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Can anybody provide a suggestion for a good beginner German text that's well organized and has good explanations?

DS is taking German 1 and while I like the provider, the text they are using (Holt) is terrible. I find it disjointed and hard to learn from. I would like to have something else on hand with better explanations which we can use as reference maybe. So much of beginner content will be the same, I am guessing.

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Have you peeked at the library offerings? Mine has a lot of Learn to Speak (language) books. I looked at a few different publishers to decide what I should buy used from Amazon. Don't forget to peruse other languages also. For instance my library carries Italian Now! which I ended up purchasing in Spanish for my young kids.

 

I have an old copy of Fokus Deutsch which has coordinated videos available on YouTube. That made it more successful for us than the copy of Wie geht's? I found at a book sale.

 

One book I borrowed and am considering purchasing is German Made Simple by Jackson and Geiger. It is more of an overview book, like Whatever for Dummies, but with a more pleasing layout and a few, short exercises.

 

Caveat : my kids are middle school and younger, and we are not studying for high school credit at this point.

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We are at B1-B2 now and als looking for a better text....

:bigear:

PDF link has recommendations for levels A1 to C1. It list for C1

"Textbooks

 

Ute Koithan, Helen Schmitz et al. (2016) Aspekte neu C1. Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Sprachen.

 

Buscha, Anne et al. (2009) Erkundungen C1. Integriertes Kurs- und Arbeitsbuch. Leipzig: Schubert Verlag.

 

Ilse Sander et al. (2013) Mittelpunkt neu C1. Lehr- und Arbeitsbuch. Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Sprachen."

http://www.lmu-preparation.de/res/data/file/17_VK_Syllabus%20Language%20Course.pdf

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PDF link has recommendations for levels A1 to C1. It list for C1

"Textbooks

 

Ute Koithan, Helen Schmitz et al. (2016) Aspekte neu C1. Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Sprachen.

 

Buscha, Anne et al. (2009) Erkundungen C1. Integriertes Kurs- und Arbeitsbuch. Leipzig: Schubert Verlag.

 

Ilse Sander et al. (2013) Mittelpunkt neu C1. Lehr- und Arbeitsbuch. Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Sprachen."

http://www.lmu-preparation.de/res/data/file/17_VK_Syllabus%20Language%20Course.pdf

Great resources. I wonder if those are all in German sort of like CLE books are 100% in French.

 

I have been musing what I really want for a day, and I think a well payed out German grammar course (written not in German but English) for very beginners would probably be it. The Holt book seems to be all over the place for my brain to handle.

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Great resources. I wonder if those are all in German sort of like CLE books are 100% in French.

 

I have been musing what I really want for a day, and I think a well payed out German grammar course (written not in German but English) for very beginners would probably be it. The Holt book seems to be all over the place for my brain to handle.

Should be.

 

The grammar book my kids Saturday class used for children beginners was Schritt für Schritt ins Grammatikland and it is also in German.

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Not a text but CD's that teach the language through the rules.   Michael Thomas CD;s.   I learned some German and I am a language dunce.  
For example in the beginning he explains that some letters have shifted and then he lists off the shifts.  For example, t becomes ss.
Then a bit later he says that verbs end in 'en'.    So then he says, "What might Eat be in German"   Then one of his two students says the correct answer "Essen".  

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