My hovercraft is full of eels".

or "my postillion has been struck by lightning"

मेरे पोस्टिलियन पर बिजली गिर गई है

[Silvano]

Post by Paul Carmichael
Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.
I like to read dumbed down German. I have tried reading "proper" fiction,
but prose is hard work and riddled with words that even most German
speakers (probably) wouldn't recognise.
I've been buying short stories for the kindle from Amazon, such as these
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B008SS74TQ/
ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_image_o02?ie=UTF8&psc=1, but at 3€ a pop, it's
costing me lots. Each one only takes 90 minutes to read. If that.
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down German
reading material?

If you use "dumbed down" meaning "simplified", I'd begin by searching
the web for "Leichte Sprache" and the less simplified "Einfache
Sprache". About the basic concept:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leichte_Sprache>.

<https://www.nachrichtenleicht.de/benutzung-100.html> has instructions
about their weekly news in easy German. Here you can also test if
Leichte Sprache is too easy or adequate to your knowledge of German.

Sorry, no idea how much literature - if any - is available online in
Leichte Sprache or Einfache Sprache.

By the way, if you explain your aims and why you write in English, I
expect that most readers of de.etc.sprache.deutsch will understand your
text and some of them might even have better suggestions than mine. On
the other hand, quite a few bullshitters will start their usual tirade
against the Leichte Sprache, like their constant barking against
gender-neutral language*, and I don't know if you can and will bear them.

*Gender-neutral language is rather easy in English, not so much in a
language where every substantive and most adjectives are masculine,
feminine or neuter. Just an example, for those readers who know enough
German:

German English
der neue ... (e.g. Computer) the new computer
die neue ... (e.g. Badewanne) the new bathtub
das neue ... (e.g. Smartphone) the new smartphone
die neuen ... (e.g. Bücher) the new books
ein neuer ... (Computer) a new computer
eine neue ... (Badewanne) a new bathtub
ein neues ... (Smartphone) a new smartphone

*Some readers could find this interesting:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_neutrality_in_languages_with_grammatical_gender>

[Paul Carmichael]

Post by Silvano
<https://www.nachrichtenleicht.de/benutzung-100.html> has instructions
about their weekly news in easy German.

Thanks. That looks interesting.

[Joy Beeson]

On Sat, 7 Sep 2024 13:16:22 +0200, Silvano

Post by Silvano
*Gender-neutral language is rather easy in English, not so much in a
language where every substantive and most adjectives are masculine,
feminine or neuter. Just an example, for those readers who know enough

My German teacher's example was so memorable that I can quote it more
than sixty years later: "If the girl put her purse on the table, it
put her on him."

[Janet]

In article <pan$448e9$25d63594$59065120$f1eaf60
@gmail.com>, ***@gmail.com says...

Post by Paul Carmichael
Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.
I like to read dumbed down German. I have tried reading "proper" fiction,
but prose is hard work and riddled with words that even most German
speakers (probably) wouldn't recognise.
I've been buying short stories for the kindle from Amazon, such as these
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B008SS74TQ/
ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_image_o02?ie=UTF8&psc=1, but at 3€ a pop, it's
costing me lots. Each one only takes 90 minutes to read. If that.
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down German
reading material?

In UK, a comporable source would be literature written
for native-speaker Brit adults/teenagers who have literacy
problems (in English).

Libraries stock them. Adult literacy classes use them

https://readingagency.org.uk/adult-reading-research-
report-2024/



Janet

[jerryfriedman]

Post by Paul Carmichael
Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.
I like to read dumbed down German. I have tried reading "proper"
fiction, but

literary?

Post by Paul Carmichael
prose is hard work and riddled with words that even most German
speakers (probably) wouldn't recognise.
I've been buying short stories for the kindle from Amazon, such as these
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B008SS74TQ/
ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_image_o02?ie=UTF8&psc=1, but at 3€ a pop, it's
costing me lots. Each one only takes 90 minutes to read. If that.
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down German
reading material?
Thanks.

Another approach, recommended by a Russian-speaking
former roommate, is to read German versions of things
you know well--either originals of German books you know
in translation, or German translations of books you know.
For my roommate it was /The Three Musketeers/.

[Hibou]

Post by jerryfriedman

Post by Paul Carmichael
Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.
I like to read dumbed down German. I have tried reading "proper"
fiction, but

literary?

