Studio 21: Deutschbuch A1 MIT DVD-Rom (German Edition) Pocket Book – February 2, 2013

The book arrived on time even though the seller told me they had trouble obtaining it from their supplier... so kudos to them for putting a rush to it! The book was brand new and still wrapped in plastic. I've only begun the first few pages of the book but it seems to be good for a beginner learner of the German language.

Clean book and arrived on time.

Wish I could give 0 stars because I received an empty box, with no book.

This books is required by the Goethe Institut for German level A1.1 (and at least more more level as well). They also require the Studio 21 Intensivtrainer and the Glossar and this is really a review of all three books. Since these materials are required, you're kind of stuck if you sign up for the course, but I have found them to be extremely confusing to use, so be warned. The Deutschbook has a number of exercises in it that require you to listen to audio tracks to complete -- however, those audio tracks are NOT included with the book and the CD that has them is not required by Goethe (there is an E-book DVD included but the audio tracks are not on there. As well, the E-book is hard to use because there are only two text size settings: two-page view with tiny print, or one page giant print that doesn't let you see the whole page). If you want to pony up another thirty or so bucks for the CD of audio tracks, you won't have to skip those exercises in the book that call for them. The Glossar lists words in the order that they appear in the exercises, NOT in alphabetical order like a dictionary, so if you want look up a word, you have to remember in which chapter it first appeared. The Intensivtrainer just appears to be more of the same type of exercises that appear in the Deustchbook, though the audio tracks for this book are included with the book. Some of the exercises in both the Deutstchbook and the Intensivtrainer are really a waste of time. I get why I need to practice sentences that I might use when ordering drinks in a coffeeshop, but do I really need to do a "Jumble" style puzzle where I unscramble the words "Kaffee", "Cappucino", "Wasser", etc., or a word search of German city names? Between those pointless exercises and the amount of time I have spent trying to figure out how to use these books, I am a little frustrated and wish this set of books was easier to use, and moved things along faster with more useful exercises.

I agree with a previous review. Not having all the audio files is very poor. If you aren't required to buy this book as part of a class then you should not buy it. It is incomplete for learning on your own and if that is what you want to do then buy something else. This is particularly irritating since I can't think of any good reason why they would not include the audio since they already include a DVD. Failing that the publisher should make those files available on their web site.