The Everything Learning German Book: Speak, Write, and Understand Basic German in No Time

by Edward Swick

Book Overview

Order das beste Bier at Oktoberfest! Hitch a ride on der Autobahn! Say "Wilkommen" to your neuen deutschen Freunde! Learning to sprechen Sie Deutsches is fun--and far easier than you might think.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580628753
• ISBN13: 9781580628754
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Everything
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Introduction

I chose the Everything series as my entry point to the German language over other options, including the Dummies series, largely on the advice of reviews, and I was not disappointed. Beyond the high-school textbook quality illustrations on the cover and the two-tone black and green print (which I personally find attractive), you will find a well-organized text designed to bring the reader from essentially nothing to a basic understanding of the workings of the German language. It is important to note that my experience with this text has been colored by the fact that I have studied other languages before, and so knowing the basic ways and terminology of language study made me slightly more than a beginner when I picked up the book, although I had no prior experience with the formal study of German. If you have studied languages and are familiar with noun cases and verb tenses and such, you may find the ordering of chapters illogical at first, since they skip from one area of language to another, rather than focusing exclusively on nouns until they are covered and only then moving to verbs, as other language texts may do. However, I found when reading from cover to cover, the order of the chapters helped to break things up a bit, so as not to overwhelm the beginning student, although some (such as those on time and numbers) are modular enough to skip ahead to if need be. Also, the introductory section does its job well enough, with an overview of German pronunciation, which is helpful, although no substitute for hearing the language pronounced by native speakers--for this I recommend audio CD's, unless you are fortunate enough to have access to German speakers. A few notes about the pronunciation guide: The author uses a home-grown, and I think sometimes inconsistent, method of phonetic transcription which is designed to be intuitive for a native English speaker. Also, phonetic spellings of words (placed in parentheses) cease after the first few chapters. One thing I especially appreciate about the book is the author's friendly, encouraging tone. Swick has a way of disarming the language so that it does not seem too scary, and his writing projects a confidence that a beginning student should appreciate. The credentials on the back cover indicate the author knows what he's talking about, and his explanations of the language show it, including sections on English grammar which precede explanations of their German equivalents. The vocabulary the book offers, including a decent German-English/English-German dictionary in the back, seem adequate for a beginning student, and the exercises at the end of each chapter are good, although I recommend buying a dedicated workbook, since you will not get near the practice you need with the few exercises this book offers. Despite a handful of sections on ordering at restaurants and the like, this is not a book of quick travel phrases. It is an introductory German grammar, which is effective for tho

Best single-source German starter!

This book is phenomenal. It is written with concise common sense and humor. I am a student who just began learning German professionally 20 hours/week. I use this book as my self-selected textbook; I refer to it every day. Edward Swick wrote it for Americans and it has all the grammar rules and the short cuts to remember them. The best feature is the pronunciation guides after German words: particularly helpful with sounds we don't have in American English, such as the guttural "ch" and the three umlaut letters. This book also includes cultural information, the new spelling rules, common German usage, and appendices with basic German-English and English-German dictionaries. Combine this book with some CD's such as Learn in Your Car German and you will be learning German in no time!

Excellent start to learing German

This book was chosen from a recommendation of a German-speaking friend. It turned out to be a good recommendation as the book eases you into the language. It is simple to understand and follow. I like the exercises at the end of the chapter, it reinforces what was covered in the chapter. An excellent start to learning German.

Very good!

This book is superb! I am married to a native German speaker and need all the help I can get. I am writing as a self taught German student that is trying to learn all as fast as possible. This book starts off slow with very useful vocabulary. There is an excellent pronunciation section which is very necessary with German. I very much like how new vocabulary and workbook pages are mixed together. Everything is index so perfectly so it is easy to find help within the book. All new vocabulary have translation so there is no need for an extra dictionary with this book. The presentation is very well done. It is a basic level book (as the title mentions) so it is great for new students or self taught students. The book can be used again and again for practice. There are so many words to learn and exercises to do making this book well worth the money. I am very sorry this book was not available when I began my studies! The author is very talented. Thanks to him for such a useful book and hopefully there will be more advanced books with audio programs in the future.

This book was exactly what I was looking for!

I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning the German Language. It is full of all the little questions and answers that other books lack.Last year I decided to start teaching myself German and for someone who has language based learning disabilities this was going to be a challenge. Since I started teaching myself German I have mostly used audio CD's, some of which come with books to aid you. I found all of these CD books to be unhelpful since they all usually moved to fast and did not explain or answer the small questions that someone would naturally develop as they started learning. Because of the lack of information in these CD books I ended up only focused on the CD's themselves. After nine months I was feeling confident enough and had enough questions to start learning the rules of the German language so I began hunting for a good book to help me. When I found this book I immediately knew this was the one. It starts off with the very basics by explaining the origins of the German/English languages and how they broke apart and differ from each other. As the book moves forward the author adds notes and explanations to many of the questions that one might ask. I am still reading this book and will probably re-read it many times using it as my German language text book but I am confident that between this book, a vocabulary book and some audio CD's I will eventually teach myself this language. I give this book a big thumbs up!