Customer Reviews
Will take you from beginner to comfortable intermediate but not advanced - By: M. McManus, 18 Apr 2007 
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 studiesin the language. If you want holiday phrases, then this course is actually a bit too advanced for that, & 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 bookin 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 titlesin the TY range. After the inevitable "Hello my name is" chapter 1, we move onto learning numbers, & we listen to the German football league scores to help us learn, an interesting & engaging way of teaching us the numbers, far better than the "chant after me" many of us were exposed toin school. Every few chapters, there is a review, which helps to probe the learners progress, & 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 & interviews with environmentalists to football scores are included, & this inclusion of "authentic materials" beautifully compliments the course. The book is also a fair bit thicker than other titlesin 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, & 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, & many learners prefer to be "pushed" a little rather than this softly does it approach. For example, you may find yourself covering gruelling grammar pointsin the chapter, but thenin the review find you have an almost child like "fillin the missing letters" type exercise.
Allin all, if you want an extremely user friendly & comprehensive course than with effort can take you to intermediate stagein the language (way beyond holiday phrases but not quite UN translator material) then this is strongly recommended, being a good investmentin 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 usedin the bookin the glossary at the back.
misleading title - By: , 01 Mar 2005 
I bought a copy of the audio CD & 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 & the CD; theyin fact should be sold as one unit rather than two separate items.
Everything a beginner needs... - By: , 24 Dec 2001 
I moved to France 6 months & 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 & I wish i'd had something writtenin this style. I am a complete beginnerin German or I was until reading this book. The language is introducedin manageable chunks which are easy to absorb & the Grammar just sinksin automatically. The audio cassette which accommpanies this book is also a very useful resource as it gives you the opportunity to practice pronunciation & 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 & I am sure that anyone who uses it will be highly successful.
Very good for an in depth understanding of German culture - By: , 23 May 2000 I found the course an excellent introduction to Germany. Moving from the UK to Germany having never visited before, it allowed me to gain anin 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 & I three months to get to the bottom of it, but when there, we realised how deep the understanding we had was.
