Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #611540 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-01
• Released on: 2005-03-24
• Formats: Audiobook, CD
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

Misleading
This course is not as great as the previous review rated it, in my opinion. Although the course pauses, its almost long enough time for you to think. Unless you are familiar with the language, this is not something you can listen to in the car. This is something that should be taken with a class. For someone who was looking for a learn while you drive CD, this was not it. As mentioned, the pauses weren't long enough. The lessons were extremely short. You quickly moved on to a new one. Unfortunate for me, the course is also based on talking to people in Germany, like they are you friends, instead of acquaintances. That was not helpful for me. I will not ask the waiter, "What are you doing later? I will come with you?" I need to say things like, "I would like to have coffee and toast, please." If that is what you are looking for, do not get this CD. If you have people in Germany that you will be socializing with, then by all means, this CD is the one for you, otherwise, its best to get a different one.

Ausgezeichnet! I love this course.
I guess I am a little biased toward Cortina language courses. For one thing, I learned Italian with Cortina materials when I was in high school. I found their materials (both printed and recorded) to be of high quality and lively. Also, they are very reasonably priced.
Now to this course in particular... It will not make you fluent in German (i.e., you will not hold conversations about Mozart's music or read Wittgenstein) after completing this course. However, you will have the tools to function in essential situations, if you master the material in this course. Also, you will have a solid, very basic introduction upon which to build. If you want to get a broader introduction to the language, buy the 10-part version of this course... it rocks!
One last thing about Cortina's recorded materials... they are crystal clear, and the accents are gorgeous (I have courses from them in Italian, Spanish, French and German). I worked with these until I could repeat the accents perfectly. Now, I get great compliments from native speakers about how nice my accent in the respective language is. That alone speaks volumes.

I am sorry that this next comment appears in a sort of strange place... I decided to edit this post a little so as to give you better info in your decision to buy this or not. This course will provide you with four lessons. Each lesson follows the same plan: (1) A conversation in the language and English. This is done at a moderate pace with pauses for your repition. (2)Pronunciation pointers. This time, the conversation is repeated, with advice on tricky aspects of pronunciation. Actually a very useful exercise, since you get to hear the conversation again and work on your pronunciation at the same time. (3) New vocabulary. This section introduces grammatically and materially relevant vocabulary, using sentence patterns from part (1). (4)Grammar and Sentence Construction. Just what it says it is. Here, you get to learn the principles underlying the lesson conversation. (5)Questions and Answers. Here, you get to put it all together, where questions are asked and answers are provided, all based on the material previously covered. (6) Common idioms. What more can I say? They are introduced here, with English translation and a pause for your repetition. (7)Conversation. Here, the conversation is repeated at native speaker speed. When I was learning with these courses, I would listen to this part first. It would blow right past me. Then, after I had worked through the course, I would listen to again, with understanding. This had a great effect of encouragement for the next lesson, because here was evidence of the progress I had made. By purchasing this part of the course, you will learn :

Definite articles - nominative and accusative cases - plural of nouns - present tense of 'sein' and 'machen' - indefinite article - present tense of 'essen' - negative article and adjective 'kein' - nominative and accusative of nouns preceded by articles - present tense of 'haben' - indirect object personal pronouns - present perfect tense of 'kaufen' and 'reisen' - negative statements - familiar 'du' and 'Sie' forms.

This may not seem like much, but you really learn it, and that is a solid foundation for your studies. Also, when you learn a single verb like 'essen' or 'kaufen', each acts as a model type of verb. So after you learn the conjugation of one of these, you can conjugate a host of similar ones, and you are taught to do this in this course. Sorry to be so longwinded! Thanks for your time.