Customer Reviews

Sing and Learn German

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Whoever translated it, did so one word at a time, which not only means that the syllables don't match and you can't sing it to a tune designed for another language, but it also means that, because German grammar and sentence structure are different to English grammar and sentence structure, much of it no longer makes any sense.

What's worst though is that they chose a singer who apparently does not speak German. If the words weren't printed in the CD booklet, half the time I wouldn't know what the woman is talking about; her pronunciation is appalling.

What a waste of money. I bought this to have my son hear other people than myself use German, but now I'm wondering whether I should sell it used to some other poor, naive and trusting person online or whether I should simply toss it in the garbage.

i've never written a review before but i feel the need to issue this warning: another reviewer said that the singer had an accent and really, the german is so bad it is almost impossible to understand. there is no way a child will learn german from this cd. it is actually quite shocking- i'm not sure what the producers of the cd were thinking, they entirely missed the point. the music itself is highly unoriginal and cloying too. sincerely wish i could return this one.

this is the worst "Learn German DVD" on earth. The singer has such a strong British accent and sings wrong grammar. this DVD is trash.

This lady's voice will drive you to tears. Please save yourself the torture.

Although, it is fun to hear these songs in German. German is so fun!! But this lady's voice just kills it for me.

I bought this with a view to using it to teach German, and it is good for this, but could be better. They've tried to keep the German as close in meaning to the English as possible, but this means that the German parts are often rushed, because there are WAY too many words and syllables in some stanzas. This makes some of the German hard to understand, which slightly negates the reason for buying the CD.

The other big no-no is the pronunciation. "Dienstag" is pronounced like "dine" and not "deen", "Sonntag" and "Monntag" like "Sun" and "Mun" -- among other things.

MOSTLY, the pronunciation is good, the songs fun and upbeat, and I do recommend it, but there IS room for improvement.

The singer's voice and her rolling "r's" are absolutely painful...and so is the German!
The CD deserves no star, just a swift kick in the garbage.

This must be the worst german CD that I've ever heard in my life!!! Please, DO NOT buy this!! The woman that sings on it, has probably never spoken a word of german in her entire life.....believe me I am from germany and she just took the english lyrics and translated word by word into german (which makes absolutely NO SENSE at all!!)
So, all I can tell you is to stay away from buying this!!

Thank goodness I listened to it online before buying. I can't believe they actually found a publisher for this.
I will second what the previous readers said.
a) the translation is abysmal, at best.
b) the singer is not a native speaker her command of the German language is, unfortunately, dreadful.
c) And lastly, why not buy actual traditional German Children's songs, instead of poorly translated ones?

Learning new songs is always fun. I suggest you order some real German tunes over Amazon.de, e.g. Nena (yes, the one who sang 99 Luftballons) has a beautiful collection of children's songs.

Thankfully, everyone has a chance now to listen to most CD's online before making an actual purchase. I was searching for a gift for my little niece to help her learn my native language German.

I am SHOCKED, that this is even on the market! This country has so many native speakers available, why did they choose a singer who obviously has no clue about what they are singing? The accent is so bad, I could not even identify the words at times. People wonder why most Americans do not speak other languages. Well, we have found the answer. With the embarrassing learning material available, no one would be able to learn a language properly!

The usefulness of learning by singing is completely lost when the lyrics are wantonly squeezed into the tune, the delivery is too fast to hear individual words, and the arrangements are lame and forgettable. I could not sing one of these songs from memory to save my life. The makers wasted a "teachable moment!".