Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 Very cool, but make sure you have a supplemental text also. December 24, 2008
This is a very neat little book, but the approach it takes will be frustrating to students once they advance beyond the beginner level. As it says at the outset, it seeks to help someone achieve competency at the language through simply absorbing it, rather than conciously using a plethora of grammar rules. This sounds great in principle, but it is not really possible to absorb (in my opinion) a language through a book alone. As such, students looking for clarification on things such as the case systems, subordinating conjunctions, relative pronouns, and other seemingly-pedantic-but-essential rules will not find extensive explanation here. And while I love the illustrations and word keys, the book is so old that it can't be trusted fully with regards to antiquated words. Make sure you have a reliable, up-to-date German dictionary to confirm the translations given. The illustration tables also seem a bit too ambitious...why not just put twenty completely different animal illustrations on a page, instead of twenty different species of birds? Is learning the distinct German words for a peacock versus a mallard really high on the list of concerns for a German student?
Overall, this is a very cool book that has a lot to offer, but is not self-sufficient as a guide to the German language.
 it helps! November 14, 2008
This book is really good. I had doubts obviously just like anyone would if you were to teach yourself a foreign language, but this book proved me wrong. It has excersises that i'm able to do correctly and it makes you think without being too difficult. I'm already addicted to this book because i'm learning fast but it does get a little more difficult later on which would be normal. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to start learning German.
DEUTSCH September 25, 2008
I just received Joseph Rosenberg's, "GERMAN: How To Speak and Write It." It is an informal conversational text of Self-Study.
The book's format is extremely well engineered, and cleverly formatted so that even someone of my age can make sense out of what is trying to be conveyed to the reader. Unlike other books, I don't know if, I will ever really "finish" this one because of it's specific purpose, that of... constant learning. However, I would higly recommend this book to anyone who even has an inkling of interest in learning a foreign language, specifically, German. This is a very good book for an excellant price!
The only thing missing in this book is it's ability in..."giving the reader Time to use it"!
Beginners can't go wrong with this book. August 30, 2008
This book was the fifth one I acquired in a previously unsuccessful attempt to learn German on my own. When it arrived from one of Amazon's "other" sellers, I thought, "Oh no." My copy was so old it had a "standard book number" and an old, creased cover. But it turned out to be exactly what I had needed to steadily begin learning to speak German, and to make my German-English dictionary and the three other books useful references!
"German, How to Speak and Write It" provides, with its artwork and approach, the perfect jump-start to begin doing just what the title says. It cost less than any of my other German books, but it has been by far the most useful of all!
Amazingly Informative!! August 25, 2008
This is a wonderful book for beginners and more advanced speakers. Everything is clearly explained, and grammar is taught along with great examples. I also love the pictures. This book makes me want to sit down and take the time to do a lesson every day! I highly recommend it, and the price is unbeatable!
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