Learn in Your Car-German: 3 Level Set: Complete Language Course: Audio Cassettes and Listening Guides (Learn in Your Car Series - Includes Individual Levels 1, 2 and 3) [Audio Cassette]

Henry N. Raymond (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1993 | ISBN-10: 1560151390 | ISBN-13: 978-1560151395 | Edition: Book and Cassette

Six 90-minutes cassettes plus a full text listening guide. Level 1: Introduction to key words, numbers, phrases, sentence structure, and basic grammar. Level 2: More challenging vocabulary, grammar, and complex sentences generate confidence in your ability to comprehend and converse. Level 3: Expanded vocabulary, advanced grammar and complex sentences to expand your conversational skills.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Look ma, no textbooks! The Learn in Your Car series treats you like a child--in the best possible way--starting with one-word phrases ("please," "good-by"), counting exercises, and simple nouns ("bus," "train") designed to imitate a child's learning process. First you hear the words in English, then they are repeated slowly in clear, unaccented pronunciations. The method is extremely effective for those who don't know a thing, or for those who want to brush up by testing themselves when the English words are spoken. The tapes emphasize the building blocks of communicating in a foreign country rather than rote phrases that only apply on the tape and not in real-life exchanges. Level 1 painlessly covers basic verb forms, essential prepositions, near future and past tenses, as well as shopping, hotel reservations, and other travel-related situations. The series includes French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, and Spanish in three levels that can be purchased individually or in boxed sets. Each level contains two 90-minute cassettes (or CDs) and an accompanying booklet (not for use behind the wheel) with helpful explanations and scripts for the lessons.

Review

"Your audio program is the best I've tried. I just returned from France and had a wonderful time conversing in French even though I had only three weeks with your tapes before I left. Thanks for putting out such a superlative product at a reasonable price." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Penton Overseas; Book and Cassette edition (June 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560151390
• ISBN-13: 978-1560151395
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 9.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #869,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Books on Cassette > Languages > German
  • #13 in Books > Books on Cassette > Children's Books > Languages

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great learning aid; easy and effective, June 2, 2005

By 

Tim Beazley - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: German 3-Level Set: The Complete Language Course (Learn in Your Car) (Audio CD)

This course is excellent, either as an introduction to German or as a way to refresh or sharpen your skills if you are already somewhat familiar with it.

There are three levels, and each level consists of three 60-minute CDs. (You can buy each level separately; but getting the three levels as a set is cheaper than buying them separately.)

Each CD is sub-divided into 10 or 11 small lessons of increasing difficulty. The lessons start with very simple vocabulary, then simple phrases using that vocabulary, then simple sentences in the present tense, then more advanced vocabulary and phrases, and then more complex sentences, including the most common verb tenses and moods (present, past, future, compound tenses (I HAVE GONE), conditional (I WOULD GO), imperative (GO AWAY!), and subjunctive (I HOPE HE'LL GO.).

The range of subject matter also expands gradually. The first level covers what might be called "survival skills," the topics you need to know right away, like transportation, money, hotel, directions, restaurant, shopping, telling time, and numbers. Later lessons include vocabulary and concepts of a more general nature, though "survival skills" are also given additional, more advanced treatment.

All of the CDs follow the same methodology - the target word, phrase, or sentence is given in English, followed by a pause, then the German translation is given, followed by another pause, followed by a repetition of the German translation. I can tell you from personal experience that this constant repetition works very well. Having the CDs playing in your car or on a headset while jogging (my personal favorite!), is a painless but effective way to learn a new language or review a previously learned language.

Each level includes a 50-page booklet that contains a verbatim transcript of each lesson, so if you have trouble understanding a particular word here or there, you can cheat by looking it up in the booklet. (I would never do that! OK, well maybe once or ten times.) Also, some grammatical rules are explained in the booklet. I think that feature is very helpful. Knowing what the general rule is can help you see how individual phrases follow a general pattern, which helps the learning process. Putting explanations like that in the booklet, and not on the CD, was another good feature, since you don't want to keep hearing the same lecture on grammar over and over and over again on the CD.

Granted, there's more to German than what can be covered in just nine hours, but this is an excellent intro or refresher course, and has a lot of useful features.

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent guide for learning from scratch, July 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Learn in Your Car-German: 3 Level Set: Complete Language Course: Audio Cassettes and Listening Guides (Learn in Your Car Series - Includes Individual Levels 1, 2 and 3) (Audio Cassette)

I recently decided to learn German to help me in my business, I travel to Switzerland regularly. This course was the best I've tried to help me learn the language during my daily commute. The format is easy to follow, it leads up to more challenging information with each tape. The tapes must be listened to more than once though, to get the full benefit of the information being given (there is a lot to learn!). The workbooks are very good also, they give more information about verbforms and conjugation rules.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best method for long term memory learning, August 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Learn in Your Car-German: 3 Level Set: Complete Language Course: Audio Cassettes and Listening Guides (Learn in Your Car Series - Includes Individual Levels 1, 2 and 3) (Audio Cassette)

The "Learn in your car" series on languages is the best method I have come across in my attempt to learn a foreign language (short of taking a course). You hear actual pronunciation and don't have to follow along in a book to know what is being said. I current live in Europe and this course on tape really works. It starts with simple vocabulary building and works through all parts of speech and complex sentences. I highly recommend this to anyone tired of reading in a language book how a foreign word should sound. It also allows you to change the balance on your stereo so you only hear the foreign language part, which lets you quiz yourself even more. I have a 45 min drive to work and just playing these tapes back and forth I have a very useful and functional language ability. It easily allows for the repetition required in learning a foreign language.