Customer Reviews

Deutsch Heute: Introductory German, Eighth Edition

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

When I began using this textbook as part of an elementary German college course, I had absoluely no prior experience in German grammar or communication (I couldn't even say eins, zwei, drei :) ). I find that the book is, for the most part, very straightfoward in explaining grammatical concepts and is consistent in the way it progresses from chapter to chapter (with example dialogues vocabulary, explanations of grammar and grammar pratice exercises). The book also includes colloquial expressions in vocabulary lists, which can help non-native speakers sound more natural, and each chapter includes some cultural tidbits about Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

I've had no problem using this book daily or understanding the concepts. It also corresponds pretty well to the Deutsch Heute workbook, for extra pratice. The book should, of course, be used with supplementary classroom instruction and not as a self-study material, because some things simply need extra explanation (for example, the different kinds of cases, adjective endings, prepositions, etc.).

Some criticisms that I have is that the book is sometimes inconsistent: i.e. in one chapter a certain preposition is used in an expression, and in another chapter the preposition is different even though the expression is supposed to be the same. There are also some spelling errors, but neither they nor the slight inconsistencies get in the way of learning German, in my opinion. I also wish that it would provide more real-life situations to which certain grammatical rules should be applied, and it would be useful if it contained a back-of-the-book answer section for pratice exercises when studying at home.

Overall, I think most beginner students will find this book easy to use and understand. Viel Glück!(Good luck!)

On page xv of the introduction, this book specifically says "Packaged with your textbook, the Text Audio CD's contain the Bausteine dialoges...." Guess what? There were NO CD's. I've called the publisher twice (this isn't Amazon's fault), and they've told me that I need to BUY the CD's ($41.99 thank you very much). I've sent them a fax of the intro page and they said they'll get back to me. We'll see.

In all honesty if you are taking German at college and your professor uses this book, be prepared for one hell of a time trying to learn even basic German. I took two semesters of college level German with this crappy book and it was just a pain. The instruction of my professor was not great either, he moved a little too quickly for me (and my classmates included) but I have to say the book was the greatest struggle when working independently on homework assignments and preparing for exams; basically the book just added insult to injury.

I think this book is organized very poorly and has really horrible examples which do absolutely nothing to help you understand the German grammar rules. Also the chapter summaries are completely useless! Do not buy this book. I have it sitting in my room right now, and I am debating on whether I should even put it on my seller's account; do I want to put someone else through that, I don't think so, but then again I know I will not be using it again!

Also, like many other people who have reviewed this sorry excuse for a German language textbook, I was pretty unhappy to find out that there were NO CDs that came with the book, oh yes, you have to buy them separate! Gotta love that.

The only other German language textbook I have had looked at is this one, and I would definitely recommend it over Deutsche Heute... Neue Horizonte: Introductory German (Available Titles Ilrn: Heinle Learning Center) Check it out.

On my shelf at home, I have many foreign language textbooks, including two editions of Deutsch Heute (including the ninth, mentioned here). As I look over my textbooks, I remember them as "allies" in my attempt to learn a given language. However, when I think about Deutsch Heute, I think "Pakistan" - Very frustrating, but "the only option in the region."

1. The book has errors (e.g missing punctuation). Errors in any textbook are bad; in a foreign language textbook they are worse. The book also has omissions (e.g. "bleiben" has no definition on page 230).
2. The book desires that you have committed to memory every word you come across in the text. For example, several pages (and days) after seeing "der Vati" as the third possible way of saying "father," you will see "Vati" again in an assignment where you are trying to learn a new verb form or something similar. This sends you off to look up what "Vati" means, since it might somehow be important in how you answer the question. Any benefit of sprinkling such words into assignments for the student's review is outweighed by A) the "interrupt" in the learning process created by this errand and B) the lengthening of the already-ample assignments students are given in an effort to get through half the book by semester's end.
3. Tables, like the one on page 101, where half the words are purposely removed and relocated to a similar table in the back of the book. What is the benefit of sending us to the back of the book for these words vs. just having them in the same table? It simply adds to the complexity because I have to look in two places instead of one. This is an example of how the book is too clever by half.
4. Introducing concepts before explaining them happens *purposely* throughout the book and is a major detriment. For example, page 183 introduces the dative case in examples a full 15 pages before it is explained. This is especially bad in this case because the caption "mit der U-Bahn" on that page makes "[die] U-Bahn" look masculine, which can be very confusing to a student. Our professor did some pedagogical gymnastics to account for this, teaching the book a bit out-of-order to compensate, but this should not be necessary. In cases where a student is sick and cannot attend classes, they will have only the book as a resource.
5. Tables (e.g. those with the infinitive and the past participle) are handy. However, any past participle given outside of/below a table is not duplicated in these tables, so when you are flipping back through the book, scanning the tables during your hour of German homework for the night, you will not find your past participle, so you will need to crawl through a few pages of text to find one word, not gaining anything other than that one word for the time spent. If anyone is forced to use this textbook, they should do so in electronic form. Being able to search your text is always a benefit, but with this text, the ability is nearly a requirement.

I'm not taking German next semester because of this book.

Guten Tag!
Do you want a super easy book that goes STEP BY STEP on how to learn German?
Then this is the book for you.

This book set comes with the book, the german and english dictionary, and two cds. No workbook or the cds 1-13.

The book starts off quite easy, you begin with numbers, basic questions, basic converstaions, and letters.

You move thru a few verbs, colors, some really basic grammer, telling and asking time, and nouns too!

I haven't gotten past chapter two but i can say that i would have thought this might have been a daunting task to learn German over the internet but with this book, it is a piece of cake! While the pronunciation is hard to get with an internet class, i can definately read this much better than i though i would be able to.

In addition if you are slightly familiar with Latin you will have an easier time as well.

Tschüss!

If you're looking at what Amazon's website told you is the paperback version of Moeller's Deutsch Heute, Ninth Edition, beware: it isn't. There isn't a paperback version of Deutsch Heute 9th. As the page title - but not the "available editions" links or the common review pool - indicates, it's a companion workbook, and to add insult to injury, it's not even for the same edition. It's the workbook from Deutsch Heute 8th.

It's at least 40% my own fault, since I didn't take note of the page title. I'm not prepared to accept any more of the blame than that, though, because the rest of the page plainly indicates that Amazon thinks this is a different version of the same book, and it really, really isn't. Needs fixed, as we used to say in the server configuration game.

N.B. if you're looking at the page for the hardcover 9th edition, disregard this review; it's for a different book entirely, which is the whole problem. I regret that my one-star rating is being erroneously applied to the actual Deutsch Heute 9th, which so far has done nothing to offend me.

This is the worst foreign language textbook I've ever seen. There are NO grammar explanations. I have to understand WHY a language places words in the order that it does in order to grasp it better. Several words are not conjugated. I had to look up conjugations and grammar explanations on the internet. This book makes learning German more difficult than it really is. If you are looking to learn German on your own time, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! If you are being forced to read it because your teacher assigned it to you (like me) then I am so sorry. I feel your pain.

Although it is stated clearly in the book that it is packaged by the publisher with an audio CD, the book had been repackaged (presumably by Amazon) without the CD. This was not stated on the webpage when I ordered this new book, so I had to return the book and pay the rediculous price at the school bookstore. Not happy!

This is a college level textbook. I did not find it condusive to individual learning but can see where it could be a decent book with a teachers guidance.

the book did not come with the cd. Couldn't use for the course w/o the cd.