Bavarian Recipes

German: How to Speak and Write It (Beginners' Guides)

Description

Ideal as an introduction, supplement, or refresher. Modern course, with strong phrase material and a wealth of pictorial and amusement aids.

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-08-29
Summary: "Dieses Buch ist einfach Hammer!"

Jemand, der als Englischsprecher Deutsch lernen will, muß dieses Buch kaufen!
Anyone learning German as an English speaker must buy this book. I've been studying German for over 3 years now and as an advanced speaker I still never tire of going back to this book. As others have mentioned the book IS older, but therein lies much of it's appeal. The illustrations are outstanding, often funny and refreshingly politically-INcorrect in places. Teaches you all kinds of words your whatever 101 German course doesn't. If you are really serious about learning the language beyond being able to ask for your dinner check or which way the train station is you'll not regret owning this book.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-07-13
Summary: "NIcely written"

I guess this book will work for a true beginner as well as for a "false beginner" like me who wasted her time on other guides. I strongly recommend this book. Don't waste your time on something else. Buy this one! By the time I decided to buy this book, I had read a few other books and spent a lot of time trying to teach myself. Nothing worked. Then I bought this book, and, Oh God, now I can speak, read, and understand German! I am very impressed.

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Rating: 3 / 5
Date: 2010-06-12
Summary: "Lucy, I'm home!"

This is indeed a reasonably thorough and logical presentation of basic German. But there are a couple of negatives.

First, the print is very small, and the font is not clean, nor does it contrast well with the paper. A superb reading light and perfect close vision are required. And even then, it's exhausting after an hour or so.

Second, the vignettes and examples (even the drawings) are weirdly, annoyingly dated. This is apparently simply a reprint of something written in the late 1940s or early '50s.

One example: Even now, Germans smoke more than Americans or Canadians. But this book seems almost obsessed with tobacco and smoking. Very 1950s mindset.

This is a substantial and serious book, and certainly worth the money. And it is simply a must for the heavy smoker who wants to learn German as it was spoken when I Love Lucy was a hot new show. :)

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Rating: 1 / 5
Date: 2010-01-24
Summary: "Not Good"


I thought it was completely not good, and think that for me, personally, this method of learning is unhelpful and counterproductive. As an ESL teacher, I would not teach english in this way. It is a confused, unorganized barrage of unnecessary (for beginner speakers) vocabulary from the beginning. The core vocabulary that should be taught at the start is not included until later, and even then isn't well organized.

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Rating: 2 / 5
Date: 2009-12-16
Summary: "How to speak and write German"

I found it a little hard to grasp the different sounds,
it has a lot of good grammer lessons.Instant Immersion
was a better buy for me.