City Travel Guides
Home Page > Go back a page
Books : Complete German Book/CD Pack (Teach Yourself Languages)
Search Books - select a category
Rating: 
- Will take you from beginner to comfortable intermediate but not advanced
As with any language course, the most important question to ask yourself before clicking "add to shopping cart" is how far you want to take your studies in the language. If you want holiday phrases, then this course is actually a bit too advanced for that, and it is several chapters into the book before you finally reach the tourist phrases like "I need a double room". If you want holiday phrases, then TY Instant German is the better bet. On the other hand, if you want to go beyond the holiday phrases, but are prepared to accept that the job of UN translator is beyond you, then this book is ideal as a course that can guide you from no knowledge to comfortable intermediate.
Every book in the TY series is written by a different author, each with their own idea about the best way to learn a language. As such, it is important to read the reviews for each title before parting with your cash. I own around 20 titles, so feel well placed to comment on them.
It has to be said that the German is one of the better titles in the TY range. After the inevitable "Hello my name is" chapter 1, we move onto learning numbers, and we listen to the German football league scores to help us learn, an interesting and engaging way of teaching us the numbers, far better than the "chant after me" many of us were exposed to in school. Every few chapters, there is a review, which helps to probe the learners progress, and allow them the opportunity to identify problem areas. Each chapter is also full of friendly looking illustrations, which help "humanise" this harsh looking language.
Another good feature of the book is its broad focus. Everything from newspaper clippings and interviews with environmentalists to football scores are included, and this inclusion of "authentic materials" beautifully compliments the course. The book is also a fair bit thicker than other titles in the series, which is a further sign that this book is dedicated to taking the learner up to intermediate level studies.
The book is not without its weaknesses, and I would have liked more listening exercises, as well as more exercises about the dreaded case system, as this seems to be the greatest difficulty English speakers have with German. Another issue is that whilst there is a broad range of topics covered, this course alone will still not be enough to take you beyond the intermediate stage, although this will be more of an issue for some than others, some of whom would be delighted to reach this level. Finally, some of the review exercises are not especially taxing, and many learners prefer to be "pushed" a little rather than this softly does it approach. For example, you may find yourself covering gruelling grammar points in the chapter, but then in the review find you have an almost child like "fill in the missing letters" type exercise.
All in all, if you want an extremely user friendly and comprehensive course than with effort can take you to intermediate stage in the language (way beyond holiday phrases but not quite UN translator material) then this is strongly recommended, being a good investment in terms of language skills gained for the money spent. Even a very stubborn learner would struggle not to use this well. I would recommend you supplement this course by buying a decent dictionary, as one common failing of TY courses is they occasionally don't put words used in the book in the glossary at the back.
Rating:
- misleading title
I bought a copy of the audio CD and must say that it is difficult to correctly evaluate this book because the advertised AUDIOBOOK is not a self-contained course but works best with the the paperback also by the same authors. The production of the CD is quite good. But, I would recommend buying the book and the CD; they in fact should be sold as one unit rather than two separate items.
Rating:
- Everything a beginner needs...
I moved to France 6 months and as I can already speak French I thought that I should learn to speak to my other fellow Europeans, especially as the borders aren't to far. I have used many beginners text books over the past few years to learn French and I wish i'd had something written in this style. I am a complete beginner in German or I was until reading this book. The language is introduced in manageable chunks which are easy to absorb and the Grammar just sinks in automatically. The audio cassette which accommpanies this book is also a very useful resource as it gives you the opportunity to practice pronunciation and to hear how things should be said i.e. by a native German speaker. To some things up, I highly recommend this course to anyone wishing to learn German and I am sure that anyone who uses it will be highly successful.
Rating: - Very good for an in depth understanding of German culture
I found the course an excellent introduction to Germany. Moving from the UK to Germany having never visited before, it allowed me to gain an in depth feel for the place, particularly the culture.
