Thursday, December 20, 2012

Consumer Critique: Lightning-Fast German

I previously wrote a review for Lightning-Fast Spanish for Kids and Families and found it to be a great way to incorporate language learning - even for a language I don't speak. Now I had a chance to try Lightning-Fast German for Kids and Families and found that this installment has the same trademarks as the Spanish (and I would assume, other languages as well). It's designed to use everyday situations - eating, getting dressed, etc - to expose your kids to foreign languages, even if you don't speak it. And odds are, you'll learn some along the way!

Any foreign language experience is good for kids. It helps stretch the brain, introduce other cultures, and provide a foundation for later foreign languages (even in different languages than the one first learned). This can be a great goal for the coming year - or any time, really!

As someone who speaks German almost fluently, I found this book to be a solid introduction. The words chosen are all accurate. My only complaint is with pronunciation - I don't think the book adequately explains the German "ch" sound, or รถ, both of which are admittedly difficult to explain in print. However, someone who pronounced everything in the book exactly the way it's typed phonetically would still be understood by a native German speaker.

I plan on giving this to a friend who has family in Germany but whose wife doesn't speak German (nor does he speak a great deal either), for them to be able to incorporate at least some basic German in daily life with their kids, so when they visit Germany the kids have at least a few words and phrases they can draw from.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy to facilitate this review.

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