Customer Reviews

German for Kids: Learn German Beginner Level 1 Vol. 1

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

 

 

We recently purchased this DVD series for our daughter. We are going to Germany early next year to visit the grandparents and we wanted her to be start learning German. This video is excellent and has exceeded our expectations. Our daughter watches it over and over because she gets a real kick out of the animated dog. She also likes to show off her knowledge to us while doing the remote control games. We have been amazed that after only a few times watching the video she aced the true/false and multiple choice interactive games. We've been having fun practicing phases around the house to get prepared for our trip. The telling time section in particular we have found very useful. It helps with counting, how to ask someone the time and most importantly understanding what is repeated back. I would recommend this to anyone, child or adult, who is a beginning German student.

This is a cute video that provides a unique story-line for children to relate to.

We're trying to teach our toddler German, to which end I've purchased this DVD, the Little Pim Series, and Muzzy, the BBC language course. I can't stress enough how bad this product is: boring, uninspired, and unedited. For example, at one point in the DVD we're told we're meeting the boy's family: mother, father, and brother, when clearly he has a sister, not a brother. The acting is terrible; the children look uncomfortable and behave unnaturally, and the adults just look bored. The animated dog is a joke and adds nothing to the product. The Language Tree must have paid someone to do a 3-5 second clip of an animated dog, and then they just re-use the same clip -- overlaid onto the actual video -- over and over. Of course this means that most of the time the dog's expression doesn't make any sense. I would be seriously worried about any child who doesn't get bored with this rather quickly. I can't begin to fathom how anyone could give this a 4 or 5-star review. All I can think is that they haven't tried the Little Pim Series (highly recommended) or Muzzy.

I was looking for a product to get my children started on learning German. They have had a little instruction in the past, but not enough consistency. They are 6 and 8 years old. This DVD captured their attention and my older boy was excited about the interactive games. They both liked the songs and even tried to sing along. Overall it was a positive experience and I think they will watch it again on thier own. On the down side, it is a little short on content and adults won't be overly impressed with some of the child acting...but it's fine for what we wanted. I have not tried the Muzzy DVDs so I can not compare it to them, but this product is better than many I have seen.

We have rented this from our library several times and our 3 yo son has fallen in love with the dog and music...I speak some German with him and my wife covers spanish. This video is likely best for younger kids 2-5 yo. Our son just cannot get enough of it - in the end the in person speaking (parents, teachers, travel, etc.) cannot replace anything else.

I bought this for my 7 and 2 year old children as a supplement after finishing the German for Children CD series. This video covers all of the same ground (eerily so: does everyone learn their German colors from a balloon seller?). While my children loved the "home movies" of Sebastian and his friends at a birthday party, the quiz portion is tedious after you've done it once, and the songs on this dvd are not nearly as catchy as those on the German for Children CD. There's also a lot of cheesy low budget animation. Go with the CDs series.

I am a native German, but don't speak a lot of it at with my kids. I was looking for something that is a fun and easy way for my son to learn German, so I liked the concept of this "fun" DVD. He was 7 at the time. This DVD was very boring to him. The dialogue leaves a bit to be desired and is not very realistic - I don't know many young kids that would be excited to receive a pair of pants as their(apparently only) birthday present from his parents as the boy in the video. It's been a while since we watched this, but I seem to remember that most of the people on the DVD did not sound like native Germans. At least one of them was clearly an American with a strong American accent, and another one (I think the grandfather) sounded like he was from Switzerland and hard to understand. I am just glad I only borrowed this from our library, rather than wasting money on it.

It taught my son some basic German. It was strangely funny (i.e., not supposed to be, but that's okay).

Poor sound quality. We could not understand the speaking, because the German was spoken by natives, at normal speed - and spoken by children to boot. All of us tend to mumble in our native tongue. Definitely a lot of mumbled, slurred words and phrases. Not a chance in the world we were going to pick up one word with confidence.

I get that this is suppose to be following a little boy and such, but I found it extremely boring and not at all fun! The German was spoken super fast and there really wasn't much explanation as it was playing. The video would move on with no repeating and at the end quiz you. There are better programs out there. We live in Germany and I was just looking for something that I could add to my home school curriculum for my DD to making learning German fun. This was not it! Look else where and don't waste your money.