Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This course is excellent, either as an introduction to German or as a way to refresh or sharpen your skills if you are already somewhat familiar with it.
There are three levels, and each level consists of three 60-minute CDs. (You can buy each level separately; but getting the three levels as a set is cheaper than buying them separately.)
Each CD is sub-divided into 10 or 11 small lessons of increasing difficulty. The lessons start with very simple vocabulary, then simple phrases using that vocabulary, then simple sentences in the present tense, then more advanced vocabulary and phrases, and then more complex sentences, including the most common verb tenses and moods (present, past, future, compound tenses (I HAVE GONE), conditional (I WOULD GO), imperative (GO AWAY!), and subjunctive (I HOPE HE'LL GO.).
The range of subject matter also expands gradually. The first level covers what might be called "survival skills," the topics you need to know right away, like transportation, money, hotel, directions, restaurant, shopping, telling time, and numbers. Later lessons include vocabulary and concepts of a more general nature, though "survival skills" are also given additional, more advanced treatment.
All of the CDs follow the same methodology - the target word, phrase, or sentence is given in English, followed by a pause, then the German translation is given, followed by another pause, followed by a repetition of the German translation. I can tell you from personal experience that this constant repetition works very well. Having the CDs playing in your car or on a headset while jogging (my personal favorite!), is a painless but effective way to learn a new language or review a previously learned language.
Each level includes a 50-page booklet that contains a verbatim transcript of each lesson, so if you have trouble understanding a particular word here or there, you can cheat by looking it up in the booklet. (I would never do that! OK, well maybe once or ten times.) Also, some grammatical rules are explained in the booklet. I think that feature is very helpful. Knowing what the general rule is can help you see how individual phrases follow a general pattern, which helps the learning process. Putting explanations like that in the booklet, and not on the CD, was another good feature, since you don't want to keep hearing the same lecture on grammar over and over and over again on the CD.
Granted, there's more to German than what can be covered in just nine hours, but this is an excellent intro or refresher course, and has a lot of useful features.
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Learn in Your Car-German: 3 Level Set: Complete Language Course: Audio Cassettes and Listening Guides (Learn in Your Car Series - Includes Individual Levels 1, 2 and 3)Six 90-minutes cassettes plus a full text listening guide. Level 1: Introduction to key words, numbers, phrases, sentence structure, and basic grammar. Level 2: More challenging vocabulary, grammar, and complex sentences generate confidence in your ability to comprehend and converse. Level 3: Expanded vocabulary, advanced grammar and complex sentences to expand your conversational skills.
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