Post by Paul Carmichael
prose is hard work and riddled with words that even most German
speakers (probably) wouldn't recognise.
I've been buying short stories for the kindle from Amazon, such as these
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B008SS74TQ/
ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_image_o02?ie=UTF8&psc=1, but at 3€ a pop, it's
costing me lots. Each one only takes 90 minutes to read. If that.
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down German
reading material?
Thanks.

Another approach, recommended by a Russian-speaking
former roommate, is to read German versions of things
you know well--either originals of German books you know
in translation, or German translations of books you know.
For my roommate it was /The Three Musketeers/.

When I was resurrecting my French, a while ago now, I found that there
were bilingual versions of some texts available, the left-hand pages
being in one language and the right-hand ones in the other. I suppose a
free source of such material would be whatever online texts you fancy,
placed next to a machine translation. (Here be dodgily translated dragons?)

Our municipal library had Easy Readers, I think they were called,
published by some Danish outfit. These were simplified versions of
classic books (Maigrets, 'Jean de Florette', etc.) and came in various
levels of difficulty. I think they had glossaries at the back.

Kindle, at least, has built-in monolingual dictionaries. These are all
right up to a point, if you're happy working only in the target
language, but do quite often return "No definition found".

Books for children are simpler, of course, but may not interest an
adult. I did read the first four Harry Potter books.

Do the Germans have an equivalent to the British Council and Institut
français? If so, that may be a source of help and material.

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

Post by Hibou

Post by jerryfriedman

Post by Paul Carmichael
Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.
I like to read dumbed down German. I have tried reading "proper"
fiction, but

literary?

Post by Paul Carmichael
prose is hard work and riddled with words that even most German
speakers (probably) wouldn't recognise.
I've been buying short stories for the kindle from Amazon, such as these
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B008SS74TQ/
ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_image_o02?ie=UTF8&psc=1, but at 3€ a pop, it's
costing me lots. Each one only takes 90 minutes to read. If that.
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down German
reading material?
Thanks.

Another approach, recommended by a Russian-speaking
former roommate, is to read German versions of things
you know well--either originals of German books you know
in translation, or German translations of books you know.

That has worked quite well for me sometimes, but not always. I found El
Misterio del Bellona Club heavy going despite being familiar with the
Enhglish original. On the other hand I ad little trouble with El Sueño
de Hipatia (José Calvo Poyato) despite the absence (as far as I know)
of an English translation.

Post by Hibou

Post by jerryfriedman
For my roommate it was /The Three Musketeers/.

When I was resurrecting my French, a while ago now, I found that there
were bilingual versions of some texts available, the left-hand pages
being in one language and the right-hand ones in the other.

Many years ago my wife (before she became my wife) gave me a bilingual
edition of Le Petit Prince in French and Spanish. I found the French
very useful for deciphering the Spanish.

Post by Hibou
I suppose a free source of such material would be whatever online
texts you fancy, placed next to a machine translation. (Here be dodgily
translated dragons?)
Our municipal library had Easy Readers, I think they were called,
published by some Danish outfit. These were simplified versions of
classic books (Maigrets, 'Jean de Florette', etc.) and came in various
levels of difficulty. I think they had glossaries at the back.
Kindle, at least, has built-in monolingual dictionaries. These are all
right up to a point, if you're happy working only in the target
language, but do quite often return "No definition found".
Books for children are simpler, of course, but may not interest an
adult. I did read the first four Harry Potter books.
Do the Germans have an equivalent to the British Council and Institut
français? If so, that may be a source of help and material.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Hibou
Do the Germans have an equivalent to the British Council and Institut
français? If so, that may be a source of help and material.

They have the authoritative spelling dictionary:

https://www.duden.de/

but my Add-blocker gives it hiccups.

[Silvano]

Post by Hibou
When I was resurrecting my French, a while ago now, I found that there
were bilingual versions of some texts available, the left-hand pages
being in one language and the right-hand ones in the other. I suppose a
free source of such material would be whatever online texts you fancy,
placed next to a machine translation. (Here be dodgily translated dragons?)
Our municipal library had Easy Readers, I think they were called,
published by some Danish outfit. These were simplified versions of
classic books (Maigrets, 'Jean de Florette', etc.) and came in various
levels of difficulty. I think they had glossaries at the back.
Kindle, at least, has built-in monolingual dictionaries. These are all
right up to a point, if you're happy working only in the target
language, but do quite often return "No definition found".
Books for children are simpler, of course, but may not interest an
adult. I did read the first four Harry Potter books.
Do the Germans have an equivalent to the British Council and Institut
français? If so, that may be a source of help and material.

