Teach Yourself German [antikvár]

PREFACEWe have travelled a long way on the road since the Englishman, tall and skinny, with sandy hair and pro-truding teeth, was made the butt of ridicule on the Continental stage, and his attempts to speak a foreign tongue were found either irritating or excruciatingly funny.We have progressed much, too, in our approach to the study of foreign languages. We are not so content to signal and gesticulate for our food in a foreign restaurant, and our eyes no longer flash with indignation at these " damned foreigners " who cannot speak the King's English. It used to be quite common, too, for a well-educated man to turn out a creditable essay in French or Germán on the fossil iguanodon, yet be distressingly inarticulate when called upon to order a second-class railway ticket or a dinner. Amusing mistakes, of course, will always be made. There is the Scot, for instance, who translated : " J'aime la langue frangaise " by : " I love the tall French girl," or the Germán who said in great indignation to the waiter in a London restaurant: "I am here since ten minuteswhen do I become a sausage t " He had forgottén that bekommen in English is to get, while the English become is in Germán werden.Most of the difficulties of forty years ago were due to an undue importance given to grammar and Classical subject-matter: the teaching did not help the practical man who wanted to travel. It is claimed for this book that the interests of such people are studied throughout. The classified vocabularies should prove very helpful, and it is hoped that the student will find that the bug-bear of Germán declensions loses somé of its terrors as presented here.