Customer Reviews
do not buy this book without the cassettes - By: avwilson@web.de, 29 Aug 2001 
It says it is possible to use the book without the tapes, &in theory that is so, but you cannot use much of the book or complete many of the exercises without the tapes. I cannot understand why it is sold separately from the cassettes, & am most annoyed by this.
Pretty terrible - By: , 14 Jun 2001 
I've worked through a number of language tapes, both for German & other languages, & Breakthrough German is one of the worst I've ever encountered.
For starters, the primary narrator of the tape struck me as arrogant & condescending. But worse than that is that the program does little to aid retention of what's presented. There are few opportunites to repeat what you've just heard & no follow-ups to confirm that you've said the new term correctly.
On the positive side, some of the dialogues on the tape appear to be genuine, real-life conversations that have been (surreptitiously?) recorded.
As alternatives, I'd check out Pimsleur (very expensive but excellent) or Living Language.
A well presetned book with an up to date information - By: , 13 Dec 2000 
This new edition is packed with more conversation & practise compare to the last edition & the layout of the book is also well presented & easy to read. A draw back is that there is no CD version for this edition.