Books German in 10 Minutes a Day® (10 Minutes a Day Series)
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - Finally: A guide that makes sense!
After many books on Italian, French, Spanish, I finally found a learning guide that makes sense. Chapter 1: the alphabet. Chapter 2: key question words (who, what, where, when, why, how, how much). Chapter 3: Odds 'n ends (the words for "the" and "a"). And so on. All words are shown phonetically, as well as how they are spelled in the native German. Tear-out sheets for reviewing on the go. Peel-off stickers to put around the house. This one seems to have it all.

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Rating: - Sorry, this book is not a good way to learn German
I've been learning Russian by self study for the last couple of years and recently decided to brush up on my German as well. I've purchased a LOT of language learning products as of late, and I've found that the quality and effectiveness of learning materials can vary greatly. I bought the Russian version of this text and was incredibly disappointed. I was in a bookstore recently and checked out the German version. Yup, more of the same. This book might be okay for kids, but it's not a serious learning tool. Learning a language in ten minutes a day may be a fun fantasy, but the resources available in this series of books won't do much to help you learn German.

On the surface the book looks great - big pictures, stickers, activities, flash cards and a laminated "pocket pal" with a short list of phrases and such. The problem with these resources is that they all fall short when scrutinized individually. There aren't enough flash cards, and the words that are chosen are sort of odd. Some are obvious for the beginner, but many just leave me scratching my head as to why they picked them. The activities in the book are the best part, but as a workbook, it's only average. The stickers are a good idea in theory, but are you really going to put stickers on objects all around your house? The "pocket pal" phrasebook would be a decent idea, but it's a real pain to get out of the book (I had to cut it out with a razor knife), and it's too big to fit comfortably in your pocket when folded up. Because this book tries to be everything to everyone it falls short on all counts.

One thing you'll notice about most of the five-star reviews listed here for this book is that often it's the only review that the "reviewer" has made. I find that very suspicious, don't you? Click on them and check out their other reviews, you'll find there arent any. Hmmmm... can you say "sock puppet"?

For a popular language like German, there are many good and reasonably priced language materials available that will take you much farther than this text. The Teach Yourself series is good and comparably priced with a better book and tapes that allow you to actually hear the language. The Living Language Ultimate German isn't bad at all. Oh, and Deutsche Welle has free German lessons available on their website.

Here's a note going out on the off-chance that there are people reading this that are really serious about learning a foreign language: Buy "How to Learn Any Language" by Barry Farber. While his method is effective, it requires work and in addition you'll need to budget a bit of cash for materials. But the materials can be purchased over time and don't necessarily need to be the expensive ones.

Or you can buy stuff like this. But you won't learn to speak German well and you'll have wasted your money. It's your choice.

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Rating: - Worked for me - and I'm lazy!
"10 Minutes a Day"? More like 10 minutes a week, for me. I didn't put in the time this book deserves, and still went from no German to passable German in 3 months. I used the book to get ready for a spring break trip, and was able to shop, get directions, and talk to the police. Two people even complimented me on my German!

This book starts off with the important stuff - the question words - and then takes you through everything you'll need to get around as a tourist. The stickers and flash cards are a helpful learning aid - starting every morning identifying your breakfast is great practice.

I have no criticisms of the book. I just wish the series had more languages available.

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Rating: - great starter book
This book is fantastic for anyone who has had very little German. The stickers and flash cards are great, they forced me to use the vocabulary words throughout my day. A must have.