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derdoktorfaust's review against another edition
3.0
This is a pretty good book for a graduate student looking to pass a reading exam. The vocabulary is particularly good for those studying the humanities. I've had two years of college German prior to reading this book, but I had forgotten a good deal of it. In addition, most of the first two years of college German is dedicated to practical German and communicating in German, so it is not incredibly helpful for reading scholarly literature. In that regard, this book helped immensely. I can read journal articles decently (with the aid of a dictionary). Literary work is still incredibly hard to read after this book.
This book will not help you communicate in German. It really is just for reading German (which is why I used it, even though I intend to work on my communication skills). You will not practice writing. You will practice translation. The reading selections are decent (and come from a variety of "scholarly" writings, but with quite a bit of literature).
Why the 3 stars? My biggest problem with the book was the introduction of vocabulary over the course of the chapter. At the end of the chapters there are word lists, but they often don't contain all of the vocabulary used in the chapter. This isn't bad in the beginning, but by the end of the book you are learning complicated grammatical structures AND trying to learn the vocabulary at the same time. I understand that this book is about learning to read/research in German. That is fine for the translation exercises, it gives you dictionary practice. But for example sentences, it is really distracting to have to move back and forth between the provided translation and the German equivalent.
With my prior knowledge of German I was able to make it through this book in about a month, studying about 2-3 hours a day. I used Anki on mac for flashcards of the vocabulary.
Due to the way that vocabulary is introduced, I figured out "my" best process around the middle of the book. Before I began to read a chapter I would make flash cards of the vocabulary list at the end of the chapter. Then I would learn the vocabulary. This helped quite a bit before doing the exercises or examples. Then I would read the chapter. As I read, I would highlight words that were not in the list (and also never provided in earlier chapters). Then flashcards again. Then move on to the next chapter. I will reread the book quickly to brush up on the points, and also translations of the earlier chapters should be easier to understand now that I have the full picture.
As I said, I have prior German experience. This helped with my rapid pace through the book (30 days with weekends off). The vocabulary I gained was extensive and I already knew a good deal of the grammar or only needed to be refreshed.
There is a "humanities-oriented" vocabulary list in the back of the book that I have only perused and it looks like it will be very helpful. So it is a DEFINITE plus.
I do have a few worries, however. I noticed that some of the vocabulary was not quite accurate (in the chapters, I don't know about the extra dictionary). This was due to prior training in German and I realized it around the middle of the book. From then on I checked the words with other dictionaries and occasionally found discrepancies. Not too often, but enough to make me worry. Sometimes the word provided in this book was not exact enough for what the word actually means. Or I found a translation that was easier to remember/memorize because the one provided by the book was not clear.
The other thing to be careful of are words that mean something in English, but have a specific context in which that word is used. For instance: die Gabe. This means gift. But it really means gift in the idea of a talent. A physical gift that you give someone is Geschenk. But for a good part of the book I thought they were synonyms because the translation given was simply gift. Perhaps I should have paid more intention when it was introduced, but either way, it's something to look out for when making flashcards.
I will be moving on to another "German for Reading" book. I have heard that the Jannach book is not good. The number one book recommended is Sandberg's book which is out of print. It goes for 200-300 on Amazon. Thankfully I found a copy for cheaper. Having looked at it, it seems to fix the problem of vocabulary introduced at the same time as the readings and looks to be a much more solid book. I have not used it yet, so this may be inaccurate, but I have looked through it enough to believe that it will be a solid add-on to this book's use.
If you are looking to learn to communicate, this is not the book to start off with. As a resource for graduate students it is possibly the cheapest solution that is worthwhile to use. I recommend it if you are on a budget (and you probably are if you are a graduate student).
This book will not help you communicate in German. It really is just for reading German (which is why I used it, even though I intend to work on my communication skills). You will not practice writing. You will practice translation. The reading selections are decent (and come from a variety of "scholarly" writings, but with quite a bit of literature).
Why the 3 stars? My biggest problem with the book was the introduction of vocabulary over the course of the chapter. At the end of the chapters there are word lists, but they often don't contain all of the vocabulary used in the chapter. This isn't bad in the beginning, but by the end of the book you are learning complicated grammatical structures AND trying to learn the vocabulary at the same time. I understand that this book is about learning to read/research in German. That is fine for the translation exercises, it gives you dictionary practice. But for example sentences, it is really distracting to have to move back and forth between the provided translation and the German equivalent.
With my prior knowledge of German I was able to make it through this book in about a month, studying about 2-3 hours a day. I used Anki on mac for flashcards of the vocabulary.
Due to the way that vocabulary is introduced, I figured out "my" best process around the middle of the book. Before I began to read a chapter I would make flash cards of the vocabulary list at the end of the chapter. Then I would learn the vocabulary. This helped quite a bit before doing the exercises or examples. Then I would read the chapter. As I read, I would highlight words that were not in the list (and also never provided in earlier chapters). Then flashcards again. Then move on to the next chapter. I will reread the book quickly to brush up on the points, and also translations of the earlier chapters should be easier to understand now that I have the full picture.
As I said, I have prior German experience. This helped with my rapid pace through the book (30 days with weekends off). The vocabulary I gained was extensive and I already knew a good deal of the grammar or only needed to be refreshed.
There is a "humanities-oriented" vocabulary list in the back of the book that I have only perused and it looks like it will be very helpful. So it is a DEFINITE plus.
I do have a few worries, however. I noticed that some of the vocabulary was not quite accurate (in the chapters, I don't know about the extra dictionary). This was due to prior training in German and I realized it around the middle of the book. From then on I checked the words with other dictionaries and occasionally found discrepancies. Not too often, but enough to make me worry. Sometimes the word provided in this book was not exact enough for what the word actually means. Or I found a translation that was easier to remember/memorize because the one provided by the book was not clear.
The other thing to be careful of are words that mean something in English, but have a specific context in which that word is used. For instance: die Gabe. This means gift. But it really means gift in the idea of a talent. A physical gift that you give someone is Geschenk. But for a good part of the book I thought they were synonyms because the translation given was simply gift. Perhaps I should have paid more intention when it was introduced, but either way, it's something to look out for when making flashcards.
I will be moving on to another "German for Reading" book. I have heard that the Jannach book is not good. The number one book recommended is Sandberg's book which is out of print. It goes for 200-300 on Amazon. Thankfully I found a copy for cheaper. Having looked at it, it seems to fix the problem of vocabulary introduced at the same time as the readings and looks to be a much more solid book. I have not used it yet, so this may be inaccurate, but I have looked through it enough to believe that it will be a solid add-on to this book's use.
If you are looking to learn to communicate, this is not the book to start off with. As a resource for graduate students it is possibly the cheapest solution that is worthwhile to use. I recommend it if you are on a budget (and you probably are if you are a graduate student).
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