Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42237 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

the best for self-study
These Made Simple language series really are the best for self-studying, I have done their Spanish, German and Italian ones.

After having completed books like Colloquial, I still felt that I did not really know much; not how to carry a conversation, just make simple one-liners. My knowledge of grammar was a real mess as my training of it was based on memorizing grammar-summary-boxes rather than effective hands-on training.

There are only two books on Beginner's German I recommend, this Made Simple-book and German Demystified: A Self Teaching Guide.

If you want to learn at a slower pace and not so intensively then Demystified is a better choice, this Made Simple-book is more intense, which makes it more difficult for some people.
They are equally good in my opinion and I enjoyed working with both: Demystified feels more laid-back and not so stressful, but Made Simple has more reading passages and a larger variety of exercises.

I am telling you, don't waste alot of money on expensive packages like Colloquial when you have inexpensive material like Made Simple available, you just can't compare the two: Made Simple is in a different league than Colloquial, it is my definition of quality.
Expect 6-9 months to complete this book.

Anyhow, this is an updated version of the older book German Made Simple [Revised Edition], and there has quite a few changes:

1. the phonetics system has changed to a, for many people, simpler system so that people who find it hard following what [a:] might mean will definitely like this new book

2. more excercises; reading, comprehension, grammar, translations etc.

3. more detailed cover of the grammar itself

4. larger print; the book itself is standard textbook-size and not pocket anymore

In some ways I miss the compacted format of the old book, but this new one is so much more accessible: updated vocabulary, large fonts, the grammar is explained in more detail etc.
So it is definitely an improvement and is alot more user-friendly than the old one, so it should appeal to more people.

Like the previous books there are no listening excercises as there are no cd's to accompany this book, but the book advices the reader to start listening to German music, radio and/or DVD's etc.
With a language like German it is quite easy finding these things.

For the quality you are getting this is a ridiculously inexpensive book.

Good Intro To German
I really enjoyed reading this book and I think it offers a great introduction to the language. It covers all the basics and many fine points of grammar for this language and offers frequent passages in German to practice translating and understanding. These passages reflect the chapter lessons quite well and the later ones are interesting. Grammar is made comprehensible. I didn't always find it easy to find a grammar passage that I remembered and needed to review although overall the major points are well indexed.