5-Day German Language Challenge: Learn German In 5 Days

Interesting and informative!

Hallo!

Disclaimer: I am a native English speaker, and have taken lessons in French and Latin (both Romance languages). German, although related to the English language, is 100% new to me! I am truly a beginner to the lessons in this book. The book is laid-out to be used over five days, and I was intrigued to see how much I could retain.

It gives its lessons in laymen's terms, while also giving language-based terms, too (like "the infinitive form", etc.) which is a nice change from studying a language formally in a class. I'm used to being told first "the infinitive form", and then what it is, but this books switches that-up, and even such a small switch makes it easier to comprehend.

Similarly, throughout the book and each day/lesson, there are many more easily-understood examples of such language-based terminology and functions that allow the reader to see parts of language they may not have before (i.e. feminine and masculine nouns, different verb tenses, etc.) In our native language, we rarely learn these intricate parts as we learn to speak as children (did you ever stop to think how you're "conjugating" a verb in English?) so when I am learning a new language, it has been difficult for me to transfer these types of terms to the new language until I understand them in my native language, English, first.

This book is only five short lessons (one per day), but I feel it does this integration/correlation thing pretty well.

Day One gives an introduction to the intricacies of the German language, like pronunciation and the alphabet.

Day Two gives an introduction into sentences and sentence structure, like how verbs are conjugated and what's special about nouns, verbs, and how to identify them.

Day Three gives more complex scenarios, like asking questions.

Day Four combines what's been taught so far and adds some basic vocabulary, as well as nice tips for LEARNING new vocabulary (this part is helpful! Just memorizing words doesn't mean you'll be fluent - because you'll continually be translating in your head. In this book, the authors show how to look at something and think of the word in German instead of English first).

Day Five gives a lot more basic vocabulary that would be necessary in essential conversation (like talking about money, etc.) and furthers the challenge by asking students to go and practice their German skills daily.

This book is active. The authors said at he beginning it wouldn't be easy, and they're right. But, it IS doable! However, it isn't doable with JUST this book: there are frequently-noted outside resources you'll need to use to be successful (all of the ones I employed were free and online, like YouTube and some short German worksheets).

Additionally, the book gives easy hints about how to go about learning the "weird" parts of a language, like pronunciation. Also, hints on integration into daily life are easy and fun. It is also consistently giving specific details about German itself - and how the nuances of the German language pan-out into other languages (like English, Swedish, etc.).

At the end, I was happily surprised at how much I'd learned. Because I've never taken German before, I know that what I have now is all from this book!

All-in-all, the book is a helpful way to begin to learn how to learn German/any language.

Viel Glück!