Overcome Reading Obstacles: Tips for Fluent German Comprehension

Ever feel like you're hitting a language learning roadblock when reading in German?

Imagine this: the flow of a good story interrupted by the stumbling block of unfamiliar words. You spend more time in a dictionary than you do immersed in the story. You try to just power through, but it makes no sense, so you end up just giving up on trying to read a book in German and you miss out on one of the best ways to expand your vocabulary.

Well, fear not! Today, we're diving into the art of efficient reading for German learners. It's time to break through those language barriers and enhance your reading experience. Ready to discover the secrets to fluent reading without getting lost in translation? Los geht’s!

Problem #1 - Stopping too much.

Don't stop for every single word that you don't know. If you don't understand a word just keep going kind of try and power through it. Usually you'll figure it out based on some context. Sometimes clarity comes from just soldiering on.

If you over analyze every little thing you're going to end up just spending too much time in the dictionary and not enough time in the story problem.

Problem #2 - Overlooking and underestimating the power of cognates

Don't overlook or underestimate the power of cognates in German. If that word looks pretty similar to what it is in your native language or it looks like a word that I already know, it probably is.

Take the German word "besser" for example. The word in English is "better". These two are not perfect cognates to each other, but if you say them back to back fast enough, eventually they sound pretty similar.

Problem #3 - Not pre-reading

Is there a vocab list that is provided by the author either at the end of the chapter, end of the page or at the end of the book. Read through that before you read the chapter.

If you familiarize yourself with this list before you actually get started into the chapter, your brain will already know those words, when you come across them within the context of the story. It'll also help you to solidify the them in your brain, so that you actually remember the vocab, when it's time for you to use it on your own.

If you don't have a vocab list that is provided to you start with the back of the book and you might be able to make up one of your own.

If you have one of those books that says on the back of it that it's about this kind of a story or this kind of category of thing or these are the places they're going to go, you can just look up those words that you'll probably need for those things.

Looking for recommended books? 

If you're looking for book recommendations, there's an Amazon affiliate page link here. Check that out you can just browse around all of the recommendations that I've given for German learners. Just don't forget that you aren't just getting awesome German learning resources, when you use those links, you're also helping to support my work by sending me a small commission with no additional cost to you. 

Bonus Tip: Use the book to build vocabulary, but don’t let that slow you down.

Simply underline the words that you don't know as you're reading. Don't look them up right that second. Just underline them while you're reading through the chapter. Once you're done with that chapter or that page or whatever your goal for the day is, go back through the chapter and see what words you underlined.

Make a list out of those things. Then look up the translations for each of them. Once you have a list with the translations you can reread the section that you are working on.

This will help boost not only your comprehension of the story, but also your retention of new words.

Now you're equipped with the tools to transform your German reading sessions into a smooth journey of comprehension remember it's not about understanding every single word but grasping the essence of the story embrace the power of cognates utilize the pre-reading strategies that I gave you in this video and don't forget about the bonus tip for building your vocabulary without slowing down your reading pace happy reading and bis bald. Tschüss.