Learning Resources

• Calendars...
• 748 German Sentences was not quite what I expected. From the title and description I got the idea that it would be a collection of German sentences with translations and maybe some analysis. But it is instead a beginner's course, and the name refers to the fact that after digesting the tape, you can create (at least) 748 sentences by permuting the various words that you've learned. It's a two-cassette all-audio course, good for the commuter, but it is *very* basic, beginning with days, months, seasons, and numbers, and then playing with müssen, wollen, and möchten, along with other verbs, to create simple sentences. The atmosphere is informal, with an English male (who sounds like a beginner himself) asking a German female how to say this and that. Sometimes the translations seem rather odd, as when "Do you have to walk?" was translated as "Müssen Sie gehen?" even though spazieren had been introduced shortly before. (Later they do comment that gehen can mean walk... though that would be "zu Fuß gehen", nicht wahr?) I kept getting this nagging feeling that some of the translations weren't quite right, but I was driving at the time and couldn't check... and I did catch them translating "you have to" as "du willst" and "Sie wollen". All things considered, it was interesting to find that on 16 August 2000 the bookstore page at Language Dynamics did not have a listing for this set, though the French and Spanish versions were listed. Maybe the German version is new (in beta?) or discontinued. (Hmm. I later caught them translating "Do you want?" as "Willst du?" and "Werden Sie?". And their English could use some improvement too, as when they tell us that while every German noun takes one of the three genders, masculine, feminine or "neutral", English nouns take neither!) P.S. I was also amused by the statement at the end of the second (of two!) cassettes: The lesson continues on the next cassette.
• All-Audio German - Compact disks, no reading required. Excellent for commuting and one of my favorites. Also available on cassette tape.
• Books in German - Bookstores in N. America
• Books in German - Online Bookstores outside N. America
• Der Buchwurm - Books in the German language; some bilingual, useful for study!
• Bücherstube - Books, music, calendars.
• Franklin Electronic Publishers - Electronic dictionary
• German Corner Store - Books (some dual-language!) (And Clothing, Crafts, Flags, Games, Toys, Houseware, Jewelry, Linen, Music, Software)
• German for Travellers
• germanvideo.com - #1 source of German Videos in the USA
• Langenscheidt New College German-English, English-German Dictionary - My favorite *big* German dictionary.
• Learn in Your Car, German 3 Level Set - An all-audio (compact disk), no-reading-required offering, though the Listening Guide is more than just a script, expanding on the audio lessons with additional information. Has a rather heavy emphasis on conjugation and inflexion, perhaps too heavy for the beginner. For beginners, the All-Audio German would probably be a better choice. Also available on cassette tape.
• Learn German The Fast and Fun Way - Compact disks and a colorful large-format book, with a pullout dictionary (containing an excellent food section, very handy for the restaurants!), flash cards, and other goodies to enhance the learning experience. If you want don't want the accompanying cassettes, you can purchase the book alone. Also available on cassette tape.
• Let's Talk German Today (Audio Cassette) - A series of brief conversations for the more experienced student. The tape is completely in German except for a short introduction to each conversation. Each conversation is heard three times in a row, with the middle one spoken slowly to give you a better chance at grasping the words. The accompanying booklet contains the texts of the conversations along with English translations. This is another good choice for that morning commute!
• Living Language German Complete Course - Textbook with exercises, companion dictionary and compact disks. Also available on cassette tape. And when you're done with that, the next step is Living Language German 2, A Conversational Approach to Verbs.
• Newspapers and Periodicals for US residents, from Germany - Some of these are quite expensive... well, they come all the way from Germany, ĉu ne? But there's lots of good stuff here, maybe something in your price range.
• Newspapers and Periodicals for US residents, from the US - Newspapers and magazines published in the US, therefore much less expensive for us here in the USA!
• Schau ins Land - The monthly audio magazine for learners of German. I haven't tried this yet, but it looks good. A bit expensive, though. About.com has a review at Review of Schau ins Land.
• Schaum's Outline of German Grammar - book
• Schaum's Outline of German Vocabulary - book
• Schoenhof's Foreign Books
• Shea's German Work Page
• VocabuLearn: German/English 3-Level Set - An all-audio (cassette), no-reading-required offering. Good for vocabulary-building while you commute. A word is spoken, then its translation, another word is spoken, then its translation... I have the older non-music-enhanced version; it's an excellent tool!
• Word(s) of the Day - Transparent.com
• Word(s) of the Day - Travlang.com
• Word of the Day - About.com
• Quotation of the Day - About.com