- Guten Tag! Meeting and greeting, spelling, cardinal numbers
- Was darf es sein? Eating out and food shopping, more numbers
- Alles über mich - Talking about yourself, occupations and nationality
- Willkommen in Berlin! Checking into a hotel, getting around, days and time
- Einkaufsbummel - Shopping, clothing, ordinal numbers
- Unterwegs - Travel, renting a car
The Berlitz lessons are well organized and well-designed. I particularly like the many practical activities for each lesson. A good example is a listening exercise (using the audio CDs) with airline flight numbers being announced with a fairly authentic airport echo.
In the Berlitz tradition, grammar is introduced naturally, but there are also basic grammar explanations of key points in each lesson. The accompanying Learner's Guide also offers a good basic overview of German grammar, plus learning tips. The 32-page Guide also contains a complete German-English glossary of all words used in the course. A third booklet, the Audio Script, shows you all of the audio from the CDs in printed form.
The three audio CDs contain authentic, colloquial German spoken by a variety of male and female speakers, and the sound quality is very good. (An audio cassette edition is also available.) As with any CD, it is easy to locate lessons by track, and each CD is clearly labeled with the lessons it contains. Some of the audio was recorded on location in Berlin.
It is difficult to find anything to criticize in this Berlitz German course. The only minor glitch I noticed was the use of British "zed" for the English letter z on the CD. But the text and definitions are fully Americanized, with none of the confusing Britishisms often found in German-English dictionaries and similar German courses. The German in this Berlitz program follows the new German spelling rules, something often missing from less recent programs on the market.
I have awarded the Berlitz New Basic German program five stars (out of five) because it offers a superb introduction to German at a reasonable cost. Beginning learners of German will find it difficult to purchase a better introductory course at any price.
Berlitz New Basic German
Three booklets + three audio CDs
Berlitz Publishing/Langenscheidt
$39.95 SRP