5 comments about Hallo Peter (includes workbook) [VHS].

1. At last! An educational video designed with the VCR user in mind! This video isn`t just an entertaining group of skits - it has interactive options that you control with the remote. After you've worked your way through a lesson listening and watching - and I shouldn't say work, because it's so easy and rewarding - you can rewind a lesson and practice speaking. To do this, you use a cue on the tape to pause the video while you formulate the sentence that's coming. Once you've spoken out loud and heard the original on the video, you have time to pause and correct yourself, without having to rewind the tape. It's a simple concept but one that I`ve never encountered before and one that is extremely effective. This is certainly better than watching videos that are really just conventional lessons or footage of situations with no chance to get involved. Other features of this video that enhance the learning experience are the variety of background music, the ironic approach, and the practicality of the language. While these aspects all contribute to excellent lessons, the character in the video is certainly the main teacher. It is through the character's actions that you understand the language. He is an affable, but inept mime who goes through a series of ordinary actions while the narrator clearly enunciates instructions, questions, and comments. The actor is so talented that you, the viewer, understand much of the new language you're hearing. The workbook that comes with the video is really well constructed too and gives you a chance to review and extend all that you've learned. All in all, this video package is an exceptional language experience.



2. Peter, in the German language video Hallo Peter, is the best German teacher I've had. I followed him through 20 entertaining lessons and learned a lot of German vocabulary. I even seemed to have picked up some grammar and learned how to formulate different kinds of sentences along the way. Peter doesn't tell me about German, he shows me German. He puts the language into action and I found I could remember it by mentally rehearsing the actions. Almost subconsciously, briefly visualizing Peter's actions, gestures, expressions, and general situations brought the word or phrase to my mind. I did study a little German before and just wanted something to brush up on the basics. I was surprised at how well this video worked for my purpose and then some. Doing the exercises in the student book consolidated the language and prompted me to remember even more. The English translation that accompanies the workbook is a great help, especially because it is not a literal translation. Expressions and idioms with which we are familiar in English are given a German equivalent so it's very practical. I would recommend this to any beginning or 'returning' student of German of any age and I think it would be a wonderful experience for teachers to bring to their students. Well done, Peter. Thanks.



3. This has the production values of a bad home video. The content is so simplistic and stilted that it is painful to watch. Even my 2 year old twins demanded that we turn it off after 2 minutes. My wife, who is German, first asked if there was some way to return it after opening it. She then made me promise to let her buy any German videos in the future.



4. The overall presentation is good and there is a great deal of useful vocabulary in here. My one beef is that the entire workbook is in German, with absolutely NO translation, explanation or introduction and the video cassette has absolutely no details on the plain white cover.

   Without a dictionary, you cannot possibly make any real use of this package, even though the quality of the mime is good enough to convey the basic drift of each lesson. As for "Peter", any guys left questioning their sexuality should note that "he" is played by Eve-Marie Forcier.

   There DEFINITELY should have been an English translation and some kind of rudimentary introduction in English.




5. Since my aim is to learn to speak German well, I was disappointed because the video itself has a visual problem; there are streaks throughout, not to the point of being totally unclear (which explains why I'm not returning it), but enough to distort the picture. Too, and most disappointing of all is that the German words come across muffled. Also, since no English translation workbook came with the package, it is very difficult for me to know the meanings of words of which I am unfamiliar. Trying to find these unfamiliar words in the German dictionary is equally problematic because generally the words used in the video are either in the future tense or past tense (i.e., Peter ist verliebt), which the dictiornary in most cases does not recognize. In any case, I'm struggling to find an English translation workbook to help me through the unfamiliar words. How can I learn the language if I don't know what's being said??? I need to see at least some of it in English. Help!

No comments about Das Alphabet auf Deutsch (German) [VHS].

No comments about Fokus Deutsch, Level 2 (Folge 13-18).

No comments about German Americans [VHS].

No comments about Fokus Deutsch (Tape 1 Lessons 1-13) [An Introduction to German Language and Culture].

2 comments about Basic German by Video [VHS].

1. A pretty good all-round option for learning German. However it is made from a string US (foreign) perspective rather than showing more of the German culture and local individualities of German.



2. I dont care how much this cost, this is crap. this was filmed in the early 70's, bad quality and it covers absolutely nothing. They will give you a word like "Car" and then show you a pictire of a Car and then the German Translation. This is a Video "Flash Card". I threw it away.

2 comments about Joy of Talking: German, deluxe edition [VHS].

1. Given the plethora of other videos for learning German--and other foreign languages--that are all for sale at Amazon.com as well, you can really spend your money far better by doing a Video Search for "German" and looking at nearly any other product. This one just ain't worth it.



2. Thought it was very helpful, but maybe overpriced.

2 comments about Bilingual Baby, GERMAN, Vol 3 [VHS].

1. My daughter really enjoys watching this video. She watches more than half the video (about a half an hour) before moving on to another activity. Considering she is only 13 months old, that is quite an accomplishment. She watches the video between 1 and three times a day. Whenever she hears the music for the video, she comes running to the TV.

   The video itself uses brightly colored objects, young children and animals to help your child learn German. Each word is repeated multiple times, then at the end of each section sentences are made from the new words just learned. The sections are: section 1 - familiar words and sentences; section 2- numbers; sections 3 - colors; section 4 - manners & phrases; section 5 - more familiar words and sentences; and section 6 - musical review.