Goethe-Institut. <https://www.goethe.de/en/index.html>

[Peter Moylan]

Post by Hibou
Books for children are simpler, of course, but may not interest an
adult. I did read the first four Harry Potter books.

So did I. I wonder how many people found that the fourth book was the
place where they wanted to stop reading.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by Hibou
Books for children are simpler, of course, but may not interest an
adult. I did read the first four Harry Potter books.

So did I. I wonder how many people found that the fourth book was the
place where they wanted to stop reading.

In a discussion about Harry Potter in dk.kultur.sprog I said that I
considered to read them because they were so popular with children. I
was warned against it alltogether.

[jerryfriedman]

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by Hibou
Books for children are simpler, of course, but may not interest an
adult. I did read the first four Harry Potter books.

So did I. I wonder how many people found that the fourth book was the
place where they wanted to stop reading.

In a discussion about Harry Potter in dk.kultur.sprog I said that I
considered to read them

("considered reading them")

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen
because they were so popular with children. I
was warned against it alltogether.

On what grounds? I'm not a fan, but a lot of adults enjoy them.

(The spelling is "altogether", but I'm not sure what you mean
by it. You were warned against reading them for any reason?)

--
Jerry Friedman

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by jerryfriedman

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen
because they were so popular with children. I
was warned against it alltogether.

On what grounds? I'm not a fan, but a lot of adults enjoy them.

Boring and uninteresting was what he said.

[jerryfriedman]

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen

Post by jerryfriedman

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen
because they were so popular with children. I
was warned against it alltogether.

On what grounds? I'm not a fan, but a lot of adults enjoy them.

Boring and uninteresting was what he said.

Well, that's a matter of taste.

[Peter Moylan]

Post by jerryfriedman

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen

Post by jerryfriedman

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen
because they were so popular with children. I
was warned against it alltogether.

On what grounds? I'm not a fan, but a lot of adults enjoy them.

Boring and uninteresting was what he said.

Well, that's a matter of taste.

The first two books were excellent. After that, as so often happens with
sequels, the quality went down.

On the other hand, I did enjoy all seven movies.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Peter Moylan
The first two books were excellent. After that, as so often happens with
sequels, the quality went down.
On the other hand, I did enjoy all seven movies.

Maybe I'll give it a shot then.

[Anders D. Nygaard]

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by jerryfriedman

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen
because they were so popular with children. I
was warned against it alltogether.

On what grounds?  I'm not a fan, but a lot of adults enjoy them.

Boring and uninteresting was what he said.

Well, that's a matter of taste.

The first two books were excellent. After that, as so often happens with
sequels, the quality went down.

My wife and I had great fun with them - we bought the English editions
the (mid)night they came out, and I read them to her ... in Danish.
(She is not at all confident in English - though she ought to be)

Apparently I mixed up names *a lot* without noticing.

Post by Peter Moylan
On the other hand, I did enjoy all seven movies.

You missed the eighth movie? (book 7 is two movies)

/Anders, Denmark

[Peter Moylan]

[Harry Potter]

Post by Anders D. Nygaard

Post by Peter Moylan
On the other hand, I did enjoy all seven movies.

You missed the eighth movie? (book 7 is two movies)

I probably miscounted. Not having read all of the books, I thought there
were only six.

[Peter Moylan]

Post by Paul Carmichael
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down
German reading material?

Another approach, recommended by a Russian-speaking former roommate,
is to read German versions of things you know well--either originals
of German books you know in translation, or German translations of
books you know. For my roommate it was /The Three Musketeers/.

Somewhere among my books I have a copy of "De kleine zeemeermin" from a
time when I thought I might be able to learn Dutch. It certainly was
easier to read than typical Dutch material, because I knew the story
already.

A relative of mine, who is trying to learn Polish, has bought some
children's books in Polish, and she has suggested that i do the same for
Irish. I haven't done so, because children's books are usually boring
for adults, but it has occurred to me that I should search for textbook
material used by Irish high school pupils.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Peter Moylan
Somewhere among my books I have a copy of "De kleine zeemeermin" from a
time when I thought I might be able to learn Dutch. It certainly was
easier to read than typical Dutch material, because I knew the story
already.

I can read Dutch and understand between 50% and 75% because the words
are relatively similar, and it helps to know German because some of them
look like German words. I am completely at a loss with spoken Dutch.

