Customer Reviews

Berlitz Self-Teacher: German

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Back in the early 1950's, my father bought a copy of this book. I recently bought myself a copy and it is completely unchanged, except that mine is paperback and his is hardcover.

Nevertheless, the technique used is effective. It teaches grammar concepts through use and examples rather than technical explanations.

Some good features include a phonetic guide to pronunciation under each German phrase (though this can become a crutch to the unwary reader). It also has good questions that force the reader to actually think in German. It also presents grammar in small bits at a time in a friendly, non-threatening way.

My major complaints are that there is no serious, technical grammar. This is something I would like because it will help me understand why something is done rather than just what is done. It could also use an update with modern German spelling rules, and a newer look.

Overall, it's a good supplement to other materials, but not a good book to use alone.

About 20 years ago, I was stationed with the Army at Redstone Arsenal, AL, and was issued orders to go to Germany. Not wanting to show up there a total ignoramus (like the man said, "When in Rome..."), so I bought this book and devoured it. When I showed up at my duty station in Heilbronn, I was able to get by pretty well, and after another couple weeks, I found my accent getting better. The German phonetic pronunciations are very good, and I was able to be understood by Schwabians and Ostfriesians alike.

After I was there a few weeks, I was required to enroll in the Army's German Headstart program, a one-week class to learn common German phrases, such as asking traffic directions and how to order from a German menu. There was not one question I did not know the answer to, and when called upon, I was able to answer intuitively. The teacher asked me how I learned German so well, and I told her that I had been studying the Berlitz Self-Teacher for a couple months. She remarked that she had run across many soldiers who learned to speak conversational German by studying this excellent book.

What makes the Berlitz Self-Teacher the best primer for learning German I ever had is that it is methodical and deals with everyday conversation. It was never meant to be a fully comprehensive volume on the German language or a grammar guide, but it is the best springboard I know for launching one into the language, and I've used at least a dozen similar books.

It's one alleged drawback is that it teaches many antiquated words and phrases, but that is also its charm: I had no problem being understood by older or educated people. (Do people make the complaint about Hemingway that its English is 50 years out of vogue, or is he recognized still as the great wordsmith and scribe that he was?)

Further, the Berlitz method gives you enough basic vocabulary to understand the language and once you get halfway through it, the rest will come to you by assimilating words and phrases you are now able to understand from being among the people, watching TV (or, "Telewision" or "Tee Wee" as some Germans call it) or reading the newspapers.

I also like that it teaches in the formal ("Sie") rather than the familiar ("Du") sense. It made a very nice impression on my girlfriend's parents, that I had learned all the social niceties, and was more respectful than most German youth my own age. Some of today's German phrase and "learn German in 15 minutes a day" type traveller's books dispense too readily with the formal, which I think is a big mistake, particularly for American speakers. It is bad enough that too many misinformed Europeans think of us as "ugly Americans," that is, informal and ill-mannered, but we don't need our language instruction to aid in this disinformation campaign!

Starting with this book is both a good icebreaker for getting acquainted with the good-natured German and for staying out of hot water with the occasional more stuffy Germans, who haven't any sense of humor.

From my experience, and from the experiences of friends and acquaintances, I've found that the best way to warm up to the Germans is to show respect for their language, by putting forth an honest attempt to communicate in it. This book is the best place to begin because it is well-mannered and polite.

I am a native speaker of German. My wife, who is Canadian, is using this book as a supplement to learn German. Although the book is quite old, the method the book uses to teach the language, is outstanding.
German has a very difficult grammar. This book will make sense of most of the German grammar without overwhelming you.
I have only found a few outdated words in this book. But, of course, this book will teach you standard German, not the slang that is spoken by young people in informal situtations.
If you would like to learn this linguistically incorrect slang that young Germans speak among themselves, then this is not the book to buy.
But if you want to learn correct German, and you don't want to embarrass yourself in front of a business crowd, buy this book!
As to pronunciation, you absolutely need recordings, if you want to correctly pronounce the foreign sounds.

This book is officially recognized by the University of Virginia's German Department as an effective tool for the study of German. It really did a lot to help me acquire fluency in the language. Highly recommended. German is not so hard with this book!

I had always wanted to learn German, so in the summer prior to my first year in college, I bought this book. I read through it and spoke aloud (as it suggested), used the phonetics, etc. Needless to say, I was WELL ahead of everyone the entire first semester! Having used the phonetics, I also was ahead in SOUNDING German! Of course, by the second semester, I was in the same boat with everyone else ;-)

The book is excellent and I would recommend it to anyone!

This book is very good. I am currently learning German with a friend and am a complete beginner. This starts off well, teching you feminine, neuter, and masculine tenses and throwing in vocabulary, and 5 new numbers a lesson. All the lessons are formatted around a theme. However, the pronunciation guide in the beginning is a little lacking and, if you are teaching yourself, you will need to get a couple other books. I also recommend Joseph Rosenburg's German: How to Speak and Write it, German in 10 minutes a day by Kristine Kershul, and a good dictionary.

I have lived in Germany about 10 years now and this is without a doubt THE best book I have found. As a person still learning (aren't we all?) and a German instructor the format used in the book is very fitting. You learn German like a young child would. The horrible grammer is slowly interjected as you progress. Certainly a two-thumbs-up book!

I'm not a beginner to German, and so I thought this book was fun and easy to understand. However, every time I ask my roommate (who is FROM Germany)questions about some of the sentences in the book, he bursts into laughter. I can't tell you how many times he's asked me how old this book is. As one other reviewer stated, the book has not been updated since the 50's. If you try to speak to a German person after having studied this book, you will be quite embarrassed. The vocabulary is, to quote my roommate, from another century.

Sure, buy the book if you want to refer to pens as Quills.

I notice that Berlitz offers a book called German TODAY for quite a bit more money. But you get what you pay for, don't you?

The book does a good job of getting you into reading German. However, some things I feel necessary and helpful are not included such as rules for verb conjugation and a summary of vocabulary learned for the chapter. Also the sentence-by-sentence reading does not help much. There aren't many dialogues or paragraphs to read. If you are like me and like seeing that stuff, this may not be the book for you.

I recently jumped head-first into learning German, and purchased this book along with the Pimsleur Conversational German 16-CD set. I cannot get enough of the CD's, but this book is really poor in my opinion. I was hoping the book would be a good reference companion to the CD's in order to help clarify some things, but no dice. It should be noted that the copyright date on this book is 1950, which becomes very evident within the first few pages. Much of the phrases and words are very outdated and are barely used in Germany anymore. Some of the phrases presented in this book didn't even make sense to my German friend who lived in Germany most of her life! For instance, WHY would I need to learn "I shall get up early, so to speak with the chickens"? or "In the department store, you ask for the department store you are looking for"? I'm not kidding, this and other useless, outdated phrases are liberally strewn throughout this book. If you want to take a trip back in time, and already know German, this book 'may' be refreshing. If you're trying to learn the language on your own, and want to actually understand how to speak German like someone born within the last 40 years, I would look for something else. (I'd HIGHLY recommend audio tapes or CD's where you can HEAR someone speaking the language and practice with them. It worked wonders for me!)