"The diversity of our society is a great opportunity, for libraries too and libraries above all. It is a great challenge to face the pressing tasks of society, to overcome linguistic, cultural, media, socio-economic and institutional boundaries and to remove physical barriers. Libraries are the place where everyone is welcome, where a sense of belonging is created, where meeting and exchange are possible, where openness is lived out, where a balance between the virtual and the real world is offered – where reading knows no borders." (BVÖ)
Reading without borders
by dbv/Liliane Oser
Libraries make an important contribution to the integration of migrants, and of refugees and asylum seekers as well. The key to integration lies in command of the German language and in education. Do you need, for your work teaching others German language and culture, a case of items on loan with suitable material — from the lists below, for instance?
- Books without words (children's and young adult literature)
- Flight (children's and young adult literature)
- In flight with a case full of hope (children's and young adult literature)
- Learning German
...then just get in touch with us.
The Goethe-Institut offers an information page for refugees from Ukraine coming to Germany.
REISE KNOW-HOW offers the Kauderwelsch Ukrainian phrasebook as a download. The PDF is here. The EPUB (e-book format) is here.
The site "For Kids from Ukraine" also lists children's media in Ukrainian that are (freely) available.
A free PDF workbook meant to introduce Ukrainian refugees to the basics of German can be found here at Buchstaben.com.
It is not only our digital service PressReader that offers 85 journals and magazines in Ukrainian. All three digital Brockhaus reference works offer a translation function in 60 languages as well.
The WDR Maus now has a page of Lach- und Sachgeschichten in Ukrainian.
The magazine c't has gathered links to downloads, websites and videos at ct.de/yh2a. There you will find useful aids to communication, from a picture dictionary through first-aid vocabulary to an all-round welcome pack.
Most school books in Ukraine are available digitally. On the website of the Institute for the Modernisation of Educational Content (IMZO) there are PDFs of the textbooks from the Ukrainian educational publisher Ranok for every subject – German included – for years 1 to 11. The site is available only in Ukrainian and is therefore hard for German visitors to use. The German publisher Geest-Verlag has published the links to the German textbooks for years 1 to 11 on its website with German labelling.
For refugees from Ukraine, the language learning app Babbel has now developed courses in their language. With them they can learn German, English and Polish free of charge.
At the links below you will find stories in Ukrainian available free online:
- Bücherpiraten
- Zitronenbande
- Bücherbrücken
- the Ukrainian educational organisation „Osvitoria"
- digital library of Ukrainian literature
- Stiftung Lesen - useful online resources
- workbook with puzzles and games, pdf
At Sprachnudel, alongside a comprehensive German dictionary, you will find things worth knowing about German grammar. There are also various resources on learning German, and an e-book aimed at Ukrainian war refugees to help them communicate in a foreign country as quickly as possible.
Help with integration
„Ankommen" (arriving) means much more in German than merely arriving physically in Germany: it means becoming part of society and joining in. The app „Ankommen" helps with that, a companion for the first weeks in Germany. Built into the app is a free multimedia language course offering everyday support for the first steps in German. „Ankommen" is available in Arabic, English, Farsi, French and German and, once downloaded, can be used without internet access.
This app and others are installed on our tablets here at the library as well. So you can use them there, or simply find out about them.
Knowledge about Germany
The site „Facts about Germany" invites you to get to know Germany. It offers sound basic knowledge and orientation, in Arabic, Chinese, Czech, English, Farsi, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
Bridging language barriers
Online dictionaries
Langenscheidt has various online dictionaries.
Phrasebooks
A German-Arabic phrasebook from Langenscheidt is available here as a free PDF download.
Language courses
The free app hallo Deutsch Kinder is aimed particularly at children and young people living in Germany as migrants or refugees who grew up with a mother tongue other than German. It offers a way to approach the German language through play.
The Goethe-Institut offers a wide range of language learning: self-study courses, speaking exercises and videos, as well as information on dealing with the authorities, on everyday life and on looking for work. Everything works as an app on smartphones and tablets. Interactive vocabulary training in 16 languages can be used with no prior knowledge.
The teaching and learning booklet from Flüchtlingshilfe München offers a way into German with an everyday footing.
Getting into German: www.duden.de. For more than 130 years the Duden has been the authority on every question of German language and spelling. The site offers information on the meaning, grammar and pronunciation of German words. The spelling rules and common mistakes are recorded too: duden.de/haeufige_fehler.
Since mid-2019 Duden has also offered the Duden-Mentor, a free online tool that helps anyone write texts free of errors. The[nbsp]Duden-Mentor is the ideal complement to the usual reference works and helps improve style and expression.
mentor.duden.de
Films
The Goethe-Institut makes about 15 cases of films available for showings with refugee children and young people: Cinemanya – a case of films for refugee children and young people.
Library phrasebook
The HDMS offers a collection of turns of phrase and expressions from everyday English-language library work (German-English) as a PDF.
Help for traumatised children
A picture book for traumatised refugee children and their families
Understanding and accompanying traumatised refugee children – that is what this picture book sets out to encourage. It is available as a free PDF download in 4 languages. It comes from the educator Susanne Stein, who wrote and illustrated the book out of personal contact with refugees and out of sympathy with what they have been through. It contains the picture story „The child and its release from the shadow of the great, great fear", information for parents and ideas for the children affected. Here you will find more information and can download the trauma picture book free of charge in German, English, Arabic and Farsi.