<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Don't believe the hype
Review: A quick listen of the poor audio quality on this title speaks volumes for what it's trying to accomplish. It is SO old there's an obvious anachronistic dialect to the English speaker. It has a lot going for it, though - it's been around for a very long time, which increases its viability to many, but Barron's has done nothing to update it which it drastically needs. Tsk tsk tsk...this piece appears to be found quite easily in your local library, and I highly recommend testing the product firsthand before purchasing it at a very high price. "Learn In Your Car - German Levels 1-3" is quite a bit better, really, and a bit less expensive (which can also be found in libraries). Audio quality is quite good on this one, and covers more ground in an easier-to-learn method on cassette or CD. "Ultimate German: Basic-Intermediate" by Living Language may even be considered better, although audio quality could be improved. I could not recommend this title due to superior and far newer titles available for less, although it is adequate. The above two examples are much better, in my opinion, and are simply a much better buy than this ancient German language course.
Rating: 
Summary: Way, way out dated (and way too expensive)
Review: A quick listen of the poor audio quality on this title speaks volumes for what it's trying to accomplish. It is SO old there's an obvious anachronistic dialect to the English speaker. It has a lot going for it, though - it's been around for a very long time, which increases its viability to many, but Barron's has done nothing to update it which it drastically needs. Tsk tsk tsk...this piece appears to be found quite easily in your local library, and I highly recommend testing the product firsthand before purchasing it at a very high price. "Learn In Your Car - German Levels 1-3" is quite a bit better, really, and a bit less expensive (which can also be found in libraries). Audio quality is quite good on this one, and covers more ground in an easier-to-learn method on cassette or CD. "Ultimate German: Basic-Intermediate" by Living Language may even be considered better, although audio quality could be improved. I could not recommend this title due to superior and far newer titles available for less, although it is adequate. The above two examples are much better, in my opinion, and are simply a much better buy than this ancient German language course.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: At the end of this set of lessons, you'll have about 1400 German words in your vocabulary, plus a useful knowledge of German grammar and some semblance of correct pronunciation, stress and intonation. It is a bit difficult, at first, to relate the audio tapes to the book text because the book has content that is not in the tapes. I recommend that you use How to Pronounce German Correctly, the book and audio tape, while you use Mastering German Level 1.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good, warts and all.
Review: If old-school audiolingual style rote drills and model sentence imitation works for you this is the course you want. It's a bit dated but the approach still works well. There is also a Level II course with 12 ninety-minute tapes to follow-up with. If you've tried other courses in the FSI series this one roughly follows the format of Barron's "Mastering French" and "Mastering Korean" but is quite a bit different than that of "Mastering Italian." You have to be tolerant of some of the faults that have been pointed out by other reviewers and be ready for lots of repetitive exercises and drills. The side-by-side English translations of the German dialogs were particularly helpful.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful tool to build up fluency
Review: Maybe I've been spoiled by Berlitz' immersion approach, but jumping back and forth between English and German was distracting. Also the recording quality wasn't good, the voices were unnecessarily harsh and unpleasant, and worst of all, the parts of the book that would have been the most useful to have recorded were only in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Audio Lingual Method Needs Revision
Review: The course "Mastering German Level I" (based on the Foreign Service Institute programs of the 1950s) represents a student's personal drill sergeant in a linguistic book camp. It's tough! It's painful! But it's character-building! If you're looking for a German equivalent of Pierre Capretz' outstanding "French in Action," this is not the course for you. But "Mastering German Level I" can improve a learner's facility with the German language. The concept of long and complicated drills and incessant repetition used throughout this ear-and-tongue method has value for making the language automatic for the non-native speaker. But for rank beginner, this audio lingual method of learning foreign languages--so much in vogue in the 1960s--can be daunting. The quality of the tapes, unfortunately, can disappoint and mislead the real beginner--as well as the more advanced student--who needs great guidance in pronunciation and inflection. In fact, the poor quality of the audio portion--the very framework for this course--nearly topples the structure that this course is attempting to build. "Mastering German Level I" desperately needs revision, better quality tapes, and some good proofreading to correct typographical errors in the German and the English. I would not recommend this course for the beginning student.
Rating:
Summary: Don't believe the hype
Review: The reason this course is so good is that no-one these days has the time and energy to develop a course of this calibre. This was written at the start of the Cold War, when the Diplomatic Service put serious resources into developing a language course that would allow diplomats to walk into Germany and start communicating. The volcabulary isn't too large, but it is designed to get you speaking. The quibbles about the packaging are justified but minor - they obviously just used the course notes and there are lots of spelling mistakes. Also it's clearly aimed at diplomats - I doubt I'll be using "Einfuhrbestimmungen" (import regulations) anytime soon. Also I don't understand why people have difficulty with the speakers - they're actually German and talk like the natives will when you get there. Isn't it better to become used to how a German will talk to you now rather than later? The tapes are a bit hissey but not too serious. It just takes getting used to. I think the main problem people have with this course is that it tells it how it is. Most modern courses sell the idea that you can learn a language in a very short time and it just isn't true, and people lose confidence when it doesn't happen. To learn a new language from scratch (in a country that doesn't speak that language) to the point where you can have a basic conversation takes at least a year for most people. I've watched beginners on language courses, and it takes them a couple of weeks just to feel comfortable introducing themselves. The Barrons course is not designed with the hype in mind. It was developed for a purpose and that is to get you speaking. That said I almost died of boredom doing this course so I suggest using it as an addition to teaching. You'll be surprised at how fast you improve.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: These tapes have helped my german out so much. I can't really find an argument against them. Yes, the audio quality isn't what it could be, but it doesn't hinder you from hearing anything. This especially doesn't matter with a language that is phonetical. Although and update is in order. I found it somewhat odd that in the first units i couldn't say much but i could ask for tabaco, pipe, cigars, cigarets. But that quickly changed into very useful vocabulary. At times the drills can seem boring, but it's so much better than other language series that have you learn 50 words in one unit and only actually using half of them in a sentence. I walked away from a study session knowing that i could use the words i learned correctly. With other methods I knew my colours, days of the weeks, and other "basic stuff" but found myself unable to actual use any of it because i didn't understand hardly any grammer, usage, and lacked a sufficent vocabulary of relevant words. All in all i found this series the most effective I have seen and reasonably priced too.
Rating:
Summary: A classic masterpiece!
Review: Using libraries, I tried most of the currently available taped courses in German before settling on Barron's. It is superb! It is not for the casually interested, but rather for the person who would, as the title indicates, begin the mastery of German. I understand that the criticism of the Audio-Lingual method (which this course follows) is that it did not, in the end, produce truly bilingual speakers amoungst all the high school and college students who were taught using the method. I'd suggest that this may have been heavily influneced by the motivation (or lack thereof) of many of the students. Presumably, a self learner would be sufficiently motivated to take the necessary extra step of practicing free speaking, the lack of which will inhibit the real acquisition of any foreign language. The tapes, which intentionally demand quick responses, are brillantly designed to make the processing of the language automatic. I wonder if, perhaps, those people who seem not to have found the tapes useful did not read the instructions at the beginning of the book so as to understand the purpose and use of the tapes...or maybe they simply needed a different approach to learning...we don't all learn in the same way. It is true the speakers on the tapes do not sound like trained actors, but then neither will most Germans with whom one might speak. Everything you need to speak, read and write German is here...vocabulary, grammar, constructions, verb conjugation, etc. Moreover, if one applies oneself, one learns very quickly and with extraordinarily good retention. A truly magnificent accomplishment.
<< 1 >>
| 
