Learn German from Native Speakers

Learn Basic German

Language Experts agree, our courses are the most complete and thorough self-instructional language course available. Our competitors like Rosetta Stone would like you to believe learning a language is easy and fun. We think they are being dishonest. The truth about learning a language is it takes time. Repetition, vocabulary, sentence structure are the building blocks our course utilizes to teach a language. Lots of repetition drills. Dialog drills. Pronunciation drills. Vocabulary. Your investment in a language course is your time. The audio material is from native speakers and the corresponding textbook is your guide. There are no short cuts. Our Methodology, Guided Imitation, sets the student on a path to a certified level of fluency. Our courses are the most comprehensive self instructional language material available on the market.

The German Basic Volume I contains Units 1 - 12 and comes with 23 CD's and a 344 page textbook or 1 DVD with audio on MP3 and textbook in a PDF file.

The German Basic Volume II contains Units 13 - 24 and comes with 25 CD's and a 382 page textbook or 1 DVD with audio on MP3 and textbook in a PDF file.

The German Basic Combo contains Units 1 - 24 and comes with 48 CD's and two textbooks or 2 DVD with audio on MP3 and textbook in a PDF file.

It is the aim of the course to provide the student with a useful control of the structure of the spoken language and of a basic vocabulary which meets at least some of the specialized needs of the Foreign Service. After completion of the basic course the Foreign Service Officer should be able to make limited practical use of the language in his official duties and social obligations. He will furthermore have the means, given the proper surroundings and personal motivation, for continued rapid and efficient development of proficiency.

The materials in this first volume of the text are organized into twelve lessons or units. Each unit contains a set of basic sentences for memorization. These are in the form of a dialog based on one or sometimes two specific situations in which a person might find himself in Germany. Notes to the basic sentences are provided as necessary to clarify occasional difficulties in vocabulary and idiom and to provide additional background on some cultural features unfamiliar to Americans. Notes on pronunciation are included in each of the first eight units. Phonological features which have been found to be particularly difficult for American students are here presented with explanations and pronunciation practice drills. The notes on grammar in each unit single out those structural features illustrated in the basic sentences which are appropriate for systematic consideration at that stage in the course. Substitution drills provide for the manipulation of forms by substituting specific items in fixed sentence frames. They are intended to build habits of association, so that in a given syntactic environment the appropriate grammatical form automatically comes to mind. As the German vocabulary is all familiar, no English equivalents are given in these drills. Variation drills provide for the manipulation of larger syntactic patterns. In each group a model sentence, underscored, serves as a guide. Associated with it are additional sentences incorporating the same syntactic pattern but in which most of the individual word items have been replaced. English equivalents are given to serve as cues for recall of the German variant sentences. Vocabulary drills provide both practice in the use of new vocabulary items and also allow for manipulation of sentence elements whose particular form and arrangement depends upon their association with that vocabulary item. The manipulation of both variation and vocabulary drills depends on the use of English equivalents. Specific translation drills are also provided, however. In most cases they present the material of the basic dialog in the form of a narrative. They thus provide content review of the basic sentences and practice in the transformation from active dialog to descriptive narration. The response drills are question and answer drills on the situations of the basic dialogs. Conversation practice and additional situations in outline bridge the gap to free conversation with small pieces of supplementary dialog for acting out and situations providing for a freer play of the student's imagination. The finder

This is a course in Spoken German, the forms and patterns of the language are intentionally colloquial. The emphasis in instruction is everywhere on speech, and an indispensable component of the learning process is the voice of the instructor on the audio material, whose native language is German. On no account should the student attempt to use these materials without the audio recordings. The method of instruction incorporates guided imitation, repetition, memorization, pattern practice, and conversation.