I would not recommend this for a 'quick fix' revision or study of German - it took my wife and I three months to get to the bottom of it, but when there, we realised how deep the understanding we had was.
- Will take you from beginner to comfortable intermediate but not advancedAs with any language course, the most important question to ask yourself before clicking "add to shopping cart" is how far you want to take your studies in the language. If you want holiday phrases, then this course is actually a bit too advanced for that, and it is several chapters into the book before you finally reach the tourist phrases like "I need a double room". If you want holiday phrases, then TY Instant German is the better bet. On the other hand, if you want to go beyond the holiday phrases, but are prepared to accept that the job of UN translator is beyond you, then this book is ideal as a course that can guide you from no knowledge to comfortable intermediate.
Every book in the TY series is written by a different author, each with their own idea about the best way to learn a language. As such, it is important to read the reviews for each title before parting with your cash. I own around 20 titles, so feel well placed to comment on them.
It has to be said that the German is one of the better titles in the TY range. After the inevitable "Hello my name is" chapter 1, we move onto learning numbers, and we listen to the German football league scores to help us learn, an interesting and engaging way of teaching us the numbers, far better than the "chant after me" many of us were exposed to in school. Every few chapters, there is a review, which helps to probe the learners progress, and allow them the opportunity to identify problem areas. Each chapter is also full of friendly looking illustrations, which help "humanise" this harsh looking language.
Another good feature of the book is its broad focus. Everything from newspaper clippings and interviews with environmentalists to football scores are included, and this inclusion of "authentic materials" beautifully compliments the course. The book is also a fair bit thicker than other titles in the series, which is a further sign that this book is dedicated to taking the learner up to intermediate level studies.
The book is not without its weaknesses, and I would have liked more listening exercises, as well as more exercises about the dreaded case system, as this seems to be the greatest difficulty English speakers have with German. Another issue is that whilst there is a broad range of topics covered, this course alone will still not be enough to take you beyond the intermediate stage, although this will be more of an issue for some than others, some of whom would be delighted to reach this level. Finally, some of the review exercises are not especially taxing, and many learners prefer to be "pushed" a little rather than this softly does it approach. For example, you may find yourself covering gruelling grammar points in the chapter, but then in the review find you have an almost child like "fill in the missing letters" type exercise.
All in all, if you want an extremely user friendly and comprehensive course than with effort can take you to intermediate stage in the language (way beyond holiday phrases but not quite UN translator material) then this is strongly recommended, being a good investment in terms of language skills gained for the money spent. Even a very stubborn learner would struggle not to use this well. I would recommend you supplement this course by buying a decent dictionary, as one common failing of TY courses is they occasionally don't put words used in the book in the glossary at the back.
Rating:
- misleading titleI bought a copy of the audio CD and must say that it is difficult to correctly evaluate this book because the advertised AUDIOBOOK is not a self-contained course but works best with the the paperback also by the same authors. The production of the CD is quite good. But, I would recommend buying the book and the CD; they in fact should be sold as one unit rather than two separate items.
Rating:
- Everything a beginner needs...I moved to France 6 months and as I can already speak French I thought that I should learn to speak to my other fellow Europeans, especially as the borders aren't to far. I have used many beginners text books over the past few years to learn French and I wish i'd had something written in this style. I am a complete beginner in German or I was until reading this book. The language is introduced in manageable chunks which are easy to absorb and the Grammar just sinks in automatically. The audio cassette which accommpanies this book is also a very useful resource as it gives you the opportunity to practice pronunciation and to hear how things should be said i.e. by a native German speaker. To some things up, I highly recommend this course to anyone wishing to learn German and I am sure that anyone who uses it will be highly successful.
Rating:
- Very good for an in depth understanding of German cultureI found the course an excellent introduction to Germany. Moving from the UK to Germany having never visited before, it allowed me to gain an in depth feel for the place, particularly the culture.
I would not recommend this for a 'quick fix' revision or study of German - it took my wife and I three months to get to the bottom of it, but when there, we realised how deep the understanding we had was.