Deutsch-Online-Lernen.com is the companion website to the Youtube German course DeutschOnlineLernen, reviewed by me in my last blog post. The site is created by Thomas P. Birkhoff.
The site's welcome page (after you clicked through the splash page) starts you off with Chapter 1A. (If you want to go to the whole list of chapters, all of the pages on the website and a list of grammar topics covered on the website, go to the Sitemap.) Move through the pages of the chapter using the "next" and "back" buttons at the top.
The chapters on the website use some of the same materials as the videos (and are voiced by the same people as the videos), but the chapter numbers on the website don't seem to correspond to the video numbers.
The early lessons focus a lot on pronounciation, which is very helpful for a beginner. The site compares the pronounciation of German to various words in English, and other tips on how to physically form the sounds. The site uses phonetic symbols; honestly, I always skip over phonetic symbols in foreign language books, but the symbols and descriptions of the sounds will help the serious student in getting the sounds right. The lessons are reinforced by a couple of quick exercises at the end of each chapter.
The later chapters start with vocabulary and then teach basic grammar concepts. A couple of translation exercises at the end use what you have learned in that lesson.
The site also provides audio with each German phrase or word, with accurate pronounciations, which I think is necessary to make sure you are in fact saying it correctly. However, when you click on the audio button, a new page opens up with a Quicktime status bar; it would be nice if you could listen to the audio without leaving the page (it might help to right-click the audio button and open it in a new tab).
Overall, I think this is a good site for the beginner to get the sounds correct, get exposure to grammar, and learn some new vocabulary.
Write your own review of the website below!
No comments:
Post a Comment