Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Spanish on Your Own

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Complete Idiot's Guide... Is an excellent book that graphically and linguistically is very easy to learn from. It covers all areas of the Spanish language thoroughly in a simple, yet explanatory way on spots where a few people are prone to miss things. There's extra tidbits and facts noting exceptions of certain rules when trying to form sentences in Spanish that many books will fail to tell you. It's designed to walk begginers all the way to intermediate, and can very well guide intermediates fully into the advanced stages. All topics of sentence formation are covered and those technical english terms like "superlative sentences" or "past present progressive" that you'll adventually have to understand trying to learn the Spanish rules of sentence formation are always explained fully. There's no need of having a grammarbook beside you. And best of all, it stays away from technical jargon as much as possible and constantly gives scenarios of how what you're learning in Spanish now, will come into practical application when actually in a Spanish Speaking country. All while without straying from the information on the subject it's trying to give. An excellent book! A walk-through, tuturial, and personal guide to the full structure of the Spanish langauge.

The book was full of information which is very helpful, but some of the basics were left out. For instance, the book will tell you how to say Hello, but not how to say Good-bye. It also does not have a great index in the back. Most English/Spanish books have the words located at the back, so it is like a dictionary as well. It does have a tremendous amount of information for the beginner who can pick up some of the real basics on their own.

Although there were some errors in the book, I still found that it was a pretty good resource to learn Spanish. I had originally used this book a few years ago with Barrons FSI Spanish and found that this book greatly enhanced my learning with the Barrons FSI Spanish. In fact, I recently recommended this book to a friend that's learning Spanish and I still continue use the book as a resource.

I found that the most helpful parts of the book were the "10 Minutes Al Dia" tips and the "Memory Master" sections. The book also has ample written exercises and tests to help reinforce everything that you learn.

Besides the occasional errors that the book contains, my only complaint is that the author made many useless attempts to explain the pronunciation of the Spanish vocabulary words. Not only was this unnecessary since all Spanish words are pronounced the way they are written unlike in English. It was unhelpful because in order teach correct pronunciation of a foreign language you need audio and not just text. Complaints aside, this is still a very good resource to learn Spanish.

I bought this book and within a couple of months was speaking (and pronouncing) Spanish well enough to at least communicate at a basic level on a recent trip to Venezuela.

It teaches grammar in a "pace yourself" manner, and effectively teaches proper pronunciation too (which is often difficult without an accompanying audio tape).

I've purchased several different foreign language learning tools, and this on was by far the most easily understood and the best value for my money.

My goal was to teach myself Spanish (after 20 years since my high school exposure). I was disappointed that this book didn't focus on the structure of the language. I was seeking more information on grammar and on the variety of verb tenses. This book is oriented to the "visual" learner who is capable of memorizing phrases. I want to learn to construct the language, to think in Spanish, not just to pull idioms from a memorized repertoire.

To tell you a little about my background, I am the editor of the Learning Spanish Products Reviews newsletter. I am also a native Spanish speaker and a Spanish instructor. In addition, I am the author of two learning-Spanish products offered at Amazon.com (USA):

1. Anna Rivera's 1000 Plus Most Powerful Spanish Words (English and Spanish Edition)

2.Anna Rivera's 800 Plus Most Powerful Spanish Phrases (English and Spanish Edition)

By now, everyone is familiar with the Complete Idiot's Guide series. They've got books on just about everything under the sun, and I was pleased to find that they cover language learning as well.

Learning a new language can be intimidating, but The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Spanish on Your Own is an inviting and completely non-threatening book that I think any beginner would like. It's both fun and effective and makes great use of visuals, which is something that I think most other materials like this overlook.

My main complaint about this book is that it's sloppy in some places. There are multiple typos and misspellings and a few instances of incorrect information.

The practical side of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Spanish on Your Own, however, can't be stressed enough. It covers idioms, slang and expressions thoroughly; the phonetic pronunciations are great; and there are helpful sidebars that explain exceptions to rules and provide tips for things that are confusing. Every chapter has exercises and an answer key for practice.

Anyone who might be traveling and wants to pick up Spanish quickly should buy this book. There's enough here to get you to the point where you can have a basic conversation in a Spanish speaking country. But with the multiple typos and misspellings and a few instances of incorrect information, I am not able to give it more than 3 stars.

I enjoy this book for learning spanish while I am sitting on the john. While I am cruising down the freeway I listen to RAPANESE tapes (the musical method of learning spanish). I wanted another tape (because my dog ate my first rapanese tape) and I couldn't find it in my local bookstore so I just typed in rapanese on amazon.com and there it was.