[Adam Funk]

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by Paul Carmichael
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down
German reading material?

Another approach, recommended by a Russian-speaking former roommate,
is to read German versions of things you know well--either originals
of German books you know in translation, or German translations of
books you know. For my roommate it was /The Three Musketeers/.

Somewhere among my books I have a copy of "De kleine zeemeermin" from a
time when I thought I might be able to learn Dutch. It certainly was
easier to read than typical Dutch material, because I knew the story
already.

If that's "zeemermin", what's a "landmermin"?

[J. J. Lodder]

Post by Adam Funk

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by Paul Carmichael
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down
German reading material?

Another approach, recommended by a Russian-speaking former roommate,
is to read German versions of things you know well--either originals
of German books you know in translation, or German translations of
books you know. For my roommate it was /The Three Musketeers/.

Somewhere among my books I have a copy of "De kleine zeemeermin" from a
time when I thought I might be able to learn Dutch. It certainly was
easier to read than typical Dutch material, because I knew the story
already.

If that's "zeemermin", what's a "landmermin"?

Too bad, but the 'min' is female only.
At the root she is what the English call 'a wet nurse'.
Of course the 'zeemeerman' has also been invented.
<https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/zeemeerman>

But there is the 'zeeteefje',
which you'll never guess.
('teefje' is the diminutive of 'teef' a female dog
and very denigrating if applied to a woman)

It is hard to find even with help from google,

Jan

[Adam Funk]

Post by J. J. Lodder

Post by Adam Funk

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by Paul Carmichael
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down
German reading material?

Another approach, recommended by a Russian-speaking former roommate,
is to read German versions of things you know well--either originals
of German books you know in translation, or German translations of
books you know. For my roommate it was /The Three Musketeers/.

Somewhere among my books I have a copy of "De kleine zeemeermin" from a
time when I thought I might be able to learn Dutch. It certainly was
easier to read than typical Dutch material, because I knew the story
already.

If that's "zeemermin", what's a "landmermin"?

Too bad, but the 'min' is female only.
At the root she is what the English call 'a wet nurse'.
Of course the 'zeemeerman' has also been invented.
<https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/zeemeerman>

I recognized "zee" = "sea", but I got the impression (wrong?) that
"mermin" on its own meant "mermaid", & "sea-mermaid" sounded
redundant.

Post by J. J. Lodder
But there is the 'zeeteefje',
which you'll never guess.
('teefje' is the diminutive of 'teef' a female dog
and very denigrating if applied to a woman)

So "teefje" is analogous to "bitch" --- enlighten me, what's a
"sea-bitch"?

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

Post by J. J. Lodder

Post by Adam Funk

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by Paul Carmichael
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down
German reading material?

Another approach, recommended by a Russian-speaking former roommate,
is to read German versions of things you know well--either originals
of German books you know in translation, or German translations of
books you know. For my roommate it was /The Three Musketeers/.

Somewhere among my books I have a copy of "De kleine zeemeermin" from a
time when I thought I might be able to learn Dutch. It certainly was
easier to read than typical Dutch material, because I knew the story
already.

If that's "zeemermin", what's a "landmermin"?

Too bad, but the 'min' is female only.
At the root she is what the English call 'a wet nurse'.
Of course the 'zeemeerman' has also been invented.
<https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/zeemeerman>
But there is the 'zeeteefje',
which you'll never guess.
('teefje' is the diminutive of 'teef' a female dog

Much like "bitch" in Engish. I'm told that dog breeders use it without
embarrassment, but otherwise people avoid the word, even when talking
about a female dog, unless they want to offend.

Post by J. J. Lodder
and very denigrating if applied to a woman)
It is hard to find even with help from google,
Jan

[J. J. Lodder]

Post by Athel Cornish-Bowden

Post by J. J. Lodder

Post by Adam Funk

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by Paul Carmichael
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down
German reading material?

Another approach, recommended by a Russian-speaking former roommate,
is to read German versions of things you know well--either originals
of German books you know in translation, or German translations of
books you know. For my roommate it was /The Three Musketeers/.

Somewhere among my books I have a copy of "De kleine zeemeermin" from a
time when I thought I might be able to learn Dutch. It certainly was
easier to read than typical Dutch material, because I knew the story
already.

If that's "zeemermin", what's a "landmermin"?

