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 enlarge | Authors: Paul Coggle, Heiner Schenke
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $13.35
You Save: $10.60 (44%)
New (17) Used (2) from $13.35
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 34074
Media: Paperback
Edition: 4
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.8
ISBN: 0071502602
Dewey Decimal Number: 438.34
EAN: 9780071502603
ASIN: 0071502602
Publication Date: March 20, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Customer Reviews:
sprechen Sie Deutsches? March 8, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
The book is helpful. I have learned things, and the order in which the lessons are presented works nicely. Nevertheless, the book lacks some more depth. For instance, there is not a strong section on phonetics or on structuring sentences.
Overall, the book does the job.
 Best German language course February 21, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book is well thought out in it's presentation of the language. The audio c.d. that accompanies the book is extremely helpful. There are audio dialogues that you can listen to in each unit to help you as you go along.
I would recommend getting T.Y. German Extra after this for further study. I coupled the books with Pimsluer's Audio Series in German for maximum learning. Well worth it.
An excellent teach-yourself program February 18, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful teach-yourself German course. The two tapes are excellent because they offer the opportunity to hear German as it is spoken in conversation. The tapes move at faster pace than the book, and without the book, a beginner would not be able to understand the tapes. But with the book, the conversation on the tapes become clear. I listen to the tapes throughout the day (in the car, walking the dog, gardening) and then when I return to my desk, I sit down with the book and work through the exercizes. The book contains not only the dialogue that is on the tape, but also all the grammar and vocabulary you need to become fluent. It is taking me longer to work through the book, but as I master the different chapters in the book, I realize that I now completely understand those parts of the tape. The thng I like best about this product is that the spoken dialogue on the tape (and in the book) are things real people would say to each other. It includes formal and informal expressions and as you learn to speak them, you realize you have also learned a lot of vocabulary. Another good thing about the book is that it sometimes translates the German expression literally. This helps you to figure them out. For example, I had trouble with the expression "Wie geht es Ihnen?" (How are you?) because I had learned that 'geht' was from the verb 'to go'. When the book explained that the expression literally meant How are you going?, it made sense to me! I am actually learning to speak German with this one book and two tapes, and if I can do it, ANYONE can! I highly recommend this to anyone who is serious about trying to learn another language. Five stars!
 Completely ignores phonology and completely unsuitable for a beginner August 25, 2006
17 out of 21 found this review helpful
This book and CD are a grave disappointment compared to the other Teach Yourself books I've used. Although it introduces itself as suitable for the "adult learner with no previous knowledge of German and studying on your own," it's completely unsuited for that purpose, since it fails to begin by teaching the basic sounds of German. I actually know a bit of German, at least enough to know that my pronunciation of "ch" needs work. The book and CD give no help on this, or on German's other phonemes which differ from English; the first lesson starts using, for instance, "Ich," with no warning or explanation. Much later there is some discussion of some points on which German's spelling conventions differ from English, but this still largely assume you have already mastered German phonology and only need help with its orthography. Compare this with, for example, _Teach Yourself Esperanto's_ careful introduction to Esperanto's (vastly easier) phonology and orthography, and you'll see how far the publisher's standards have fallen, presumably with the goal of looking easier by avoiding necessary discipline.
Pretty Good Self-Study Package October 30, 2005
23 out of 24 found this review helpful
This book and CD package is structured around visiting and living in Germany and its lessons include activities, conversations and material you would encounter there. Small cartoons and illustrations are used to liven the material. The lessons progress rapidly; each introduces between twenty to forty words and it would take one or two weeks of careful part-time study to absorb all the information in each lesson. There are exercises and a discussion on grammar at the end of each lesson, and every other lesson also describes pronunciation. Students are encouraged to complete the self assessment tests at the end of every four lessons.
The book's appendices has self-assessment tests, sample answers to exercises and tests, transcripts of dialogues on the audio CDs, a glossary of grammatical terms and a vocabulary list. The transcripts are useful for picking up words that are sometimes hard for a beginner to recognise in the audio CDs.
The audio CDs has examples of pronunciation, German listening comprehension exercises and samples from radio and television programmes. The comprehension exercises are kept interesting by having them spoken by different actors and the voices are reasonably pleasant (an important factor since you may have to listen to them many times). Occasionally the voice chosen doesn't quite match the content; for example a young male voice in the role of a pensioner in Chapter 4.
This package would be even better if the vocabulary list also referenced the first occurence of each word in the book. Also, not all the words introduced in every lesson is translated in the glossary, so you should have a German-English dictionary handy. Another odd omission is a pronunciation guide for the German alphabet in the book (I found the pronunciation in the Teach Yourself German Grammar book).
Kam-Hung Soh
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