Rating: 
Summary: Wilson's Grammar Shines
Review: April is a supurb German instructor, something I learned studying the language with her earlier this year. She brings years of expertise, and understands both what sparks a student's interest and what that student needs to learn. This book--the principle text of her course--is focused accordingly, complete with pithy grammatical summaries and ample examples through proverbs and short narrative. At a swift but not overly hasty pace, one can work though the book in 8-12 weeks, and should be on the way to reading a wide range of German literature. The potential buyer should be aware of two points. First, this text is geared towards those wanting to develop German reading comprehension; there is nothing here that focuses on conversation. Second, as a grammar, this text must be supplemented with an adequate dictionary (I chose the HarperCollins Unabridged). That said, this is a great text and provides a helpful gateway into the language.
Rating:
Summary: A highly entertaining textbook
Review: April Wilson has written a great textbook for learning German grammar. Conversation and writing are not covered, but I can highly recommend it to anybody who is learning German and is comfortable studying grammar, not just the reading students the book was intended for. All of the major grammatical structures are presented in a clear and straightforward manner and there is a very comprehensive and handy grammar summary in an appendix. What really gives this book its charm, however, are the examples and practice translations. The main themes are German proverbs, classical German literature, and the running story of Fräulein Meier and her local mailman. These take the form of both practice sentences that illustrate the grammatical points at hand and longer reading passages. All vocabulary is defined and these reading exercises not only take the drudgery of out practice, but make language learning an outright pleasure! In short, this is easily the most accessible grammar book I've seen for any language.
Rating:
Summary: The best foreign-language grammar book I've come across
Review: April Wilson has written a great textbook for learning German grammar. Conversation and writing are not covered, but I can highly recommend it to anybody who is learning German and is comfortable studying grammar, not just the reading students the book was intended for. All of the major grammatical structures are presented in a clear and straightforward manner and there is a very comprehensive and handy grammar summary in an appendix. What really gives this book its charm, however, are the examples and practice translations. The main themes are German proverbs, classical German literature, and the running story of Fräulein Meier and her local mailman. These take the form of both practice sentences that illustrate the grammatical points at hand and longer reading passages. All vocabulary is defined and these reading exercises not only take the drudgery of out practice, but make language learning an outright pleasure! In short, this is easily the most accessible grammar book I've seen for any language.
Rating:
Summary: A highly entertaining textbook
Review: April Wilson's "German Quickly" is a most enjoyable and practical text for anyone wishing to learn to read German. It unsnarls grammatical knots (especially the "overloaded adjective construction") with humor and diligence and also gives the reader a taste of writers and thinkers, including Wittgenstein, Goethe and Buber, among others. Proverbs, such as "Pfau, schau auf deine Beine!" ("Peacock, look at your legs!") add to the fun of learning German. I heartily recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Proverbs and paradigms
Review: April Wilson's German Quickly is the best German grammar for reading available. Ms. Wilson brings nearly thirty years of experience preparing graduate students for the German exam at the University of Chicago to this marvellously concise and lively grammar, and her experience shows. German Quickly is designed, as its title indicates, to produce rapid progress in German through several weeks of intense study. Rapid comprehension of complex paradigms and irregularities is facilitated with very clear charts and lists of essential rules at the beginnings of each chapter. Since it is assumed that the owner of this book will use it primarily to improve reading skills, Ms. Wilson does not clutter the text with rarely-encountered exceptions and colloquialisms, or verb forms that tend to be absent in literature and academic prose. Instead she identifies those verbs, nouns, prepositions, and syntactical constructions that are most frequent and most troublesome, and returns to them often. One of the most effective aspects of German Quickly is its repetition of "essential" vocabulary items throughout the chapters. The reader is spared the trouble of constantly flipping back through previous chapters to recall an important word, since the most important words are repeated in several lessons, marked with an asterix. Additionally the exercises provide constant review of the most important grammatical constructions, which the reader must learn both to recognize in readings and to produce in English-to-German composition. German Quickly can be used as a handy reference grammar after the student has mastered the basics. The final chapters and extensive appendices present with characteristic clarity overviews of German grammar, useful phrases, and an eminently useful review of several German-English dictionaries. A partial answer key at the end of the book provides answers to the more difficult exercises, and a glossary provides quick definitions and surveys of usage for troublesome words, along with asterixes indicating which vocabulary items are most important to memorize. German Quickly is a challenging book, but the exercises in each chapter are surprisingly enjoyable, drawn as they are from traditional (and some very strange) German proverbs, e.g., "Wenn der Teufel krank ist, will er Monch werden; wenn er gesund ist, bleibt er, wie er ist," "When the Devil is ill, he wishes to become a monk; when he is well, he believes he is"; or "Es hofft der Mensch, solong er lebt," "A man hopes, so long as he lives," (cp. the Latin proverb, "dum spiro, spero"). Selections from philosophical writings and literature, especially Nietzsche and Kafka, are also included. The student finishes German Quickly not only with the foundations of grammar and vocabulary, but also with a lively knowledge of German culture and popular values.