Too bad, but the 'min' is female only.
At the root she is what the English call 'a wet nurse'.
Of course the 'zeemeerman' has also been invented.
<https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/zeemeerman>
But there is the 'zeeteefje',
which you'll never guess.
('teefje' is the diminutive of 'teef' a female dog

Much like "bitch" in Engish. I'm told that dog breeders use it without
embarrassment, but otherwise people avoid the word, even when talking
about a female dog, unless they want to offend.

Post by J. J. Lodder
and very denigrating if applied to a woman)
It is hard to find even with help from google,

Yes, and the joke: the 'zeeteefje' is a deliberate spoonerism
on 'theezeefje' (E. tea strainer)
Of course 'zeehonden' (E. seals) long for the company
of a 'zeeteefje.
There is a fun/nonsense/joke/ poem with it.

English has lots of joke spoonerisms too,

Jan

[Peter Moylan]

Yes, and the joke: the 'zeeteefje' is a deliberate spoonerism on
'theezeefje' (E. tea strainer) Of course 'zeehonden' (E. seals) long
for the company of a 'zeeteefje. There is a fun/nonsense/joke/ poem
with it.
English has lots of joke spoonerisms too,

There is a French children's song "Meunier, tu dors". In singing it to
my children, I found myself singing "Douanier, tu meurs".

[J. J. Lodder]

Post by Peter Moylan

Yes, and the joke: the 'zeeteefje' is a deliberate spoonerism on
'theezeefje' (E. tea strainer) Of course 'zeehonden' (E. seals) long
for the company of a 'zeeteefje. There is a fun/nonsense/joke/ poem
with it.
English has lots of joke spoonerisms too,

There is a French children's song "Meunier, tu dors". In singing it to
my children, I found myself singing "Douanier, tu meurs".

In case you would want to practice your Dutch,
there is a Spoonerism ballad 'Sint Dracus en de Joor'.
(by John O'Mill = Johan van der Meulen, also known for 'Double Dutch')

A onriginal idea, it precedes Edward Lear.
(who probably did not know about it)
It is also suitable for declamation.

Jan

[musika]

Post by J. J. Lodder
In case you would want to practice your Dutch,
there is a Spoonerism ballad 'Sint Dracus en de Joor'.
(by John O'Mill = Johan van der Meulen, also known for 'Double Dutch')
A onriginal idea, it precedes Edward Lear.
(who probably did not know about it)

Hardly surprising as Lear died 27 years before van der Meulen was born.

[J. J. Lodder]

Post by musika

Post by J. J. Lodder
In case you would want to practice your Dutch,
there is a Spoonerism ballad 'Sint Dracus en de Joor'.
(by John O'Mill = Johan van der Meulen, also known for 'Double Dutch')
A onriginal idea, it precedes Edward Lear.
(who probably did not know about it)

Hardly surprising as Lear died 27 years before van der Meulen was born.

You are right of course.
Unfortunately my always fallible memory refuses to come up
the English spoonerism ballad I was thinking of.
My only excuse is tat I had the complete works of Lear in my hands
only two days ago.

Jan

[Adam Funk]

Post by J. J. Lodder

Post by Athel Cornish-Bowden

Post by J. J. Lodder

Post by Adam Funk

Post by Peter Moylan

Post by Paul Carmichael
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down
German reading material?

Another approach, recommended by a Russian-speaking former roommate,
is to read German versions of things you know well--either originals
of German books you know in translation, or German translations of
books you know. For my roommate it was /The Three Musketeers/.

Somewhere among my books I have a copy of "De kleine zeemeermin" from a
time when I thought I might be able to learn Dutch. It certainly was
easier to read than typical Dutch material, because I knew the story
already.

If that's "zeemermin", what's a "landmermin"?

Too bad, but the 'min' is female only.
At the root she is what the English call 'a wet nurse'.
Of course the 'zeemeerman' has also been invented.
<https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/zeemeerman>
But there is the 'zeeteefje',
which you'll never guess.
('teefje' is the diminutive of 'teef' a female dog

Much like "bitch" in Engish. I'm told that dog breeders use it without
embarrassment, but otherwise people avoid the word, even when talking
about a female dog, unless they want to offend.

Post by J. J. Lodder
and very denigrating if applied to a woman)
It is hard to find even with help from google,

Yes, and the joke: the 'zeeteefje' is a deliberate spoonerism
on 'theezeefje' (E. tea strainer)
Of course 'zeehonden' (E. seals) long for the company
of a 'zeeteefje.
There is a fun/nonsense/joke/ poem with it.

