German (Eyewitness Travel Packs)

Rating:
Summary: Practical & helpful...an excellent book
Review: The Eyewitness Travel Phrase books are excellent guides for tourists looking to communicate as much as possible in foreign languages. They include a host of phrases that can be very helpful in many situations - there are the classic "Can you tell me what time it is?" to a variety of more complex or particular expressions. There's also a section on spelling and pronounciation. It also includes expressions used not only while on vacation, but also while doing business.

This little book is also quite handy thanks to it's size, it fits perfectly on any pocket. It also includes a section with a simple dictionary that can be very helpful in identifying a variety of words.

The book is very good at doing its job, which is helping people cross the language barriers while abroad. However, it shouldn't be mistaken with a German language course. This is book is not meant to teach you the German language, but to give you a good enough understanding of it so you can travel without major inconveniences. If you want to expand on the language, you need to get other books.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful approach!
Review: There are a number of approaches to the learning of a foreign language, and the Berlitz approach remains one of the best. The advantage of this approach is that it is all in the target language, in this case, German, so the learner doesn't get into the almost unbreakable habit of constantly translating back and forth between his or her native language and the second language.
Such translating severely limits acquisition of a language. This Berlitz, home study course is a series of fifty, wonderfully well planned and executed, short scenes which allow the learner to understand, think and speak the language without translation. The accompanying books (two, plus a dictionary) are also cleverly done and give one reading skills as well as the speaking skills the tapes give. There is much here for the businessperson as well as the tourist. After trying a variety of taped courses, this is the one that made the most sense to me and worked best for me.