Excellent Learning Program

I will have to say that I was very skeptical about this program at first, but Pimsleur has definitely converted me! By unit 17 of phase 2, I was able to converse with a couple from Germany. Mind you, I do not have a
FULL vocabulary, but the couple said that my pronunciation was like that of a native speaker. Granted, I do spend more time than the program recommends per day and have had to repeat some units, but to be able to be understood by a non-English speaker after only roughly six months TOTAL (including this program and others) is impressive. Of these programs, I have used the Pimsleur program for about four of these months. I can speak better German than I can Spanish, of which I had four years of formal study.

55 people found this helpful

I'm glad it wasn't my first German lesson

I got the Pimsler course after listening to Paul Noble's Learn German all the way through. The Pimsler course is already expanding my vocabulary within the first few lessons. However, I'm glad I did Paul Noble's book first, otherwise I would be lost with the Pimsler course.

Pimsler starts with one of the trickiest words in German - "excuse me" or "entshuldigen sie," which is a mouthful and doesn't sound like English. In comparison, Paul Noble's book starts with words that sound similar to English, like "I can camp" or "ich kann campen."

The Pimsler course also presents everything in a quick conversational tone, and rarely slows down to exaggerate pronunciation. I suppose that helps prepare listeners for a fluent German conversation, but it leaves beginners in the dust.

As with both books, Pimsler never tells you how to spell anything! I constantly have to go to Google Translate to learn the spelling. "Verstehen" sounds like it has an F at the beginning, and "Wol" sounds like "vol" to the English speaker. It's difficult to read German even after learning how to speak German without knowing the spelling.

The speakers are great. Sometimes the pronunciation between the two speakers varies a little ("nicht" for example) but I think that exposes listeners to natural variations between dialects.

26 people found this helpful

Not that great.

This program provides a few phrases and examples to commit to memory. If you want to memorize a few odd words and one or two phrases, this will do fine. There is no explanation of what you are saying, sentence, structure, ect. If you genuinely want ro learn the German language, so as to speak it on your own and not regurgitate cookie cutter sentences I would suggest another course.

17 people found this helpful

Too short

I love the system, however I think we should get way more modules by credit

13 people found this helpful

Highly recommend with a couple caveats

Note: I am half way through German 2, so this review is really for all thirty lessons in German 1 and not just for lessons 1-5.

This worked very well for me, so I am going to rate it highly. I have been using several different methods and programs to help my German and I do believe that this program has helped me the most in getting my German speaking to a higher level. I do want to give a few caveats below.

I have been doing Duolingo every day (Memrise and Rosetta Stone some days if I have extra time) in addition to doing this on my commute to and from work each day. I feel this is a good combo. I usually get one lesson in the morning commute and one lesson in the afternoon commute. I would do five lessons in a row (Monday morning through Wednesday morning) and then go back and repeat the same five lessons (Wednesday evening through Friday evening). This was immensely beneficial to me as I often would still be struggling with things the first run through.

Caveat 1:
I would not recommend it as a standalone product to learn German. I do not think I would have been very successful if this was the only program I was using. There are only two German speakers in the course so some new words that are introduced are difficult to understand the correct pronunciation. I feel they do a good job (better than most programs) but just having different programs also introducing those words helped a lot to improve my pronunciation as there were just more different voices pronouncing something. It also sometimes helped to see the word written, which isn’t really done in this program. The program's reading portion is very weak and the writing portion is nonexistent, so pairing with a program that is stronger in that areas helps as well.

Caveat 2:
This is really targeted for businesses and travel dealings and less for personal relationships. For me, I am mostly practicing my German with my partner and so I mostly needed the informal expressions. This was a bit frustrating as the informal you is not introduced in any of the lessons in Level 1 and is introduced about a 1/3 of the way through Level 2. Several times I wanted to say something but could only say it formally. That being said, if you partner this program with another program that tends to focus more on the informal you (like Duolingo), this evens out and you get practice with both.

I really enjoyed this and I believe it helped me with my German tremendously. Having something that I could practice while driving on my daily commute greatly increased the amount of time I could devote to learning German which alone makes this a great win and worth the price to me.

13 people found this helpful

Words with no direction

It seemed to me that the quality of the training was as equally bad as the audio. The voices of the actors was unclear, and there was no direction (really) discussing how Germans speak. I also think this disk was waaaaayyy to short for the money. They should combine two into one. I felt ripped off

6 people found this helpful

Terrible doesn't stream total rip off.

This is a rip off. The book isn't available to stream a complete waste of money.

5 people found this helpful

Introduction to the German Language

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This audiobook works great as a family foreign language project. We listen to it for a half hour a day.

What did you like best about this story?

It is realistic and simple and goes back to lesson 1.

What about the narrator’s performance did you like?

He sounds like he is German and is pretty clear.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. We just did it a little at a time.

21 people found this helpful

Very good, but very expensive!

Very good to start, but with time you find it much more expensive than other programs. I wish they have better offers for intensive learners! On Audible, they don't have similar features that they offer, yet it's much more expensive! As they force you to use their channels!!

4 people found this helpful

Too Short

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book only covers a few brief phrases. It should be much more comprehensive.

Was German Phase 1, Unit 01-05 worth the listening time?

No.

Any additional comments?

The concept of learning a language while walking or exercising, as I was trying to do, is attractive, but this course was very brief. The teaching method seems sound though, so if you are willing to spend a lot more money for all of the courses, you will probably learn ein bisschen German.

4 people found this helpful