That is pretty funny. Thanks for explaining it.

[Paul Carmichael]

Post by jerryfriedman

Post by Paul Carmichael
Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.
I like to read dumbed down German. I have tried reading "proper"
fiction, but

literary?

Post by Paul Carmichael
prose is hard work and riddled with words that even most German
speakers (probably) wouldn't recognise.
I've been buying short stories for the kindle from Amazon, such as
these https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B008SS74TQ/
ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_image_o02?ie=UTF8&psc=1, but at 3€ a pop, it's
costing me lots. Each one only takes 90 minutes to read. If that.
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down German
reading material?
Thanks.

Another approach, recommended by a Russian-speaking former roommate, is
to read German versions of things you know well--either originals of
German books you know in translation, or German translations of books
you know.
For my roommate it was /The Three Musketeers/.

Heh. I've read several (famous) stories a few times and each time I
understand a bit more.

[Madhu]

I didn't find the particular 20th century german publication i was
searching for on archive.org, but there are tons of german
"mensmagazines" Men's Magazines: "1970s and Beyond collection"
(for some reason Dutch/German versions seem to abound over corresponding
english titles)

bottomline archive.org may be worth a check-out before typing giving
your credit card details to amazon

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Paul Carmichael
Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.

In principle, but I think that you'll get positive answers to your
question. Most of the users are nice people.

Not that I mind your question here.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Paul Carmichael
Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.
I like to read dumbed down German. I have tried reading "proper" fiction,
but prose is hard work and riddled with words that even most German
speakers (probably) wouldn't recognise.

You may find this dictionary useful. It is German-German. I prefer that
type which is hard to begin with, but strengthens your language muscels
in the long run:

https://www.dwds.de/

It has the peculiarity that if a word can be both a noun and something
else, you have to write the noun with capital first letter to get that
meaning. Example "Lachen/lachen".

[Adam Funk]

Post by Paul Carmichael
Wrong place, I know, but I also recognise names common to this and the
German group. I ask here because my German is somewhat lacking and the
German group is German only.
I like to read dumbed down German. I have tried reading "proper" fiction,
but prose is hard work and riddled with words that even most German
speakers (probably) wouldn't recognise.
I've been buying short stories for the kindle from Amazon, such as these
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B008SS74TQ/
ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_image_o02?ie=UTF8&psc=1, but at 3€ a pop, it's
costing me lots. Each one only takes 90 minutes to read. If that.
So, can anybody here recommend a source of lots of dumbed down German
reading material?

There used to be a decent number of fiction/literature books
(treeware) in modern languages with facing English translation. I wish
they would publish those again.

(One of the side notes in Humez & Humez's _Latina pro Populo_ informs
the student that the Loeb Classical Library books in Latin have facing
translations except for the dirty parts, a fact which helps you find
them.)


I was walking through a university students' union today & saw a shelf
for dropping off surplus books for others to take. There were three
books on C and C++ in German next to Joyce's _Ulysses_ (in English).

[Paul Carmichael]

Post by Adam Funk
I was walking through a university students' union today & saw a shelf
for dropping off surplus books for others to take. There were three
books on C and C++ in German next to Joyce's _Ulysses_ (in English).

I was about to say I wonder if my K&R has antique value but I see it's
still in print. 1988.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Paul Carmichael

Post by Adam Funk
I was walking through a university students' union today & saw a shelf
for dropping off surplus books for others to take. There were three
books on C and C++ in German next to Joyce's _Ulysses_ (in English).

I was about to say I wonder if my K&R has antique value but I see it's
still in print. 1988.

There must still be a lot of C-code out there that needs maintaining.

[Adam Funk]

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen

Post by Paul Carmichael

Post by Adam Funk
I was walking through a university students' union today & saw a shelf
for dropping off surplus books for others to take. There were three
books on C and C++ in German next to Joyce's _Ulysses_ (in English).

I was about to say I wonder if my K&R has antique value but I see it's
still in print. 1988.

There must still be a lot of C-code out there that needs maintaining.

C and assembly are still used for kernels, device drivers, & (I think)
fast gaming engines.

[Stefan Ram]

Post by Adam Funk
C and assembly are still used for kernels, device drivers, & (I think)
fast gaming engines.

