Customer Reviews

Streetwise German: Speak and Understand Colloquial German

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

 

 

I am german and looking for a good way to teach my american fiance my language. This book is pure horror. Don't waste your money on it, it makes neither sense nor is it a way to impress. Learn "propper" german before you go slang. It saves you a great deal of embarressment.
This book should be taken from the market. Sad that any german author thinks that is the way to TEACH someone.

I may only be an intermediate German student, but this book hasn't helped me at all. I am a serious student and graduated magna cum laude from college in 1999 so I don't think the fault is in my ability to comprehend. I admit to not giving the book much of a chance, but the conversations seem silly and talk about things you would never find yourself asking. I would have preferred a book that had conversations the non-native German speaker would find himself engaging in. I don't think this means a conversational, "streetwise" text has to be dry and stilted, but I think a healthy mix of idioms and slang with language the non-native German speaker is attempting to learn would be more effective. It seems to me that if you aren't already a master of German, you will not like this book and that, if you are, you don't need it because you already master the language.

My 2 cents.

Hi,
I am a graduate student from germany. After I just read the excerpts online, I could not believe that anyone ever bought this poor book and thinks it is a good start to learn Colloquial German. Living 25 Jears in Germany I definitely know what German slang is like and this book doesn't have the foggiest idea. Please don't ever use one of the words from the book in Germany!

I find it rather strange that so many textbooks whose stated aim is to teach the slang of a language are rated so poorly by people who think the book's purpose is to teach the standard, sanitized "textbook" version of the language. This is especially the case for German slang books, in my experience. I suppose this is because, often, language textbooks are billed as teaching only the "colloquial" language that a student "really needs," rather than the intricate nuances of literary language. If this is what is wanted, there's nothing wrong with that, but one should a) check that this kind of "sanitized" language is what is meant by the title of the book, information easily found in the product description, and b) not childishly give a book a "one" rating based on how it measures up to something that it was never intended to be. As far as I know, the "Streetwise" series fills a hole in one's linguistic knowledge left by other teaching materials readily available on the market: these books give a realistic view of everyday slang expressions, vulgar and otherwise, with notes on use and recordings of natural-ish dialogues using them to boot. In my opinion, you're not really going to get better than this if your aim is to understand what those guys next to you at the bar are saying (though the "Dirty X" series is also excellent, albeit without recordings). Obviously, one should use the material learned in this book to augment lessons on the formal register of the language, rather than using it as a stand-alone text.

Hy leute...
Hi ich komme aus Deutschland...
um Deutsch wirklich zu checken müsst ihr ne Zeit in Deutschland gelebt haben...
um den realen deutschen Slang zu reden müsst ihr einfach Deutsch reden und ein paar englische wörter dabei machen.
Ist der deutsche Hip-Hop oder punk Slang
Haut rein... leute

I'm appalled by the review of other readers especially the german lot.
I bought this book while i was living in England, i had great interest in learn german, so i bought every single book which could aid me in my interprise. I gave 4 starts instead of five because i didn't like the english translation of some expressions, they could be better, the author translated some expressions with the colloquial english, which in my opinion the literal tranlation would rendered a better understanding.(or perhaps could have used both literal and figutive).
Most germans frowned upon this book, but i recommend it to those who already have a good background in german, maybe a intermediate level would be good for a start, i also suggest the you study with a assistance of a german native, or austrian if that's the case, to help you with the literal translation, literal translation shed light on the spirit of the expressions. This book is full of funny expressions and dialogues, some of them might sound rude, but although many germans reviwers may dislike my comments, i have to say that this kind of language is common in every language, i agree with the reviwer who says that we have to learn the Hoch Deutsch fisrt, and then take up the colloquial, slang part of it.
Many expression used here are very similar to those used here in Brazil like:
Bist Knapp bei Kasse? Are you broke or are you short in money (from the till)
Der hat's g'schallt. He swallowed it. (meaning he was taken in) Un so weit.
Good book for serious students, not for dabblers.
Aufwiedersehen!!
Gruss aus Brasilien.
Gabriel

Once in a generation a great teaching text comes along. This is that text. This is a great teaching text that teaches students of German the idiosychrocies of this complex language in a fun, easy to follow, dialogue based text.