Good idea but poor sound quality

I've used this for Spanish and found it very useful. However, this was slightly disappointing as the sound quality is not as good. It sounds as if the reader is speaking through a towel. Not sure if anything can be done to improve it.

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Effective, but aimed at getting you to understand German rather than speak it

Very useful for teaching you to recognise the meaning of spoken German terms but less useful at teaching productive use (ie speaking) of German. The latter needs a pause between the English term and the German equivalent, to give you time to recall the meaning. So its usefulness depends on where you are in your German progress. Most valuable to those who have some knowledge of German and who want to increase their recognition, rather than actively speak more German.

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Good addition to learning German

This sits well alongside a Duolingo course or similar. It gives a fast hack into German vocabulary and its context. I am not sure how much gets retained but you get used to listening to the narrator and understanding what is being said without the notes.

Looking at some reviews some people are critical of the translations. I think this is harsh as it is difficult to translate language to everyone's satisfaction. The narrator is clear and easy to listen to.

It's a good audible purchase with the accompanying pdf which you print of and work through.

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2 people found this helpful

Good vocabulary grinder

2000 German words are being read, first with the English translation, then with a sample sentence, said slowly and at normal speed, and finally the sentence in English. As there is no story to keep track on it is ideal for background listening while I do other tasks, letting the German words and sentences slip into my mind. Eventually the rhytms and phrases stick.

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3 people found this helpful

Quite useful, but no space and poor English

Only one star for the story because there is none, it's a list, but you have to rate the (no-existent) story before you can proceed with the review.

I am listening to it while exercising in order to try and improve my already fairly good German. I particularly want to improve my pronunciation, so I want to repeat the German sentence after the speaker has said it. But he proceeds immediately with the English translation without leaving any space for this, so I often find myself repeating the German over the top of the translation. And although it is not really very important because the meaning is usually clear, the English consists mostly of rather poor, unnatural-sounding literal translations spoken with a noticeable German accent and odd intonation, which does rather tend to get on your nerves. I see that the writer and narrator calls himself Lingo Mastery, which suggests that he could be the Donald Trump of his field.

It is still quite useful, though, and I will continue to use it, and carry on repeating the German sentences over the top of the English translations so that I can't hear how poor they are.

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1 person found this helpful

Good book for learning German.

This audiobook is a great help for rapidly learning the German language. Listening to the words, and following the usage (both in the German sentences, and the English translations), is an excellent way to quickly retain a lot of commonly used words. I have learnt a ton in a short period, and I am dedicated to improving. The audio is also very clear, and the narration is well-paced.

Tip: I found it useful to listen to a few words for a period, master the usage in context, and once I am confident with those words, I move on to the next set.

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3 people found this helpful

Perfect for beginners.

This book is a great resource for those just starting to learn the German language. It contains a lot of useful words (2000 words, as the title suggests), and their usage in a conversational context. Consistency and repetition is however key to maximizing the use of this book for achieving competence in speaking German.
While It is most suitable for beginners, everyone can get the benefits I got from this listening to this Audiobook.

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2 people found this helpful

A great audiobook to speed up your german learning

What I liked about this book is that the sentences are not super basic, some are easy, some are more complicated, and as you go through the book you end up learning more words than just the ones from the list.

The audio is also high quality, the narrator narrates the german sentence twice (slow and at normal speed) and once the english one.

Overall I'm happy with this audiobook, I'm currently doing 30 words a day since I try to repeat every sentence at least 3 times to improve my pronunciation.

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8 people found this helpful

Very good....but.....in the wrong order

This is clear, well pronounced, nice and simple sentences, each of which is said twice at different speeds.

Good for having on on repeat in the background, falling asleep, or for serious study

Some poorer attempts at this type of thing just play the same audio twice, which is stupid; whereas here, the author has bothered to repeat himself, slightly differently. Well done!! (How hard was that?)

The problem is, that he is saying it in a less than maximal target audience order. DE slow, DE normal, EN normal.
And then it skips on really quickly before you have had time to integrate whatever you just learnt
People would learn much better, and it would cater to a wider range of abilities, if the order was DE slow, EN normal, DE normal
ie
1) test of memory,
2) answer,
3) test of speed of comprehension/reinforcement/review of info/practice of naturalised pronunciation - depending on your current ability and goals
This way does not need a gap at the end to integrate what you have just learned, as that happens automatically in stage 3)

Simple but obvious. Pay attention folks, this is your job after all ;) Have you looked at the psychology of learning much? ;)(

Other than that, this is really really good

Hope that you can be bothered to get a techy to re-edit this more optimally. Wouldn't take someone with skills and brain any time at all. Should cost you pocket money and greatly improve the quality of your work

You will get a 5 star review from me as soon as you can address this small but important oversight

PS When will you do the audio for the Russian book?! Really looking forwards to that. And Hindi and Mandarin. All pretty widely spoken languages. Sure you will get the customers in. Hindi in particular has a massive dearth of decent learning materials. word to the wise ;)

Will buy them all, just as soon as you can get around to it.

Good work, thanks very much :)

Please address the order, it really does make a massive difference

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3 people found this helpful

Excellent

A very pleasant surprise. This audiobook could have been deadly dull but it is lively and fun due to the clever choice of illustrative sentence plus clear and lively diction.

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