C is still hanging in there as one of the top programming languages.

|Tiobe (September 2024):
|1 Python 20.17%
|2 C++ 10.75%
|3 Java 9.45%
|4 C 8.89%
|. . .
(Tiobe's got some thoughts on C this month, too!)

Even though Python's the big dog right now, we can't overlook
that the standard distribution of Python is written in C, and
a ton of the standard library and extra libraries for Python
are also in C. CPython can totally talk to the C ABI.

|=head2 What language is Parrot written in?
|
| C.
|
| =head2 For the love of God, man, why?!?!?!?
|
| Because it's the best we've got.
|
from an FAQ's source code from 2013, now gone from the web

|Here's the thing: C is everywhere. Recently Tim Bray made
|basically the same point; all the major operating systems,
|all the high-level language runtimes, all the databases, and
|all major productivity applications are written in C.
from a blog entry from 2008.

[Paul Carmichael]

Post by Adam Funk

Post by Bertel Lund Hansen

Post by Paul Carmichael

Post by Adam Funk
I was walking through a university students' union today & saw a
shelf for dropping off surplus books for others to take. There were
three books on C and C++ in German next to Joyce's _Ulysses_ (in
English).

I was about to say I wonder if my K&R has antique value but I see it's
still in print. 1988.

There must still be a lot of C-code out there that needs maintaining.

By old timers, I imagine. K&R was largely for training. And a lot of the
rules have changed (prototyping etc).

Post by Adam Funk
C and assembly are still used for kernels, device drivers, & (I think)
fast gaming engines.

When I left Doc Solly's (Network associates, McAfee, now Intel) 21 years
ago, all ASM knowledge left with me. I obviously left a lot of reusable
stuff, but all coding was C++ by then (and "visual"). I bet it's all drag
and drop by now.

I do wonder just how much kernel code has been re-optimised for 64 bit.
Very little, I'd guess. Just tons of patches with macros. It's largely
what I did for Itanium back in the day. Luckily our stuff was so cross-
platform that it was already heavily macroised. Same codebase for 16 bit
OS/2, 64 bit Itanium and the rest (lots). Even bigendian vs littleendian.

Jumpers for goalposts...

[Peter Moylan]

Post by Paul Carmichael

Post by Adam Funk
I was walking through a university students' union today & saw a
shelf for dropping off surplus books for others to take. There
were three books on C and C++ in German next to Joyce's _Ulysses_
(in English).

I was about to say I wonder if my K&R has antique value but I see
it's still in print. 1988.

If you want antique value, I still have a complete set of TopSpeed
manuals (1989), covering C, C++, Modula-2, and Pascal. Now, that was an
impressive set of compilers.

And I've just realised that I still have "Intermediate Chemistry" (6th
edition, 1954) by Lowry and Cavell.

[Paul Carmichael]

Post by Peter Moylan
And I've just realised that I still have "Intermediate Chemistry" (6th
edition, 1954) by Lowry and Cavell.

Here on my desk I have a wireless operator handbook dated 1939.

I was born in 1961, however. This belonged to a grandfather.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Post by Paul Carmichael

Post by Peter Moylan
And I've just realised that I still have "Intermediate Chemistry" (6th
edition, 1954) by Lowry and Cavell.

Here on my desk I have a wireless operator handbook dated 1939.
I was born in 1961, however. This belonged to a grandfather.

My father was alittle sad, when moving from his own house (now sold) to
live with his 'new' girlfriend, because he couldn't find his thick book
filled with technical tables - useful for an engineer.

PS. He is a competent computer user and can easily find what he needs.

[Peter Moylan]

Post by Paul Carmichael

Post by Peter Moylan
And I've just realised that I still have "Intermediate Chemistry"
(6th edition, 1954) by Lowry and Cavell.

Here on my desk I have a wireless operator handbook dated 1939.
I was born in 1961, however. This belonged to a grandfather.

I can't find my copy of The Radio Amateur's Handbook from the mid-1960s.
I must have donated it to my grandson. I know I've given him the
textbook I had in first year Physics.

Back in those days I had the ambition to get a radio amateur licence,
but I didn't practice enough to get my morse speed high enough. I think
the requirement was 25 words/minute.

[Paul Carmichael]

Post by Peter Moylan
Back in those days I had the ambition to get a radio amateur licence,
but I didn't practice enough to get my morse speed high enough. I think
the requirement was 25 words/minute.

Heh. As a kid, I was building radio kit (valves, of course) and really
wanted to do the ham exam. Trouble is, being a child, I didn't have the
money to pay for it. My parents weren't in the least interested.

