Pimsleur German Level 1 MP3: Learn to Speak and Understand German with Pimsleur Language Programs

by Pimsleur Language Programs (contributor)

German is the official language of Germany and Austria and is one of the official languages of Switzerland, 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.

The Pimsleur® Method: the easiest, fastest way to learn a new language. Completely portable, easily downloadable, and lots of fun. You’ll be speaking and understanding in no time flat! German Phase 1, Lessons 1-30 includes 15 hours of spoken language practice and one hour of reading instruction in thirty, 30-minute lessons.

In the first 10 lessons, you’ll cover the basics: saying hello, asking for or giving information, scheduling a meal or a meeting, asking for or giving basic directions, and much more. You’ll be able to handle minimum courtesy requirements, understand much of what you hear, and be understood at a beginning level, but with nearnative pronunciation skills.
In the next 10 lessons, you’ll build on what you’ve learned. Expand your menu, increase your scheduling abilities from general to specific, start to deal with currency and exchanging money, refine your conversations and add over a hundred new vocabulary items. You’ll understand more of what you hear, and be able to participate with speech that is smoother and more confident.

In the final 10 lessons of Phase 1, you’ll be speaking and understanding at an intermediate level. In this phase, more directions are given in the target language, which moves your learning to a whole new plane. Lessons include shopping, visiting friends, going to a restaurant, plans for the evening, car trips, and talking about family. You’ll be able to speak comfortably about things that happened in the past and make plans for the future.

Reading Lessons begin in Unit 10 and provide you with an introduction to reading German. These readings, which total about one hour, are designed to teach you to sound out words with correct pronunciation and accent. A Reading Booklet to be used with the audio lessons is also included in PDF format.

Audiobook

First published April 1, 2010

Reviews

[Trice]

Maybe it seems odd to be studying Deutsch (German) while in China, but it makes a bit more sense with the added info that it was my 1st foreign language. I still have a long way to go with Chinese, and I'm continuing steadily with that study, but considering how much more comfortable I am with Chinese than I ever was with German, despite studying 3 years in high school and 1 in college, I wanted to go back and try with the Pimsleur programs in hopes of getting closer to at least beginner level fluency. It's kind of fun, too, and it's helping me work on my accent, starting back at the beginning again (though who knows what'll happen to that when I get to actually use my German).

As a side note, this was a hard choice, language-wise (I've been debating it w/myself for 2-3 months at least). When I realized that Pimsleur only went up to Level 3, and I'd been continuing to save up audible credits for language study, I decided to add another language. The choice I put to myself was German, Turkish, or French, the 1st 2 being languages I've already studied but have emerged with a woefully bad communication level, and the 3rd seeming both beautiful and just so darn useful, both for direct communication around the world and because of how many French words are a part of other languages. I think any of the 3 would have been a good choice for me, but I'm happy with my current choice and with picking up the others as I go on (or switching to another if necessity requires :) )