German Quickly A Grammar for Reading German.pdf

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\ew u>rk • Washington. P.C. 'Baltimore • Bein
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April Wilson
German
Quickly
A Grammar
for Reading
GERMAN
REVISED
EDITION
PETER LANG
New York • Washington • Baltimore • Bern
Frankfurt am Main • Berlin • Brussels • Vienna • Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilson, April.
German quickly: a grammar for reading German /
April Wilson. — Rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
I. German language —Grammar. 2. German language—Textbooks
for foreign speakers—English. I. Title.
PF3112.W55 438.2'421-dc21 2003012899
ISBN 0-8204-6759-6
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek.
Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the "Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie"; detailed bibliographic data is available
o n the Internet at http://dnb.ddb.de/.
Cover design by Lisa Barfield
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council of Library Resources.
© 2005, 2004 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York
275 Seventh Avenue, 28th Floor, New York, NY 10001
www.peterlangusa.com
All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.
Printed in the United States of America
Foreword
German Quickly: A Grammar for Reading German
evolved from the German read­
ing course I have taught to students in the University of Chicago community over
the past thirty years. It has the following features that make it a valuable text for
students who need to learn German quickly:
1. Explanations have been revised several times in response to student questions
and comments, so that the book provides important grammatical information
about the structure of German, which simply is not provided by other German
textbooks. In this edition, I have expanded upon the grammar explanations of
the 1993 edition, and I have included more reading and general review selec­
tions. I have also added questions to some of the exercise sentences in anticipa­
tion of common mistakes, and I have added reassuring comments when I know
students might be feeling overwhelmed.
2. It carefully describes key grammatical points in detail without giving students
superfluous information. Consequently, students have been able to translate
passages from thinkers as complex as Freud, Kafka, Mann, Rilke, Heidegger,
Tillich, Nietzsche, and Benjamin after about 100 hours or so of study.
3. Proverbs and aphorisms are used as translation exercises, even in the early pages
of the text. These help sustain students' enthusiasm for German when their abil­
ity to read is at an elementary level.
German Quickly
is both scholarly and fun.
vi
German Quickly
4. There are 12 sections in the appendix, including strategies for reading German,
an important word list, a summary of German grammar, verb charts, and a Hu­
manities Vocabulary, which is especially valuable for students beginning to read
scholarly articles in specialized fields. There is also a partial answer key, which
should prove helpful to students studying German independently.
5. People reading
German Quickly
are welcome to communicate with me though
e-mail: april@apriIwilson.com. I am eager to know who my readers are, and
would be happy to suggest additional readings based on specific interests.
The Structure of German Quickly, and How to Use It
This text consists primarily of grammar explanations with sample exercises and an
accompanying vocabulary. There are also periodic final exercises for additional vo­
cabulary and grammar practice. Cognates are placed in italics in the exercise sen­
tences to encourage students to guess their meanings.
Most of the exercise sentences consist either of proverbs or of a running saga of
two major characters—Fräulein Meier and a mailman. Some of the proverbs in­
cluded are unfamiliar to most Germans and are not representative of German cul­
ture. However, I have included them because they are intriguing. They contain a
wide variety of ideas about life and human nature—some insightful, some bizarre,
and some whimsical—which tend to add to the interest of learning a foreign lan­
guage. Fräulein Meier and the mailman are intended for fun. (Although a German
woman of Fräulein Meiers age living in Germany today would be called
Frau
Meier instead, I have retained the old-fashioned term
Fräulein
to highlight the
slighdy Victorian nature of her romance with the mailman.)
In addition to reading passages from Bichsei, Kleist, Buber, and Nietzsche, I
have included some Biblical reading passages and Grimm fairy tales because they
are familiar and repetitive, and because people enjoy reading something "real" even
when their grasp of German is not quite solid.
German Quickly
is best suited for a semester reading course; it can be covered in
a quarter, however. In a five week (highly) intensive course, I have been able to go
through it in four weeks. In a fifteen week course, I generally cover it in from ten to
eleven weeks. In any class, this text should be supplemented with outside readings.
I have deliberately kept the number of reading passages to a minimum so that,
with additional readings,
German Quickly
could be adapted to any German read­
ing course in the general humanities, philosophy, theology, art history, history, so­
ciology, classics, linguistics, music, and the like. A teacher also could have the free-

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