As a young adult I got into CB and lost interest in short wave.

And then there were engines and girls...

[Joy Beeson]

Post by Peter Moylan
Back in those days I had the ambition to get a radio amateur licence,
but I didn't practice enough to get my morse speed high enough. I think
the requirement was 25 words/minute.

Try again. Nowadays any Tom, Dick, or Harriet can earn an Extra-Class
license on the first try.

If you do lots of practice tests.

My favorite distractor (OB AUE: is that the correct word for the
wrong answers on a multiple-guess exam?) was "The Beverage antenna
makes an excellent hand-held direction finder."

That will catch anyone who remembers that the Beverage is extremely
directional and forgets that it's miles long.

[Adam Funk]

Post by Paul Carmichael

Post by Peter Moylan
And I've just realised that I still have "Intermediate Chemistry" (6th
edition, 1954) by Lowry and Cavell.

Here on my desk I have a wireless operator handbook dated 1939.
I was born in 1961, however. This belonged to a grandfather.

I've inherited _The Principles and Practive of Surveying Volume I_
(1927), the Chemical Rubber _Handbook of Chemistry and Physics_
(1926), & a circular slide rule with a 75-foot spiral scale.

[Stefan Ram]

Post by Adam Funk
There used to be a decent number of fiction/literature books
(treeware) in modern languages with facing English translation. I wish
they would publish those again.

I've cottoned on that "easy" ain't always what it's cracked up
to be. Kids' books can be a tough nut to crack, 'cause they're
chock-full of words every tyke who grew up speaking the lingo
knows, but us language learners are left high and dry.
(Take "jay" for instance - every little tike in the Golden State
could point one out, but newbies to English? Forget about it!)

On the flip side, I found Bourbaki's French a piece of cake to
read, same goes for a certain Spanish text about markup languages.
(Mind you, I never really hit the books for French or Spanish!)

Maybe we could boil this down to some straight-up advice:
"Keep your nose in the books from your field of expertise!"

|Une théorie Y' est dite plus forte qu'une théorie Y si tous
|les signes de Y sont des signes de Y', si tous les axiomes
|explicites de Y sont des théorèmes de Y', et si les schémas de
|Y sont des schémas de Y'.
|
|C4. Si une théorie Y' est plus forte qu'une théorie Y, tous
|les théorèmes de Y sont des théorèmes de Y'.
|
|Soit R_1, R_2, . . ., R_n une démonstration de Y. On va voir de
|proche en proche que chaque R_i, est un théorème de Y', ce qui
|établira le critère. Supposons notre assertion établie pour
|les relations précédant R_k, et établissons-la pour R_k. Si R_k,
|est un axiome de Y, c'est un théorème de Y' par hypothèse. Si
|R_k, est précédée par des relations R_i et R_i => R_k, on sait déjà
|que R_i et R_i => R_k, sont des théorèmes de Y', donc R_k, est un
|théorème de Y' d'après C1.
|
|Si chacune des deux théories Y et Y' est plus forte que
|l'autre, on dit que Y et Y' sont équivalentes. Alors, tout
|théorèmc de Y est un théorème de Y' et viceversa.

(Is this clicking for me just 'cause I've already got some
math under my belt, or would even Joe Schmoe be able
to wrap his head around it, seeing as Bourbaki's lingo
is as clear as a Silicon Valley startup pitch?)

|Las últimas versiones de WordPress han popularizado entre los
|editores de contenidos el uso de un lenguaje de marcado
|conocido como /Markdown/, al que se identifica como un
|“lenguaje de marcado ligero” (lightweight markup language).
|Y no es la única plataforma de este tipo que puede hacer uso
|de /Markdown/. Dado el volumen de sedes web que se desarrollan
|sobre este sistema de gestión de contenidos, tarde o temprano
|puede extenderse su utilización en la edición y publicación
|de contenidos en otras plataformas.

|/Markdown/ no es el único lenguaje de marcado ligero existente.
|El /CamelCase/ que todavía puede usarse en wikis es otro ejemplo
|de ello. /BBCode/ puede usarse en foros de opinión desde hace
|dos décadas, y fue especialmente diseñado a tal fin.
|Gran parte de la documentación que acompaña a diferentes
|herramientas de software, y que está disponible en internet,
|ha sido etiquetada y procesada utilizando /reStructuredText/.