Customer Reviews

Mastering German-With Book (Foreign Service Institute Language Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Using libraries, I tried most of the currently available taped courses in German before settling on Barron's. It is superb! It is not for the casually interested, but rather for the person who would, as the title indicates, begin the mastery of German. I understand that the criticism of the Audio-Lingual method (which this course follows) is that it did not, in the end, produce truly bilingual speakers amoungst all the high school and college students who were taught using the method. I'd suggest that this may have been heavily influneced by the motivation (or lack thereof) of many of the students. Presumably, a self learner would be sufficiently motivated to take the necessary extra step of practicing free speaking, the lack of which will inhibit the real acquisition of any foreign language. The tapes, which intentionally demand quick responses, are brillantly designed to make the processing of the language automatic. I wonder if, perhaps, those people who seem not to have found the tapes useful did not read the instructions at the beginning of the book so as to understand the purpose and use of the tapes...or maybe they simply needed a different approach to learning...we don't all learn in the same way. It is true the speakers on the tapes do not sound like trained actors, but then neither will most Germans with whom one might speak. Everything you need to speak, read and write German is here...vocabulary, grammar, constructions, verb conjugation, etc. Moreover, if one applies oneself, one learns very quickly and with extraordinarily good retention. A truly magnificent accomplishment.

The course "Mastering German Level I" (based on the Foreign Service Institute programs of the 1950s) represents a student's personal drill sergeant in a linguistic book camp. It's tough! It's painful! But it's character-building!

If you're looking for a German equivalent of Pierre Capretz' outstanding "French in Action," this is not the course for you. But "Mastering German Level I" can improve a learner's facility with the German language.

The concept of long and complicated drills and incessant repetition used throughout this ear-and-tongue method has value for making the language automatic for the non-native speaker. But for rank beginner, this audio lingual method of learning foreign languages--so much in vogue in the 1960s--can be daunting.

The quality of the tapes, unfortunately, can disappoint and mislead the real beginner--as well as the more advanced student--who needs great guidance in pronunciation and inflection. In fact, the poor quality of the audio portion--the very framework for this course--nearly topples the structure that this course is attempting to build.

"Mastering German Level I" desperately needs revision, better quality tapes, and some good proofreading to correct typographical errors in the German and the English. I would not recommend this course for the beginning student.

The reason this course is so good is that no-one these days has the time and energy to develop a course of this calibre. This was written at the start of the Cold War, when the Diplomatic Service put serious resources into developing a language course that would allow diplomats to walk into Germany and start communicating. The volcabulary isn't too large, but it is designed to get you speaking. The quibbles about the packaging are justified but minor - they obviously just used the course notes and there are lots of spelling mistakes. Also it's clearly aimed at diplomats - I doubt I'll be using "Einfuhrbestimmungen" (import regulations) anytime soon. Also I don't understand why people have difficulty with the speakers - they're actually German and talk like the natives will when you get there. Isn't it better to become used to how a German will talk to you now rather than later? The tapes are a bit hissey but not too serious. It just takes getting used to.

I think the main problem people have with this course is that it tells it how it is. Most modern courses sell the idea that you can learn a language in a very short time and it just isn't true, and people lose confidence when it doesn't happen. To learn a new language from scratch (in a country that doesn't speak that language) to the point where you can have a basic conversation takes at least a year for most people. I've watched beginners on language courses, and it takes them a couple of weeks just to feel comfortable introducing themselves. The Barrons course is not designed with the hype in mind. It was developed for a purpose and that is to get you speaking. That said I almost died of boredom doing this course so I suggest using it as an addition to teaching. You'll be surprised at how fast you improve.

German is a difficult language. Nouns (usually their articles) as well as verbs change their form depending on how they are used. One third of the verbs are irregular. Nouns can be of masculine, feminine or neuter gender. The gender usually has to be memorized. There are seven different ways to form plurals and they have to be memorized as well. The rules of word order in a sentence are very strict and are dependent upon several conditions. In addition German has several sounds that we don't have in English, like that hard "ch" that comes from the back of the throat, the uvular "r," or "O"s and "U"s with umlauts. Then there are those long, long words! As a result, German can be quite daunting. That's an awful lot of things to think about at once.

The beauty of this course is that it takes everything very slowly, step-by-step. The student should work at his own pace and it is stressed that one should not move on to the next tape until the current one is completely mastered. There are a lot of drills and repetition. The goal is to speak and understand German without having to think about it. This is not going to come about over night. But with diligent practice, this course (with some supplementary vocabulary work), really can give true fluency.

I had studied German in college, but had forgotten at least 80% of it. After learning Italian, I decided I wanted to re-learn German. This coincided with my physician prescribing an exercise regimen of long, brisk walks. So I bought this course to listen to while I walked on a treadmill at the gym. Each side is 45 minutes long, which is a good distance for a brisk walk. It took me about 4 years of listening to these tapes three times a week. My off-treadmill study of the accompanying book was sporadic. Sometimes I was quite diligent, but at other times I was either too busy or not interested. But having to walk on the treadmill anyway give me the stamina to plow through it, even during those periods I was bored and uninterested. I had no deadline.

