German Books and/or Films? (GCSE)

Hallo!

I'm currently doing GCSE German, and plan to carry it on next year for A-Level as I love it. As a preparation for next year, my teacher recommended that I read some German books over the summer, to both stop all German going out of my head, and to generally get used to reading longer texts in German that aren't to do with school subjects, or whatever OCR make us do.

Anyway, I have no idea where to start. I obviously don't know enough German to keep up with a full-blown novel, but I ideally would like something at least semi-challenging for someone aiming for an A* in German GCSE.

So, can anyone give me any book - or film - recommendations, so I can make my dad order them for me? ;D

Thanks in advance (:

Reply 1

hannah_dru

2

I'll have a think about books. I have a series at home which I started at AS level which was fairly easy but I can't remember the name. In terms of films I'd say "Run Lola Run" ("Lola rennt") isn't too bad.

Reply 2

moody28028

2

Film wise, you could try Goodbye Lenin and The Lives of Others - both in german with english subtitles.

Reply 3

Marsha2112

15

If you can get hold of it (on cassette tape, the school might have it) Deutsch Plus (about a guy called Nicolai Antonescu) is seriouslyyyy good, like Eastenders but for people learning German, about GCSE level. The main guy in it is learning german.

Reply 4

infintywhirls

2

In our German lessons, we've watched Barfuss (Barefoot) and Die Welle (the wave) and they both have english subtitles. Pretty much everyone enjoyed them and I would definitely watch it again. :smile:

Reply 5

username163092

19

hannah_dru

I'll have a think about books. I have a series at home which I started at AS level which was fairly easy but I can't remember the name. In terms of films I'd say "Run Lola Run" ("Lola rennt") isn't too bad.

Lola Rent is great - there's not much talking in it, which makes it easier to understand. Just don't try to analyse it (I'm doing just that for my A2 speaking exam) - it will hurt your head! Goodbye Lenin is also a good film IMO, especially as it teaches you a bit about Germany's history.

Reply 6

bambii

moody28028

Film wise, you could try Goodbye Lenin and The Lives of Others - both in german with english subtitles.

These

Also, you could always look to see if any DVDs that you already have are dubbed into German. It can be useful if you know a film well, as you don't have to read the subtitles so much.

Reply 7

bambii

Marsha2112

If you can get hold of it (on cassette tape, the school might have it) Deutsch Plus (about a guy called Nicolai Antonescu) is seriouslyyyy good, like Eastenders but for people learning German, about GCSE level. The main guy in it is learning german.

I think you can get hold of it here for free?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/german/dplus/

Reply 8

02sd2607

I'd never have been able to read a book after GCSE, although it's not brilliant "Ich fühly mich so fifty-fifty" is the most accessible, or try reading the news or buy a book with translation on the other side, I have a penguin one 10 German short stories with translation on the other side, very useful!

Reply 9

nexusofsanity

TattyBoJangles

Hallo!

I'm doing a similar thing but with French, to try and acquire fluency in French. Bookwise, I started on Roald Dahl books, which were very basic and about GCSE-level texts, and am working my way up through other children's books such as Harry Potter. I'd definitely recommend reading books that you've already read in English. Similarly, for films/TV programs, I'd recommend watching German dubs of shows you've seen in English, quite simple shows like cartoons or something.

By the way word of warning: do not have English subtitles!!! That's a huge no! You will not improve your German that way! You'll just read off the English subtitles and not pay any heed to the spoken German. Believe me.

However, I would definitely say that if you can find something where the spoken language is German (or at least not English!), and you have German subtitles, that would be ideal. For example, I've been watching anime with French subtitles. Weird combination I know, but it works as, I pay no heed to the spoken Japanese, and work on understanding the French subtitles.

Good luck though. PM me if you want any more help.

Reply 10

hannah_dru

2

steffi.alexa

Lola Rent is great - there's not much talking in it, which makes it easier to understand. Just don't try to analyse it (I'm doing just that for my A2 speaking exam) - it will hurt your head! Goodbye Lenin is also a good film IMO, especially as it teaches you a bit about Germany's history.

