Publisher's Synopsis
The Easiest and Fastest Way to Learn German
Whether you want to travel, communicate with friends or colleagues, reconnect with family, or just understand more of what's going on in the world around you, learning German will expand your horizons and immeasurably enrich your life.
The best part is that it doesn't have to be difficult or take years to master. Thirty minutes a day is all it takes, and we get you speaking right from the first day. Pimsleur courses use a scientifically-proven method that puts you in control of your learning. If you've tried other language learning methods but found they simply didn't stick, then you owe it to yourself to give Pimsleur a try.
Why Pimsleur?
- Quick + Easy - Only 30 minutes a day.
- Portable + Flexible - Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life.
- Proven Method - Works when other methods fail.
- Self-Paced - Go fast or go slow - it's up to you.
- Based in Science - Developed using proven research on memory and learning.
- Cost-effective - Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers.
- Genius - Triggers your brain's natural aptitude to learn.
- Works for everyone - Recommended for ages 13 and above.
What's Included?
- 30, 30-minute audio lessons
- 60 minutes of reading instruction to provide you practice reading German
- in total, over 16 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers
- a Reading Booklet and User's Guide
What You'll Learn
Builds upon skills taught in Pimsleur's German Levels 1-3. You'll be speaking and understanding German with near-fluency and with a broad range of conversational skills. In Level 4 the pace and conversation moves more rapidly, accelerating exposure to new vocabulary and structures, and approaching native speed and comprehension. You'll learn to speak about your professional and personal life, needs, likes and dislikes, and to create complex sentences discussing the past, present, future, conditional, and subjunctive.
Topics include:
- Business: attending trade fairs; meeting with colleagues; discussing professions, products, and customers' concerns; making or asking for suggestions.
- Personal: discussing where and when you met someone, divorce, German heritage; using the informal form to address several people; talking about family members including distant cousins and in-laws; losing a personal item; talking about getting a driver's license, having a broken item repaired.
- Traveling and sight-seeing: talking about jet lag, discussing types of train transportation, buying tickets, visiting wineries and wine festivals, seeing restored old cities or buildings, traveling to the coast or mountains, renting an apartment, making restaurant reservations, registering at a hotel, discussing hotel amenities and features such as an elevator, a breakfast buffet, fitness room, non-smoking room, internet access.
- Shopping: purchasing items, trying on clothing, describing purchases, colors, sizes; asking for a bag or a receipt; discussing change for a large bill.
- Activities: Reading, hiking, watching a show on television or online, taking long walks on the beach, talking about a good film.
- Health related: feeling ill (cold, headache, sore throat), discussing allergies, breaking an ankle or wrist; going to an emergency pharmacy or the emergency room of a hospital, and dealing with medical emergencies, saying that someone looks tired or looks good, asking about the health of various family members.
- Environment: recycling, green-related.
- Weather: describing humid, hot weather, heat waves, cool, chilly, or rainy weather.
- German culture: Reunification, how to broach the subject of speaking informally, restaurant etiquette, having the traditional coffee and cake.
After Lesson 30, a short story broken down into 20 manageable segments (over one hour) is provided for practice reading German.
The Pimsleur Method
We make no secret of what makes this powerful method work so well. Paul Pimsleur spent his career researching and perfecting the precise elements anyone can use to learn a language quickly and easily. Here are a few of his "secrets"
The Principle of Anticipation
In the nanosecond between a cue and your response, your brain has to work to come up with the right word. Having to do this boosts retention, and cements the word in your mind.
Core Vocabulary
Words, phrases, and sentences are selected for their usefulness in everyday conversation. We don't overwhelm you with too much, but steadily increase your ability with every lesson.
Graduated Interval Recall
Reminders of new words and structures come up at the exact interval for maximum retention and storage into your long-term memory.
Organic Learning
You work on multiple aspects of the language simultaneously. We integrate grammar, vocabulary, rhythm, melody, and intonation into every lesson, which allows you to experience the language as a living, expressive form of human culture.
Learning in Context
Research has shown that learning new words in context dramatically accelerates your ability to remember. Every scene in every Pimsleur lesson is set inside a conversation between two people. There are no drills, and no memorization necessary for success.
Active Participation
The Pimsleur Method + active learner participation = success. This method works with every language and every learner who follows it. You gain the power to recall and use what you know, and to add new words easily, exactly as you do in English.
The German Language
German is the official language of Germany and Austria and is one of the official languages of Switzerland. It is also an official language in Belgium, Lichtenstein, and Luxembourg. Nearly 100 million people speak German as their first language: about 77 million in Germany, 8 million in Austria, and 4.5 million in Switzerland.
Tech Talk
- CDs are formatted for playing in all CD players, including car players, and users can copy files for use in iTunes or Windows Media Player.
