Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur German IV

German is the official language of Germany and Austria and is one of the official languages of Switzerland, Belgium, Lichtenstein, and Luxembourg. Nearly 100 million people speak German as their first language: about 77 million in Germany, 8 million in Austria, and 4.5 million in Switzerland.

German IV, Comprehensive

A new 30-unit course designed to be completed after German Level III (replaces German Plus, 10-Unit course).

Thirty 30-minute lessons totaling 15 hours of spoken German language learning, plus one hour of Reading Lessons designed to expand your vocabulary, give you practice reading and hearing German, and bring you one step closer to reading German for pleasure.

Builds upon skills taught in Pimsleur's German I-III. You'll be speaking and understanding German with near-fluency and with a broad range of conversational skills. In Phase 4 the pace and conversation moves more rapidly, accelerating exposure to new vocabulary and structures, and approaching native speed and comprehension. You’ll learn to speak about your professional and personal life, needs, likes and dislikes, and to create complex sentences discussing the past, present, future, conditional, and subjunctive.

Topics include:

• Business: attending trade fairs; meeting with colleagues; discussing professions, products, and customers’ concerns; making or asking for suggestions.
• Personal: discussing where and when you met someone, divorce, German heritage; using the informal form to address several people; talking about family members including distant cousins and in-laws; losing a personal item; talking about getting a driver’s license, having a broken item repaired.
• Traveling and sight-seeing: talking about jet lag, discussing types of train transportation, buying tickets, visiting wineries and wine festivals, seeing restored old cities or buildings, traveling to the coast or mountains, renting an apartment, making restaurant reservations, registering at a hotel, discussing hotel amenities and features such as an elevator, a breakfast buffet, fitness room, non-smoking room, internet access.
• Shopping: purchasing items, trying on clothing, describing purchases, colors, sizes; asking for a bag or a receipt; discussing change for a large bill.
• Activities: Reading, hiking, watching a show on television or online, taking long walks on the beach, talking about a good film.
• Health related: feeling ill (cold, headache, sore throat), discussing allergies, breaking an ankle or wrist; going to an emergency pharmacy or the emergency room of a hospital, and dealing with medical emergencies, saying that someone looks tired or looks good, asking about the health of various family members.
• Environment: recycling, green-related.
• Weather: describing humid, hot weather, heat waves, cool, chilly, or rainy weather.
• German culture: Reunification, how to broach the subject of speaking informally, restaurant etiquette, having the traditional coffee and cake.