 the best for self-study |
| Review Date: February 15, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Richard Almasi, Europa |
These Made Simple language series really are the best for self-studying, I have done their Spanish, German, French and Italian ones.
Expect 6-9 months to complete this book.
After having completed books like Colloquial, I still felt that I did not really know much; not how to carry a conversation, just make simple one-liners. My knowledge of grammar was a real mess as my training of it was based on memorizing grammar-summary-boxes rather than effective hands-on training.
There are only two books on Beginner's German I recommend, this Made Simple-book and German Demystified: A Self Teaching Guide.
If you want to learn at a slower pace and not so intensively then Demystified is a better choice, this Made Simple-book is more intense, which makes it more difficult for some people.
They are equally good in my opinion and I enjoyed working with both: Demystified feels more laid-back and not so stressful, but Made Simple has more reading passages and a larger variety of exercises.
I am telling you, don't waste alot of money on expensive packages like Colloquial when you have inexpensive material like Made Simple ( and Demystified ) available, you just can't compare the two: Made Simple is in a different league than Colloquial, it is my definition of quality.
This book is more demanding to use than Colloquial and TY, meaning you have to think more - as the exercises are more challenging.
Anyhow, this is an updated version of the older book [...] and there has been a few changes:
1. the phonetics system has changed to a simpler system based on (American) english, for example the word 'lieben' is pronounced 'lee-ben' according to the book
2. more excercises; reading, comprehension, grammar, translations etc.
3. more detailed cover of the grammar itself
4. larger print; the book itself is standard textbook-size and not pocket anymore
The first two chapters give a thorough coverage of pronunciation, with excercises.
The dialogues in the book build around two people: an American businessman who wants to learn German, and his German German teacher, the "story" takes place in New York.
As you might expect you get to learn a few business-related words like: 'office, monetary system, commercial, business-partner' etc.
But the majority of words are everyday-words about: food, drink, travel, weather, culture etc.
It also includes more modern words like: 'cartoon, subtitle...'
I like that they have kept the Revision chapters in this update, there's one every 5 chapter or so, they make revision much more convenient - instead of revising each chapter it is enough to just revise the Revision chapters.
Another thing I really liked is that the chapters are kept quite short, you can go though one in 15-20 minutes - excercises included.
This gives you alot of flexibility in terms of time, as you can easily do 15 minutes before work, during lunch-break, or after dinner.
A simple thing like having shorter chapters reduces the stress of learning a language.
If you are contemplating whether it's worth it spend a bit more to get this updated book rather the old editions, I definitely think it is worth it - I have both myself but this is the one I actually used - it is so much more fun to use.
So it is definitely an improvement and is alot more user-friendly than the old one, so it should appeal to more people.
I think the only thing to improve upon with this edition is to include some audio Cd's.
The only thing I can complain about is that there are a few editing errors, for example in chapter 6 page 33, the examples of the accusative expressions of 'was' are put above the actual heading for it. Not a critical mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.
For the quality you are getting this is a ridiculously inexpensive book. |
Excellent resource, accomplishes a lot in a short space
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| Review Date: October 21, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Patrick D. Goonan, Pleasanton, CA |
When I was in graduate school I had to pass a reading competence test in German. Since then, I have not done much studying in this area. However, recently I decided I wanted to review and practice what I learned and I have been searching for good resources.
After looking at many books and bringing along someone who is fluent in German, I settled on this as one of my primary resources. This book is well-organized, comprehensive and to the point. It also has very good exercises, stories and tips for learning the language. You can buy this book with confidence.
The pace of this book is quick and if you haven't studied German before, you may want to get supplementary resources. However, this text provides an excellent roadmap and you can use other books, tapes and software to support its basic approach. |
Sweet relief
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| Review Date: December 9, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Mel, BKLYN, NY |
I've been learning German this semester and it has been sooo hard. This book is far more organized than my college textbooks and so much cheaper. I've had so much anxiety watching my peers fly through the course effortlessly. From the very first chapter of German Made Simple, my German comprehension sky rocketed. I am having a much easier time understanding words and how they're strung together to make sentences.
Definitely add this book to your study material. I bought the Living Language CDs and it was a nightmare. Buy this instead. |
A pretty good book...update from and older version!
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| Review Date: November 10, 2006 |
| Reviewer: P. Hall, Oakland, CA USA |
| This series has been around for a long time and they finally got around to an update. It is a good companion the other study methods such as cassettes, CD's or DVD's. No Bad in my opinion! |
german made simple
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| Review Date: June 13, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Ingrid H. Kahler-Brown, Sydney, Australia |
| I have been using the text book German Made Simple for a few years with teaching German to mature students. I have found the book to be an excellent tool because it is an easy text to study and it is very helpful for English speaking students to learn grammar. As any teacher of the German language would know, Germa grammar is a very difficult part of the German language. I have found over many years of teaching that I have to teach students English grammar before I can start teaching German grammar. The text book is well laid out in practical exercises as well as interesting text to make students want to learn. I can thoroughly recommend this text book to tutors of German. |
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