“Recently I became aware of an exciting new project that I think has the potential to be of great value to the reading world, Forgotten Books. They have thousands of titles you will find no where else.”
" If you register for a free account you can also receive the free ebook of the day, which is a randomly chosen book available in full every 24 hours."
j:-)
What an interesting site-- thanks for sharing.
M
Great site with great collection of books. Thanks for sharing this.
https://plus.google.com/101635215738395229687/
Toller Link, danke Jolanda 
Great find and thank you for sharing the link with us.
http://www.forgottenbooks.org/books/A_Key_to_German_Conversation_1100000235
Here is a book for English speakers learning German from 1845.
Oh man, I am all over this one.
http://www.forgottenbooks.org/books/Geschichte_der_Mathematischen_Wissenschaften_Teil_v2_1100082072
“Here is a book for English speakers learning German from 1845.”
I saw a guy on LingQ who used one of these to learn German. “Creimann”…I think.
This one is for Friedemann:
@ Paule
How was his German?
I would love to meet somebody who learned all of their English from Shakespeare.
English as spoken in 1845 was already very modern compared to the Bard of Stratford…methinks!
ad Jay: Genie und Wahnsinn lol. Die Frage ist, in welche Richtung die Waage ausschlägt (das meine ich jetzt nicht auf Friedemann bezogen, sondern ganz allgemein).
Sorry, I guess I’m not supposed to write in German here. Bad, bad, baaaaaaaad boy …
ad Paul: (…) I saw a guy on LingQ who used one of these to learn German. “Creimann”…I think. (…)
Seriously? That sounds interesting. I have met people who had used Assimil courses from the 40ies and those were already quite hilarious sometimes (the courses, not the people…ok, maybe the people too …).
@Colin
I never heard him speak, unfortunately. 19th century German is not as hard to understand as one might expect actually.^^
@LoLa III
I just imagined tourists in Austria speaking “Hitlerdeutsch” xD
The German book looks still quite useful. I’ve just never heard of “Nadelküssen” lol. Either that is a hilarious typo or they really used “Küssen” instead of “Kissen” in 1845.
I find it also quite interesting that the translate “wicked” as “gottlos”.
Oh, wow, my favourite so far is “Jungfer” for “Miss” …Try to use that today in a bar, Jay 
“Wie befindet sich Ihr Herr Vater?” “Er befindet sich sehr wohl”. ----- I love that kind of language.
I must say that some of these phrases sound really nice. I have a bit of a penchant for old-fashioned (especially polite) expressions.
I met a Chinese woman studying in Scotland who said that when she was taught English, she was told to always greet people with ‘how do you do’.
@ Robert
Well this book clearly has no copyright, so if you want, you can record some of these and stick them in the library. So long as the lessons are clear that this is a bit old school, it should not be a problem.
(…) I met a Chinese woman studying in Scotland who said that when she was taught English, she was told to always greet people with ‘how do you do’. (…)
Instead of “good morning”, “good afternoon” etc.? I had been taught for the longest time that “how do you do?” means “Wie geht es dir/Ihnen?”.
(…) Well this book clearly has no copyright, so if you want, you can record some of these and stick them in the library. (…)
Maybe I’ll record some poetry or other literature from that time (if it is not copyrighted). I love how it sounds, especially when they talk in “third person” instead of the “Du”
“Was hat er sich denn nur dabei gedacht?” (instead of: Was hast du dir/Was haben Sie sich nur dabei gedacht?).
" especially when they talk in “third person” instead of the “Du”
A few weeks ago I had a chat with an old lady. At some point she asked me “Hat er denn ein Auto” and I answered “Keine Ahnung”…
Hmm…that sounds suspiciously like “Jungfrau”…!
ad Paul: (…) I just imagined tourists in Austria speaking “Hitlerdeutsch” xD (…)
Fortunately, that psychopath and his followers did not have too much influence on our language. Although there are some expressions that are related to that time (with some really terrible connotations). Supposedly, the expression “durch den Rost fallen” is one of these cases. There are worse ones, like “etwas bis zur Vergasung machen” (Beispiel: Ich habe bis zur Vergasung trainiert, gelernt etc.). Maybe that is only Austrian German and I have not used that expression for ages (and I certainly would not use it now either. I don’t want to start a discussion on political correctness but that expression is indeed terrible in every respect). As a young teen, however, I was not aware of that connotation.
I prefer the language of Ferdinand Raimund for example. Here’s a great interpretation of the “Hobellied” from “Der Verschwender”: Hobellied - YouTube
Ich sehe die Jünglinge sind wieder in Hochform! Es ist wahrlich ein Genuss, die Jugend beim Spielen zu beobachten…
Übrigens gab es tatsächlich “Hitlerdeutsch” Lehrbücher auf Englisch. Vor 40 Jahren habe ich eins entdeckt. Eine amerikanische Familie mit deutschen Wurzeln reiste ins neue Deutschland und erging sich in Lobsprüchen - ziemlich ekelig.
Berichtigung: es war wohl doch keine deutschstämmige Familie, sondern eine Geschäftsreise und eine Belohnung für den halbbwüchsigen Sohn, wenn ich mich recht erinnere
…