German/English: Level 1: VocabuLearn: Music-Enhanced

Rating:
Summary: Lot of German, reasonable price, but obvious problems
Review: First the good part. This is the first level of a series that has two more levels. As there are two double-sided tapes in each level, it means you get a lot of German and a lot of vocabulary for a pretty reasonable price. Understand that this is not a stand-alone method of learning German but should be used in conjunction with other texts. And though the majority are just single words, there are also parts consisting of sentences and phrases.
Now the problems. First off, the "music" is just a gimmick. It is just the same old vocabulearn repacked with some string quartet music. So if you can find the older editions at a cheaper price, go for it as you won't be missing anything.
Secondly, the course needs to be revised and brought up to date. As an example, you won't find any meaningful computer related terms. And lustig (fun loving, good natured) is translated as "gay". Hmmmmm, can we say behind the times here.
But their biggest problem by far is that amazingly, the vocabulary lists do not contain the plural of the nouns, nor do the verbs contain any forms beyond the infinitive. As the plurals in German are unpredictable as are many of the verb forms, you will spend hours looking these up in a dictionary. I can't understand why they didn't do this for you but it is really unforgivable. So, you get good bang for your buck but with some serious flaws, so it gets 3 stars in my book.

Rating:
Summary: Learning German with VocabuLearn
Review: The tapes are clear and easily understood and the words useful and current. Words and phrases are spoken in English and German. You're given plenty of time to repeat. Fairly basic in content.