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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
outdated and appalling grammar mistakes, April 14, 2003
This review is from: German Made Simple [Revised Edition] (Paperback)
My British girl-friend is presently taking a German course, as I am German. We are currently living in North America, where her German teacher uses the above book. Being German and a German teacher and linguist for 13 years I was interested in the book my partner is learning the language with. So I went through the book and was appalled at the amount of grammatical mistakes and usage errors used in the book. The book was apparently not written by a German person, based on the type of errors I assume it was written and revised by a native English speaker.
Countless expressions and phrases are completely outdated, many have never been used and/or are simply wrong. Students learning German with this book will be ridiculed when speaking German in any German speaking country. I could not believe that a book like this does even exist for official language courses.
It has even been revised by a Mr. Robert D. Vanderslice and according to its cover "over 1/2 million copies" have been sold or issued.
To be very honest, apart from the wasted money and time people spend on a course and this book (I am sure a lot use it for self-instruction), I think it is even irresponsible to use, publish and sell this book. I will be more than happy to provide you with a list of examples of such linguistic errors and misuses of the German language.
I am presently working as a German language specialist with an international American company, and I am herewith offering you to completely revise this book for you to make it fit for the market. The way it is I can only advise you to please not distribute it any further.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Read with care..., August 19, 2004
This is not the best German text available, but it is one of the most affordable. It is not a book for current colloquial German -- as any book teaching contemporary English written in the 1960s would contain phrases that would sound like a bad television show on a low-quality network, so too does this book contain some turns of phrase and expressions that are out-dated and no longer used.
However, as a book to learn a very basic vocabulary, basic verb and sentence structures, and a gradual introduction to German, it isn't that bad. Hopefully the reader will be inspired from here to go on to other texts that will enhance and refine their language skills; however, this provides a non-threatening and gentle entrance to the German language, and for that, it gets some stars in the rating.
It also includes through the course of the piece reading lessons that include conversations and paragraphs, rather than relying solely on disconnected sentences (as some language texts will do on occasion). Another great advantage this book has is that it is intended for self-study -- all the answers are contained in the appendix in the back of the book (so many grammars are great when it comes to providing exercises and drills, but unless you are enrolled in the class you won't necessarily know if you've done them correctly).
As a stand-alone, only-resource book, this text has serious limitations. Taken as part of a beginning to the language, it has some uses.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I sat down in the store with all the major self-help guides., April 9, 2005
This review is from: German Made Simple [Revised Edition] (Paperback)
I grabbed a bunch of the self-help guides to german (the ones devoting significant time to grammar) and looked through all of them. Though I think any one of them will work ok (if you actually and use it) I think its best to find one that fits your personal preferences as far as what keeps you interested and continuing to study.
This book is somewhat dated (1965, rev 1985) which is probably what gets its detractors riled up. The phrases and words are probably dated but I think its the grammar excercises and the basic vocabulary words that are most important. This book has many, many exercises, which is why I like it; I prefer alot of instantaneous feedback. The format really could use some updating though. There really is alot of info packed onto every page. It could use some more open space on the pages.
Update: I have found that 'German How to Speak and Write It' by Rosenberg is also an excellent book. Very old but it has great exercises and takes up speaking/thinking in German right away. It would be a great addition to the 'German Made Simple'.
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