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Product Details
Series: Ultimate Beginner-Intermediate
Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Living Language; Revised & enlarged edition (September 21, 2004)
This book is great for learning German with or without the CDs. (Note: If you are learning on your own, I would definitely recommend that you purchase the CDs since words are not pronounced as you may think! If you want to learn in your car as well, you can substitute the Living Language's "All Audio German" CD set for the one you can get with this book, which has about 75% of the material in the book covered in a very quick manner.)
The book covers numerous topics you are likely to encounter in German-speaking countries. Unlike most textbooks, this book has an answer key in the back. Each chapter includes a reading, the translation of the reading, details on the grammar points introduced in the reading, an extended vocabulary list, problems and finally some cultural notes.
Each chapter covers a particular topic. Topics cover everything from arriving, ordering food, buying and returning items, and getting medical help. Depending upon how much time you have and how fast you learn, this book could keep you busy for a couple of months to several years.
The only book I'd recommend more for complete beginners is the PONS "Beginners' Course German" with audio CD, though I have not seen this outside of Germany. The PONS course offers less material, but the colorful format and slower speed may be better for those new to the German language. However, the Living Language book does offer so much more material for the same (or lower) price.
If you are only intersted in speaking (and comprehending spoken) German, then the Pimsleur Language Program is better (though MUCH more expensive). However, if you want to read and write German as well, I would definitely recommend this book with the CDs.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
I took German as the 2nd foreign language course in college and dropped it after one month after being told by the teacher that one had to be able to vibrate one's tongue in order to learn German and that one should train one's tongue with water in the morning till it starts vibrate, which meant that I was doomed to learn German because the physical limitation of my tongue.
This was more than 20 years ago.
Recently, I decided to take another look at learning the German language, partly due to my curiosity about the German culture, and partly due to my fascination of being able to read the original writings of those great German thinkers.
After an extensive search on the internet and on [...], I found this course and bought it after some hesitation about its price tag.
It's been several months since I received my book and cd's.
I am taking my time on this German course, progressing at about one lesson per week, and keeping going back to review previous lessen(s) before starting a new lessen for the week.
First, I am surprised to learn that my college German teacher was incorrect. I don't seem to need a vibrating tongue to learn and to speak German.
During this time, I have had ordered a bunch of books on learning German, as well as other course material some of which also include cd's. But none of which has the same quality as this course, either in the mixture of new words, verbs, grammar and usages, or in the dialogs and word pronunciation.
So far, this is the best German course for me. And it's $[...] well invested.
If any one knows a better one, please tell me about it.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
I wanted to learn enough German to translate Schubert Lieder and Mozart librettos. After reading the reviews here on Amazon, I bought this set, and am thoroughly glad I did. This is not a perfect product, but what you get for your $50+ is simply amazing. I sampled quite a number of similar courses at our public library, and none of them came close to covering as much material as this one did. The progression of lessons is well thought out, building the student's knowledge at a reasonable pace. (Assuming you know something about languages already, that is. If you don't, this product may present too steep a curve.)
The actors reading the dialogs range from adequate to truly excellent, with most falling at the high end of the scale: clear, well-formed speech with enough dramatic skill to make the little skits easy to follow. Whoever determined the size of the chunks in the listen-and-repeat exercises sometimes misses the mark, however. There is a lesson, for instance, in which all the relations in 'ein Familienphoto' are read off in a single run. The goal is to drill the student in gender and number in noun phrases in the accusative case, but there is no time to think about that when you're trying to remember if the list included 'Vettern' or 'Schwägerinnen' or God knows what else. The point, I should like to remind the editors, is to study grammar, not develop memorization skills.
That said, this is a really extraordinary product. I transferred the CDs to my iPod and listen in my car, while doing chores, etc., always with great pleasure and profit.
Finally, this is not really a standalone product. (Nothing in this price range could be.) A good dictionary (I bought the Collins) and a good grammar ('Essential German Grammar' is excellent) are required if you want to develop a useful level of skill. 'Ultimate German' is a great way to get started, though.
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