Adrienne's acclaimed Gimmick approach offers both the beginner and the seasoned traveler a fast and effective route to this lexicon by teaching language as it is actually spoken. Adrienne's vocabulary lists are contemporary, practical, and uncensored -- you'll find words here that aren't in any other language book -- and they group together families of words, which makes expanding your vocabulary painless. For the more advanced student, access to the Gimmick's expansive array of colloquial expressions will add an impossible-to-fake native fluency. Whether you're trying to learn the rudiments (My name is Steve), travel with globe-trotting panache (The Louvre has many paintings by Monet), or get out of a prickly situation (May I call my lawyer?), Adrienne and the Gimmick will show you the way.
I picked this up a few years ago, but never really looked at until this past fall when I was studying for the ZMP (the Intermediate level test given at the Goethe Institut). The format is very easy to use, so easy that at the end of only about 5 hours use, I could recognize most of the words (not including those in the phrases section). The next day on the test, I noticed that there were 20-30 words on the test that I would not have known if it hadn't been for my "cramming" using the book the day before. Passing the ZMP (which I did) means that one has passed level 4 of a 5 level system. This book then, seems to me to be most suited for high intermediate and advanced students, although most intermediate students should also benefit from its use. Beginning students should start with a more basic book first (say "Teach yourself German Vocabulary" from the Teach Yourself series) before embarking on this one.
Gimmick is good.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
The gimmick series provides an excelent sources for the German "Redewendungen". Mastering German means mastering these tough idioms. Also, many Germans have this book to learn English. This is a great book for anyone serious about German.
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