   The video is listed as ages 1 to 5 years old, but I think it is best suited for children under 4 years old. Older children will most likely be bored with the simplistic material, unless this is their first exposure to the language. In that case, we watched the video with children from 7 to 13 years old who hadn't been exposed to German, and they really enjoyed it too.




2. We bought this videotape for my daughter, who is now 20 months old. My wife and I are interested in having her learn German.

   The best that I could say about the tape is that it is "OK." The tape introduces words very slowly, one word at a time, then uses the preceeding three words in a sample sententce. For example, you'll get:

   "Boy..." [while showing a picture of a boy]
   "Boy..." [while showing a picture of a different boy]
   "Boy..." [while showing a picture of a different boy]

   "Eat..." [while showing a picture of a person or animal eating something]
   "Eat..." [while showing a different picture of a person or animal eating something]
   "Eat..." [while showing a different picture of a person or animal eating something]

   "Apple..." [while showing a picture of an apple]
   "Apple..." [while showing a different picture of an apple]
   "Apple..." [while showing a different picture of an apple]

   "The boy eats an apple. The boy eats an apple" [picture of a boy eating an apple]

   So you have to ask youself: can you or your child watch this for 38 minutes a day, for however many days?

   The video goes through some general words (Mom, dad, boy, girl, etc...), numbers, and colors. And that's it.

   Some claims they make:

   1) The tape is 45 minutes long. There is actually a bit more than *35 minutes* of content time. The rest is credits and blank tape.

   2) The tape is "total immersion." I do not know where they are getting the definitions from, but *everytime* someone pulls a book from a shelf, or opens a book to read or display to the audience (i.e., YOU) in this video, *it is ALWAYS an English book.* I imagine that something calling itself "total immersion" would require showing people reading German texts in the German language, "total immersion" video". Anything calling itself "total immersion" would also have to show people *interacting* in the target language, which there is absolutely none of in this video. It's all very one-way, almost "teacher-fronted" as I describe above.

   This company seems to have gone very wide, and not at all very deep. This is the only video tape in German they provide, to my knowledge. That'sa a pity because after you watch this video a couple of times, the question that begs to be answered is "Well, what do I do now?"

   This video alone provides too limited an exposure to the target language. It could be one *very small* part of a German language environment that parents might be trying to create, but nothing more.

2 comments about Lyric Language II (German/English) [VHS].

1. Gerry Springerre is WAY better! He Rocks



2. My daughter is 15 months old and really enjoys this tape. Not as much as Bilingual Baby - German, but a close second. I like the first video (Lyric Language - German) in this series a little better, but both are very good. The songs are catchy, without being too obnoxious, so I don't mind seeing the video over and over again.

5 comments about Lyric Language I (German/English) [VHS].

1. My daughter is 15 months old and really enjoys this tape. Not as much as Bilingual Baby - German, but a close second. The songs are catchy, without being too obnoxious, so I don't mind seeing the video over and over again.



2. Songs are fun -- really! Even adults will find themselves humming a few bars and then all of a sudden out comes a bunch of German and you even know what it means. Oh, yea kids love it too! French and Spanish are also available in this series. We have it all and are now trading up to DVD's.



3. I thought this video was more a kin to tourcher rather then entertainment. My son will watch it, but I think the songs miss the mark and are hard to listen too. I like the other language movies more and will be chucking this one to find a better, less annoying german tape.

   Kids sing the songs on the tape, but the words don't slow well and makes it sound awful.




4. For what it is, this is an excellent video. It is a fun way to review German (if you already know a little) or to gain some exposure to it. I wouldn't expect a rank beginner to pick up more than a small number of vocabulary words, and I wouldn't consider it a video for "learning" German - but then, I wouldn't expect to learn much from one short video anyhow. The video consists of several songs performed in an echo format - the lines are sung in either German or English, and then repeated in the opposite language. The songs are fast-moving, but repetitive enough to give you several trys at repeating a phrase. The songs are pleasant to listen to, and the video is fun to watch (it shows children doing the activities talked about in the songs and is well done).

   My big disappointment - and the reason I deducted a star - is because this video doesn't provide a very authentic German experience. The music doesn't sound the least bit German (in fact the first song sounds Caribbean), and the children, locations and activities depicted are clearly American. Why didn't they shoot this on location in Germany and use German children? They missed a great opportunity to make this video a cultural experience. If I knew of better videos, I would have given this one a lower rating. For what it's worth, Penton Overseas (the producers) now have this video available on their website (http://www.pentonoverseas.com/lyric-language-DVD.htm) as a DVD/CD combo at a very low price. The DVD is 70 minutes long, so it must be a combination of all three of the VHS videos (they don't give much detail on their website, so I can only speculate). For the price they're charging, I believe it's well worth buying.




5. I've had this video for a very long time. It was interesting the first three times when I was six years old, but then got very irritating.
   
   Now, I'm a senior in high school, actually taking a German class. I find the video fun to watch to reinforce vocabulary and grammar. With the exception of three extremely annoying songs, it's really catchy. I find myself singing the songs in class.
   
   I dislike that the video portion features American children and activities, but know that the video part is the same for all the Lyric Language tapes (I have the French version as well, it's exactly the same).