Mastering German (Palgrave Master S) (Palgrave Master Series) [Paperback]

First, the mechanics of printing. This book is a lightly edited transcription of public domain language training material. The original text, which is available for free as a pdf file on the web, is a copy of an old manual government typescript. The Barron's upgrade is certainly set in nicer type and is easier to read. Unfortunately, many petty errors are introduced. For the beginner in German, this could be a problem. For those with even a little background in the language, it is merely annoying. One is left with a choice between the convenience of a book with a good typeface and petty errors, or an old typewriter script without the errors. My slight recommendation would be to have the typescript pdf file printed and bound at a copy center.

However, this book is just a part of a larger program.

This is a public domain, State Department language program left over from the 50's or 60's. The bad news is that the text is a reproduction of the original typewriter version and the original audio is terrible. But the good news is that the program content is excellent, and inexpensive remastered audio versions can be found that are very serviceable. This program is for the person who is serious about learning German. This is not a little traveler's phrase book or a language computer game. For serious self-instruction of spoken German and a complete basic grammar, this is still the only game in town.

The text is a reproduction of the original State Department, Foreign Services Institute (FSI), typescript. It looks to have been hand-typed on a manual typewriter, with occasional penned-in special characters. Artifacts are frequent and petty errors are common, but manageable. In short, ugly, but serviceable. Barron's has a prettier transcribed text with many introduced errors. Barron's book with units 1-12 is readily available. The final book, with units 13-24 is occasionally available as a used book. Following the introduction, which is actually instructions for use, and should be read carefully, there are 24 units, average length 28 pages, with a section on basic sentences, pronunciation, grammar, and drills, drills, drills, and drills. Taken together, they provide a very basic, but complete introductory course in German grammar and usage, with a strong emphasis on spoken colloquial German. In several ways the text will seem peculiar in comparison to modern general textbooks. The topics and vocabulary were chosen to be of interest to embassy employees. Speech and social patterns seem about 50 years old: Lots of "Sie" and very little "du;" and use of "Fräulein," etc. No inclusion of the current pervasive introduction of American English into spoken German. All this means that you get pure, unadulterated, traditional German `Hochdeutsch' from a half a century ago. This is a slightly lower register version of how you would have been trained by a professional had you attended the immersion program at the Goethe Institut class of Dora Schulz in Bad Reichenhall in the 60's. Upon completion, conversion to current spoken forms and English loanwords will be quick and easy.

The audio is another matter. There are two "problems."

Problem one is the choice of voice artists. These are obviously not professional voices. It sounds as thought they got Fritz, Frieda, or whomever from the office and gave them a microphone by the water cooler. Pronunciation seems to have several regional variants, none of which meets current stage German standards of Duden. And this is colloquial German. Lots of words run together. Lots of contractions. "Können" is pronounced "könn'n," rather than "könn- en," etc. And they talk at a regular, perhaps even fast, street tempo. But this is what you will hear on the street, so you may as well get used to it. If you need to read text and hear stage German or elevated German spoken clearly and slowly, and you should, you can listen on the web to the daily Deutsche Welle, Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten, or to SlowGerman, or for each word on LEO. Or you can hire a Skype tutor trained in German linguistics for German as a foreign language, not just an educated native speaker, or someone trained in German for Germans. But, then again, if you hire a COMPETENT tutor, and as a struggling student for many years, I would highly recommend it, they will take care of your language development, and you will not need this program.

Problem two is the recording quality. If you buy directly from the Federal Government and many vendors, the audio has pops, hisses, dead air, gurgles, volume inconsistency etc. Rough, very rough, Fortunately, Plurality Languages sells a version that has been electronically remastered, and those severe problems have been removed, although volume is inconsistent from file to file. There are also a series of free mp3 files on the web that have been cleaned and seem pretty good, but are a pain to download.