Oops, I screwed up my post a bit.

Haha, I imagine it would! I did a translation about the film in year 1 of uni and that was a bit mental in places.

Seen all of the films recommended so far and can only recommend them further.

I agree about English subtitles not being a great help but I imagine if you'll have finished GCSE by then it'll be extremely hard without them. I've only just managed to not use subtitles this year on my year abroad.

Reply 11

username163092

19

hannah_dru

Oops, I screwed up my post a bit.

Haha, I imagine it would! I did a translation about the film in year 1 of uni and that was a bit mental in places.

Seen all of the films recommended so far and can only recommend them further.

I agree about English subtitles not being a great help but I imagine if you'll have finished GCSE by then it'll be extremely hard without them. I've only just managed to not use subtitles this year on my year abroad.

Yeah, I spent all of yesterday researching different interpretations of it and ended up very confused and not really understanding anything, not just the film!

Yeah, I still need English subtitles at A2 if I want to properly understand a film, might be okayish with German ones if not much comprehension is needed but no way would I have managed at GCSE without English ones.

Reply 12

hannah_dru

2

steffi.alexa

Yeah, I spent all of yesterday researching different interpretations of it and ended up very confused and not really understanding anything, not just the film!

Yeah, I still need English subtitles at A2 if I want to properly understand a film, might be okayish with German ones if not much comprehension is needed but no way would I have managed at GCSE without English ones.

I'm not surprised! I think it's one of those films that you can spend ages analysing cos of the three different ways the story goes.

Me neither :biggrin:

Reply 13

keh92

German magazines are a pretty good place to start too, as the articles aren't too long. Also you can find stuff like the German version of Harry Potter in your library I'm surrre :smile:

Head On

hannah_dru

I'm not surprised! I think it's one of those films that you can spend ages analysing cos of the three different ways the story goes.

Me neither :biggrin:

There may only be 3 different endings, but I managed to get about 5 different opinions on which one was the 'real' one :nothing:

-

I've just realised that I've really read no books in German... I'd probably be sitting there for hours with a dictionary though. :sigh:

Reply 16

inkbrain

We watched a ton of german movies in year 12.

I personally loved 'goodbye, lenin' and also 'the edukators'. The german literature we're reading is 'der Vorleser' but it's pretty challenging. I would definitely not have been able to read it in year 11 and we haven't even finished it yet. x_x

Edit: Ooooh I almost forgot. 'The lives of others' is a great film. It was particularly useful for me because we're studying the reunification as our historical period.

Reply 17

username163092

19

inkbrain

We watched a ton of german movies in year 12.

I personally loved 'goodbye, lenin' and also 'the edukators'. The german literature we're reading is 'der Vorleser' but it's pretty challenging. I would definitely not have been able to read it in year 11 and we haven't even finished it yet. x_x

Edit: Ooooh I almost forgot. 'The lives of others' is a great film. It was particularly useful for me because we're studying the reunification as our historical period.

How did you make yourself love that film? We're watching it (well, the German version, which simply has a different title and altered ending) and I just can't stand it - I need to love it as it's the film I'm studying for my exam!

Reply 18

amizzle91

9

Erm, the german films I've watched are:

Goodbye Lenin! (great film) and...
Der Untergang or "Downfall" (it's about Hitler's last days in Berlin, love this film also :smile:

)

I've read Die Wolke (The Cloud). I liked that as well.

I really want to watch Run, Lola, Run. Must get round to doing that :smile:

Reply 19

xvargtidx

Just pick some movies you have already watched and get them in German (www.amazon.de / www.ebay.de) + turn subtitles on. If you already know what is going to be said, it's much easier to learn new vocab and memorize it without having to look it up. I would not necessarily pick movies produced in Germany, as they sometimes have accents in them.

German Books and/or Films? (GCSE)

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