Rating:
Summary: German Quickly: A Grammar for Reading German by April Wilso
Review: As someone who has a doctoral degree and is working on another graduate degree, I have read a lot of books in my time that promise to teach me something. In attempting to learn to read German, in particular, I have read a lot of books that actually made it harder for me to learn German. Wilson's book is that rare thing--a book that actually does what it says. Well organized in a thoughtful manner with plenty of examples--"German Quickly..." has ended up being the only book I study, and the only book you may need to buy. Take it from someone who's bought a lot of How To...German books. This is the place to start and probably finish your studying.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book Available for Learning German
Review: As someone who has a doctoral degree and is working on another graduate degree, I have read a lot of books in my time that promise to teach me something. In attempting to learn to read German, in particular, I have read a lot of books that actually made it harder for me to learn German. Wilson's book is that rare thing--a book that actually does what it says. Well organized in a thoughtful manner with plenty of examples--"German Quickly..." has ended up being the only book I study, and the only book you may need to buy. Take it from someone who's bought a lot of How To...German books. This is the place to start and probably finish your studying.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST German Grammar You Can Buy
Review: German Quickly is simply the best German grammar teaching tool you can buy. April Wilson adroitly steers the student through the intricacies of a grammatically challenging language with finesse and humor, keeping the student's attention and interest by ingeniously chosen examples, and offering extremely clear and concise explanations. Mrs. Wilson assumes no grammatical knowledge, and explains grammar concepts found in the English language when needed for the comprehension of German. From explanations of the articles and the genders of nouns to the German passive and the overloaded adjective construction (including the Subjunctive I and II), this book can be used as a comprehensive introduction to German grammar or a superb grammar review. Forget the dry, cumbersome explanations found in more traditional textbook German grammars such as German for Reading Knowledge, and pick up German Quickly. You will be happy you did.
Rating:
Summary: Sehr gut!
Review: I first studied German over twenty years ago, and found it isn't like riding a bicycle -- if you let it go, it goes. I've studied several languages, so perhaps I can be forgiven, but when I started seminary I found that there were various pieces that were important to read that could only be found in German, or while they were available in English translation, the original language was important to capture the nuances of the arguments. When I looked to my old textbooks for German, they didn't seem designed to be re-learned quickly. I was very pleased to find this book, German Quickly. As a seminarian, I appreciated the fact that the author April Wilson had also been through a divinity programme. She specialised in teaching German to graduate students who needed to quickly capture the language so that fairly high-level academic articles and texts for their studies. This particular book is very good at helping students in the humanities -- German is also important for those in the sciences, but this book does not cover the particular scientific terminology; that being said, this would be a good primer for German generally, and students could then go on to master the nuances of scientific language. One of the best features of this text are the stories and text samples at the ends of the sections. Wilson takes these from all manner of sources -- the story of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac from the Bible, pieces from works by Martin Buber and Friedrich Nietzsche, and other writings make for interesting, realistic learning. These are not artificial constructs, but rather perfect examples of the kinds of actual reading that needs to be done. There is also humour and style in the 'ordinary' exercises. How does one translate 'Ich bin ein Berliner'? Who can forget the language when one translates phrases such as 'Kinder und Narren sagen die Wahrheit'? (Children and fools speak the truth.) These are actual exercises. The one drawback for personal study is that not all the exercise solutions are given in the back of the book. There is a very good section on German dictionaries, giving the strengths and weaknesses of many of the major German dictionaries available. She actually has the brilliant suggestion of having two dictionaries -- a smaller paperback version that gives quick-and-dirty definitions, and then a larger hard-back dictionary that fills in the nuances of the words. Using only the larger one will slow down the beginning reader. This suggestion is one of but many that makes this text a real gem. This book is for reading comprehension; writing can be learned from it, but it really doesn't focus upon that. Nor does it concentrate on German as a spoken language -- there is a pronunciation key at the beginning, and German is much more standard than English in pronunciation according to spelling, but this book is not intended to train speakers or listeners in German. It is as its title suggests -- a grammar for reading German, quickly. In that, it succeeds admirably.
Rating:
Summary: Sehr gut!
Review: I first studied German over twenty years ago, and found it isn't like riding a bicycle -- if you let it go, it goes. I've studied several languages, so perhaps I can be forgiven, but when I started seminary I found that there were various pieces that were important to read that could only be found in German, or while they were available in English translation, the original language was important to capture the nuances of the arguments. When I looked to my old textbooks for German, they didn't seem designed to be re-learned quickly. I was very pleased to find this book, German Quickly. As a seminarian, I appreciated the fact that the author April Wilson had also been through a divinity programme. She specialised in teaching German to graduate students who needed to quickly capture the language so that fairly high-level academic articles and texts for their studies. This particular book is very good at helping students in the humanities -- German is also important for those in the sciences, but this book does not cover the particular scientific terminology; that being said, this would be a good primer for German generally, and students could then go on to master the nuances of scientific language. One of the best features of this text are the stories and text samples at the ends of the sections. Wilson takes these from all manner of sources -- the story of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac from the Bible, pieces from works by Martin Buber and Friedrich Nietzsche, and other writings make for interesting, realistic learning. These are not artificial constructs, but rather perfect examples of the kinds of actual reading that needs to be done. There is also humour and style in the 'ordinary' exercises. How does one translate 'Ich bin ein Berliner'? Who can forget the language when one translates phrases such as 'Kinder und Narren sagen die Wahrheit'? (Children and fools speak the truth.) These are actual exercises. The one drawback for personal study is that not all the exercise solutions are given in the back of the book. There is a very good section on German dictionaries, giving the strengths and weaknesses of many of the major German dictionaries available. She actually has the brilliant suggestion of having two dictionaries -- a smaller paperback version that gives quick-and-dirty definitions, and then a larger hard-back dictionary that fills in the nuances of the words. Using only the larger one will slow down the beginning reader. This suggestion is one of but many that makes this text a real gem. This book is for reading comprehension; writing can be learned from it, but it really doesn't focus upon that. Nor does it concentrate on German as a spoken language -- there is a pronunciation key at the beginning, and German is much more standard than English in pronunciation according to spelling, but this book is not intended to train speakers or listeners in German. It is as its title suggests -- a grammar for reading German, quickly. In that, it succeeds admirably.
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