The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning German (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Alicia Muller (Author), Stephan Muller (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0028639251 | ISBN-13: 978-0028639253 | Publication Date: June 19, 2000 | Edition: 2nd

Building on the success of the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning German on Your Own," this second edition is equipped with new and enhanced material to help make learning the German language easy and fun. Whether learning German is for work, school, travel or just to have a friendly conversation, this book is a must for anyone who wants to be successful in learning the basics.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German

From the Back Cover

Building on the success of the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning German on Your Own," this second edition is equipped with new and enhanced material to help make learning the German language easy and fun. Whether learning German is for work, school, travel or just to have a friendly conversation, this book is a must for anyone who wants to be successful in learning the basics.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Alpha; 2nd edition (June 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028639251
• ISBN-13: 978-0028639253
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #993,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you're a paratrooper flying to Berlin, this is your book., August 1, 2005

By 

Michigoon "tech geek" (Mid-MI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning German, Third Edition (Paperback)

Other reviewers nailed this one- If you need to become fluent in "conversational German" overnight (read: Business trip), this is the perfect book for you. For people who really want to learn the language and/or culture... at least it's cheap.

Yes, the book has errors. Yes, it has some awkward presentation (it has exercises asking you to try to speak phrases before it introduces proper pronunciation!). Yes, it's more about giving you phrases like "Where's the Taxi" and "How's my hair" over anything truly fundamental... but that's not really what this book is about.

Get this book if:
-You're vacationing in Berlin 3 months from now and you want to be able to ask when your train is leaving without looking like a typically clueless tourist.
-A great-aunt you didn't even know you were related to recently passed away and the only stipulation on her inheritance is that you must know enough German to find your way to her estate.
-Your boss just told you that Hans from the Berlin office wants to talk to you- now.

Don't get this book if:
-You just found out your future mother-in-law is a German immigrant and you need to speak picture-perfect German to impress her.
-You plan on moving to or living in Germany for an extended period.
-...or if you have the time to "do things right".

If you need to learn German, and you need to learn it NOW, this is probably the best book I've ever seen for that purpose. If you're looking at a longer time frame or a situation where precision matters more than simply how fast you can assimilate the language, then you should at least pick up some supplements to help weed out where the errors are.

...and hey, it's a reasonably cheap book with a pretty reliable "cheat card" of phrases just behind the front cover. It's hard to argue with that.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful for the absolute beginner, October 4, 2000

By 

Michael Field (Adelaide, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning German (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This book has one *MAJOR* thing going for it that I had not seen in many other books related to learning German. This is that nearly every phrase/saying/word and sentence has the pronunciation of the German words in English phonetics. This is perhaps the most helpful and useful thing that an absolute beginner in learning German needs to have in order to get the pronunciation right (well...nearly right)and develop a feel for the actual sounds of the words. The book is definately aimed at people who have never studied a language before and has perhaps the best explanation of german grammar for such people. Having said that, it is probably not a good idea to base your German on this book, but used in conjunction with a good basic german grammar course book (such as a student of german would recieve) it provides an invaluable asset in this regard.

However, if the reader has never studied german before then they will be a bit daunted by the complexity of the sentences that they are given for examples and many of these examples will be overly complex. For people who have a basic to good knowlege of german then this book is very good and provides many useful phrases and excercises to increase your vocabulary and understanding.

Overall, a good book

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Great Help!, May 25, 2004

By 

Christopher J. Wootten "christopherwootten" (Annapolis, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning German (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

I really had to pull some German skills together quickly (for business) and started the hunt for a book to help guide me. I read the reviews on Amazon and contatcted the author who did the second revision of this book, Lisa Graham. She directed me to the third edition (which was just printed) and told me the errors had been corrected and the book had been streamlined. An important point she made that this was a "functional book" to get one communicating on a daily living level and that this was not a substitute for a good text book and a directed course. Professor Graham should know as she teaches German at the University level. I really appreciated her advice - she even emailed after a few weeks to see how I was doing.

I got what I needed out of the book and was able to "function" well enough on a verbal level. I even talked my way out of a speeding ticket. I've handed out a couple of copies to coworkers who are facing the same challenge and have gotten good feedback from them.

I guess with any of these guides you have to have the right expectation going into it. I did and now highly recommend this book.