Teach Yourself Complete German: Learn to read, write, speak and understand a new language with Teach Yourself (Teach Yourself Language)

I bought this back about a year ago as I was going to move to a German speaking country. Whilst I speak a few foreign languages, German is not something I have ever come across in my studies and so I had little to no idea about words, grammar, etc. Basically, I could count to ten. The book starts from the very basics and it uses a limited vocabulary all the way through. The words and experssions are repeatedly used so it's easier to memorize them. The grammar is explained in a way that it doesn't look complicated at all. The audio material is also fine. I finished the book over 6 months and I got to a stage where my grammar knowledge is sound and solid! It is true that this way, you can really only improve the passive knowledge, and speaking will remain an issue. However, now that I have moved and started an actual language course, it was a pleasant surprise that from no German background other than this book, they put me in the A2.2 course after having done the placement test. Means I skipped the first 3 levels and saved about 1000 euros. Pretty good I think! There are, however, some negatives:- practically no space to write in the book which means you either do the exercises in a notebook, or use mickey mouse size letters...- conjugation is a very important aspect of the grammar, and whilst it is logically explained in the book, it would be helpful to have a table somewhere at the end that summarizes all the cases, including definite and indefinite articles, and conjugation when none is present. I made myself a table and ended up referring to it all the time until the endings eventually stuck in my brain.- it would make sense to have more 'burning' type exercises. By this I mean more exercises that purely ask you to change one certain thing in a sentence. Like, put this is the perfective passive. Rewrite with this or that preposition using the dative case etc. The more of these boring exercises one completes, the easier the different grammatical challenges will stick in the brain.Overall, very happy with the purchase.-

I found this book and CD excellent although I am only 4 units into it. Instructions are very clear and easy to understand, with the German alongside English. Although there are many units, they are short, so I tend to do one every day or every other day for about 20 minutes. Each unit has a test yourself section at the end for consolidation. What I also like is that you are introduced to new vocab and grammar and then given exercises to help implement it. And just when you're feeling confused or unsure, things are explained in depth. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn German and knows absolutely nothing, like me! I have already learned quite a bit.The only criticism I would have is that there is not much space to write in it but this is not much of a problem as I also use a separate notebook. The book itself is quite small and lightweight so it's easy to carry around.The exercises are practical and interesting. This book is definitely not boring and keeps you engaged throughout. Very pleased with this buy and hopefully I will be able to speak German soon!

I've tried quite a few different language courses over the years and I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The book is quite compact, but it packs a lot into the colourful pages, with 23 chapters covering many different aspects of the language and situations you're likely to use it in.I particularly liked the fact that the 2 CDs had a huge 110 short tracks over them, which makes it very easy and not at all frustrating to repeat the tracks so that you can be sure of the punctuation.The style of teaching in the book is less dry than many others and I found the simple explanations given quite helpful when trying to understand the complexities of German grammar.Having a reasonable basic understanding of German, this book was more of a revision for me, but even so I'm a bit dubious that it would take anyone to to the claimed Level 4 understanding and conversation level without a serious amount of speaking, constant revision and further reading.I've bought 6 of the Teach Yourself German books - vocab, grammar, Perfect Your German etc, so we'll see how the whole package fits together and just how far it realistically takes me. So far, I've no regrets about the purchase.

I have tried books from Teach Yourself in the past and have not been impressed but I thought I’d give it another chance. I was not disappointed! I learnt so much German from this book I could not believe it. Unlike many other language textbooks which start with things such as “at the airport” or “your passport please”, this book begins with introducing yourself and basic conversation. I also found all the culture tips very interesting. The audio was very helpful in pronunciation and you can also get the audio for free on the Teach Yourself website. Finally, the quality of this book is far superior to other teach yourself books. The pages are thick and in full colour and the spine is nice and sturdy and the layout is simple and easy to understand. It has been a pleasure to use and I would recommend this for anybody studying German.

Very expensive for what is just a very basic textbook. The picture is a bit deceptive, it looks like a boxset but all you get is a very cheaply designed and printed book that looks a bit amateurish. Format is small, about the size of a standard paperback novel, and not the most user friendly. No CD's and you can't directly download the MP3's of the audio. You have to use their app and it's one of the worst apps I've come across in a while. Not impressed, returned for a refund. I really don't get why this is so pricey.

great