Germany and German (Getting to Know)

Rating:
Summary: Lighting the spark
Review: I asked my son, age 12, about all the materials we had purchased over the years about learning German. He told me honestly that most of the language computer programs were boring. So while he learned a bit, it did not fire up his interest. What turned him on to learn more than anything else was "Getting to know Germany and German." The small book is "packed" with lots of cultural details (24 pages), plus an additional section at the end on common phrases. This last section uses easy-to-follow phonetics, and covered the basic mechanics of language. We were amazed at his skill at pronunciation. But most of all, his enthusiasm to learn more German vocabulary from other sources. We've had many other ABC and picture books around the house, and a few audio tapes, but this one rated tops in his mind.