Others say...

"Delightful exposure to conversational German"
I purchased this book as a refresher course in German, and have found it both useful and charming. The organization of the book is very logical, the artwork is charming, and all in all, it is a bit like an actual visit to Germany. Well worth the money.

"An Excellent Book!!"
The Dover books are some of the best to use when learning a new language. I bought the French version of this book a few years ago when brushing up on my high school French. So when the time came that I had finally decided to start learning the German language, this was the first book that I bought. I like the fact that this book is good for both beginners and intermediate learners. The book is a bit dated, but the basis of the book for teaching the language comes through. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is beginning the German language.

"Practice beats theory"
I have spent 3 months studying this book and am now reading 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear but in the original German text. I of course need a dictionary to do so but that is all I need to enjoy the novel without any trouble.
There is a Japanese maxim that says `practice beats theory' and this book is an excellent example of it, although as such one needs a little patience to finish it.

Patience in any case is what one needs to learn any foreign language and the numerous illustrations of the book are then one of its strengths to help one sustain the patience.
A movie critic once said a good movie is one that does not age. I believe this applies to illustrations as well. In fact, those in this book do not appear old at all, despite the fact that they must predate the year of my birth of 1954. They are as expressive as they are alive.

The many photographs in this book on the other hand do look old, what they depict as well as themselves. One of them even fails to convey the depth, which however only contributes to the overall charm that they possess. Some of them even appear magical to me, for example the one entitled WO DIE ZEIT STILL STEHT or NATIONALTRACHT.

Pictures however are not the only strength of this book.
It develops a consistent story around a pair of families, their introduction, their relation and their interaction, in a manner that encourages continuous reading.
Furthermore, this basic thread is interspersed with numerous funny short stories and even poems. They serve their purpose very well; they do make one laugh and they do make one appreciate the language the book is teaching.

I read every single page of this book and did all the exercises. If you follow my example, you should be able to be reading normal German books in three months.
This is such a fine book.


"I love the way this book is made."
It's a simple, well thought out book that makes the reader learn through examples. The benefit is that it's not all memorization that you forget after 3 days of not studying it. Another good thing is that all parts of the lessons are separated in 3 : 1 line in german, 1 line in pseudo-english that makes you prononce the sentence in german and 1 line that is the translation.

Overall great book.

"Learning German"
As others have noted, this book looks a little bit dated; the illustrations seem to have come from a by gone era. There have also been some changes in German society that are not reflected in the book, which would make the learner sound a bit old fashioned.

However, there are some very good examples of simple phrases and sentences, with explanations of structure and grammar. With the additional words, it would be possible to quickly put together some fairly good conversation pieces.

The guide to pronunciation is not always entirely clear; some others do a much better job. However, no book is going to prepare you for the reality of conversational German; but this will help get you started.

This is not really for someone that has more than a basic grasp of the language, although it might be useful to help brush up if you haven't used the language for many years. It would however, be good for someone starting to learn, particularly as part of a structured plan.