German Quickly: A Grammar for Reading German

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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.

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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: 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.

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Summary: German Quickly: A Grammar for Reading German by April Wilso
Review: I am an ASU MA Ethnomusicology student. I spent thousands of dollars taking German 101, 201, and on tutors which did not emphasize grammar. I also never located a scholarly writing auf Deutsch on my thesis subject. Last summer I unsuccessfully attempted an academic German reading exam on an unrelated topic book.

Enter a new graduate German reading class summer 2004. Claudia Tomany, my summer school professor, was amazingly proficient in both German and English grammar. She not only found April Wilson's wonderfully concise and thorough text for the 5-week session, but also located and ordered from Germany the foremost authoritative work on my subject! What a god-send for this "over 55" adult student who was frustrated with German labs, movies and conversational exercises, to take a class where the text assignments from April Wilson's book were translations of Kafka, Kleist, Goethe, Buber, Nietzsche, Martini, Mann, the Bible, and proverbial passages similar to our class' own scholarly authors! While I had to work 6+ hours a day during those 5 weeks, Professor Tomany's class and April Wllson's text were on point with the required German scholarly reading exam! I believe ten of our class of 12 passed for MA and PhD degree requirements!

Thank you, April, for your text and your personal responsiveness via e-mail! You are amazing!