I spent 5 weeks in Germany after I finished Volume I. I had no trouble expressing most of my needs, but I think it would have been easier for me if I had supplemented my studies with a tourist tape of useful phrases. My vocabulary really wasn't big enough, but to my surprise, my listening comprehension was quite good. (I went to the movies in Munich and saw DER BEWEGTE MANN. I felt that I understood just about all of it. I got all the jokes. After I got home I was able to rent the video of the English version so I could make sure. The only thing I didn't get was that the sex spray was used in cattle breeding. I got everything else.)

This course was originally developed for the diplomatic service, so much of the vocabulary concerns diplomatic matters like giving a lecture, although some of the early lessons are about shopping for clothing or renting an apartment. Each lesson starts with a German band playing a rousing polka, which leads into a short scenario depicting some aspect of life as a new diplomat stationed in a German speaking country. New vocabulary words are introduced as they appear in the scenario. The listener is prompted twice to repeat what he hears. Then there are the various drills: pronunciation drills, repetition drills, variation drills, comprehension drills and substitution drills. The student should know the scenario thoroughly before moving to the next lesson. There seem to be four native speakers in the scenarios. They appear to come from different regions. They don't all speak Hochdeutsch. This is good, because it gives practice in understanding speakers from different regions. At first, I had difficulty understanding one speaker in particular. (All the grammatical drills are in Hochdeutsch.) Each lesson takes up two sides of a cassette, 45 minutes for each side. There are twelve lessons. It should be noted though, that this is only volume one of this course. It barely touches on the past tense and doesn't get into the subjunctive at all.

If you are really serious about learning German I would definitely recommend this course, although I must stress that it is NOT a fast process. It is also quite dated (enough to be "quaint"). There are lots of references to cigarettes, matches, ashtrays and typewriters. I'm not sure I would make it my primary learning tool because it's such a slow process, but I do think this course could give true fluency if supplemented by a much bigger vocabulary. I don't have a large German vocabulary, but I can make a complex sentence like, "Es tut mir leid dass ich besser Deutsch nicht sprechen kann" without having to think about the word order. Five stars.

At the end of this set of lessons, you'll have about 1400 German words in your vocabulary, plus a useful knowledge of German grammar and some semblance of correct pronunciation, stress and intonation.

It is a bit difficult, at first, to relate the audio tapes to the book text because the book has content that is not in the tapes.

I recommend that you use How to Pronounce German Correctly, the book and audio tape, while you use Mastering German Level 1.

The audio may not be up to the digital standards of the 90s - but don't be so prissy! The course is brilliantly constructed. You drill and DRILL case, number, and gender agreements until it becomes automatic. Other, more modern courses may be too afraid of "boring" listeners, but sorry folks! this is how you learn a language: mindless repetitive drilling.

This course hammers it into your head like multiplication tables! This is NO feel-good hugfest for dumbed-down Americans! It is actually designed to teach you something. What a novel concept!

The "substitution drills" are THE best and as far as I can tell, no one else teaches german quite this way -- in fact I'm ordering volume II now...

Considering the cost and the reputation of Barrons, they should be ashamed of this item. First, in terms of current technology, the tapes are generally of poor audio quality. There are random variations in pitch and volume and an unacceptable level of distortion. While the general course material and grammar sections are excellent, the textbook itself is really poor. It was first published in 1985 and apparently never proof-read, nor corrected since it was first published. It is riddled with typographical errors which are NOT superficial in a language text. There are word errors, errors in important endings of words, missing or misplaced words, etc., making it much more difficult for the student. For one example, I found eight separate typos on Page 62 alone!! ...Finally, the book should have included a comprehensive dictionary. It is extremely difficult to find a word by looking through the "Finder lists" at the end of each chapter. Barrons must have computers which would make it easy to compile a summary dictionary.

They should be ashamed of such sloppy workmanship!!

These tapes have helped my german out so much. I can't really find an argument against them. Yes, the audio quality isn't what it could be, but it doesn't hinder you from hearing anything. This especially doesn't matter with a language that is phonetical. Although and update is in order. I found it somewhat odd that in the first units i couldn't say much but i could ask for tabaco, pipe, cigars, cigarets. But that quickly changed into very useful vocabulary. At times the drills can seem boring, but it's so much better than other language series that have you learn 50 words in one unit and only actually using half of them in a sentence. I walked away from a study session knowing that i could use the words i learned correctly. With other methods I knew my colours, days of the weeks, and other "basic stuff" but found myself unable to actual use any of it because i didn't understand hardly any grammer, usage, and lacked a sufficent vocabulary of relevant words. All in all i found this series the most effective I have seen and reasonably priced too.

If old-school audiolingual style rote drills and model sentence imitation works for you this is the course you want. It's a bit dated but the approach still works well. There is also a Level II course with 12 ninety-minute tapes to follow-up with. If you've tried other courses in the FSI series this one roughly follows the format of Barron's "Mastering French" and "Mastering Korean" but is quite a bit different than that of "Mastering Italian." You have to be tolerant of some of the faults that have been pointed out by other reviewers and be ready for lots of repetitive exercises and drills. The side-by-side English translations of the German dialogs were particularly helpful.

Maybe I've been spoiled by Berlitz' immersion approach, but jumping back and forth between English and German was distracting. Also the recording quality wasn't good, the voices were unnecessarily harsh and unpleasant, and worst of all, the parts of the book that would have been the most useful to have recorded were only in the book.