How does this fit into an overall program of learning German? An old rule of thumb is that it takes about 2000 hours of study for an intelligent adult to become completely proficient in a foreign language. Some languages, such as German, take a little longer. Some, such as Japanese, take a lot longer. If you read the recommendations for German by Goethe Institut or by University of Vienna and puzzle though their class and homework recommendations, it should take about 2100-2300 hours to reach this level, designated C2 (proficiency). Along the way, are levels A1 (beginner) and A2 (elementary), B1 (intermediate)and B2 (upper intermediate), and C1 (advanced). If you are an absolute beginner, this complete FSI program should take about 480 hours, or about 15 months at one hour a day, and should place you somewhere in A2. You should be able to speak, and understand much spoken and written German and communicate on non-abstract topics. This assumes you actually study the program and work the exercises aloud. It is work. It is not fun. These are drills. They work. You are building language engrams - uses of and responses to the language that are highly intuitive, seemingly without conscious thought. To lighten things up, but this probably would not work for engram-building or study hours, you should go on the web and listen to some movies and programs on ZDF or ARD. In summary, by the time you are finished, you will certainly not be fluent in German, but you have a modest beginning on the language, and be able to handle the most common daily non-abstract affairs. You will probably be better at speaking German than most American students who have completed 2-3 years of university German.

Serious self-study alternatives to this program are few. Most are childish or incomplete. And all seem inefficient. On the web are similar public domain courses, and free, but less complete. Pimsleur has good pronunciation, but is limited in scope, is expensive, and has no corresponding serious text. Rosetta Stone is hideously expensive and the web demo seems more like a child's computer game. All of these can be tried free online. You will be disappointed. Other sources are excellent, such as Schulz and Griesbach's legendary old school text, but these do not have any audio, so cannot be used without a tutor or prior German skills. The point is that your time, not your dollar, is the expensive part of language acquisition. Be efficient with your time. Despite the advertisements and airport kiosk banners of Rosetta Stone or web pages of Rocket Languages, you cannot purchase your easy way to language proficiency. If you want to spend money, hire a competent tutor.

The program is not intended to be an academic study of German, i.e. grammar and usage is only taught to the extent necessary to further spoken ability. If you want some linguistic study, you have lots of choices. Try Hammer's Grammar and the associated workbook or when you are ready, the appropriate volumes of Duden. Also, this is also not a little program of survival German for travelers. If you want that, you have lots of choices, such as those by Berlitz.

Vendor selection for this program is important. Perhaps the worst vendor is the US Government, NTIS. It is expensive, low quality, and now incomplete. Barron's and several other commercial vendors vary in quality, segments, price, and audio format and quality (generally, but not always poor). The entire 24 units are often broken up into units 1-12 and units 13-24, and called FSI German Basic Course I and II. And you can now download a pretty good version of the pdf text and mp3 audio on the web, but the files are big, and the downloads are tedious. The best current vendor seems to be Plurality Language, and their companion com site ForeignServiceInstitute. Prices are great, delivery is fast, and you can get the entire set on one DVD. I once had a problem with audio files, and they resolved it quickly and at vendor's expense. But the big advantage with Plurality Language, is that the sound of their remastered audio files is CLEAN. Remember, your time, not your dollar is the real cost. Get the best copy you can.

Despite all of the problems with text and audio, the quality of the content justifies five stars.

You can learn basic spoken German from this program on your own if you have the motivation. It is all up to you.

Update 6 May 2012

After several months study with the mp3 files from the commercial ForeignServiceInstitute and the free dot org site (just search for FSI German Basic), I switch my recommendation to the free files. The commercial files have been cleaned such that the pauses for student oral response are too short for a good speaking pace. The dot org files give much longer (and in my opinion better) periods for student response. But if one likes to be forced to speak quickly, choose the commercial files. Just remember, the free files require several dozen tedious downloads.

If you are thinking of buying the Mastering German series... DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK...! The Series comes complete with the book inside. I was suckered into this purchase by Amazon as a suggesteditem. "People who have bought this product also bought this too." well, let me tell you, i thought it was a lousy trick. The book itself is great, but, who needs two exactly the same books on a subject..?

I appreciate parts of sets being offered for sale.
We purchased a used set of Barron's Mastering German, knowing it was incomplete, but with the expectation of being able to complete the set.