We learn the theoretical framework of a language through textbooks. But the best way to actually learn to use a new language is through stories, as children, and as adults! This is why short stories become an increasingly popular way to learn a new language.

Many short stories in the language take place in Germany. This series of German short stories are different. Don’t you find it interesting when someone has visited a foreign country, maybe even your home country, and is telling you about it? Perhaps in his own language? Meet Klaus. Klaus is German and visiting America. Improve your German and your knowledge of German culture whilst listening to his tales!

Klaus in Amerika – Midwest to the Northeast is the fifth and last part of a series of short stories. Each of them is short and sweet, or „kurz und knackig“. The manageable length makes it easily digestible, yet teaches valuable vocabulary, to give you a satisfying and efficient learning experience.

Since Klaus is telling about his travel adventures in an English-speaking country, many keywords are English and help you follow the story. Even if you do not understand every word right away, you will understand what Klaus is talking about. Key vocabulary, given within each chapter, just after the corresponding words and repeated after each chapter, helps you with this. In places, small translations are provided, to help you follow the story.

Synopsis:

My name is Klaus. I grew up in a small village in the former German Democratic Republic, now East Germany. In 1961 three of my uncles fled to Canada, just early enough to avoid the Berlin Wall. For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to go to America. When I was 9 years old the wall fell. Twelve years later, in 2001, after school and shortly after my military service, I flew from Dresden via Zurich to New York with a so-called "rail pass" valid for 45 days. It was my first big trip and it would take me across America by train. In 45 days I traveled almost 10,000 miles from the East Coast to the West Coast, and to Canada, where I visited my uncles for the first time, then through the Southwest to the Northeast.

This is the last part of my trip. I will tell you how I got in racial trouble in St. Louis by night, traveled to Niagara falls lacking sleep, food, and personal hygiene, and finally arrived on the East Coast in Boston and back to New York, where I had a very pleasant stay, which was just the opposite of my first night in this city.