Customer Reviews

Gente

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First of all, I'd like to agree with the reviewer who writes that this can be a very frustrating textbook for beginner Spanish students. It uses the "immersion" method of learning a language which insists that the learning be in the actual language itself from day one. This is much different from the "traditional" method of language learning which says that it's OK to use a fair amount of English in the classroom.

Nevertheless, this book can be helpful--in some cases. To see if you can profit from this book and the "immersion" method, ask yourself some questions first. Question 1: Do I already know a little bit of Spanish? Question 2: Am I interested in speaking and listening as a priority? (If you want to know grammar much faster choose the "traditional" method of language learning and please move on.) Question 3: Can I get to a school that uses this book in a structured classroom setting with a bilingual teacher? If you already know a bit of Spanish and want to get up and running very quickly learning grammar a bit at a time in a school setting, then this book might well be for you. I personally have used it with a great deal of satisfaction. This is not to say that my learning experience was always easy; but I am satisfied because this method worked for me.

The quality of the paper isn't very good but then again it's a textbook in which students write so this is no surprise. The drawings are not great either. If you can, get both the workbook and the audio tapes that come with this textbook--they are helpful. Although the people speak at the normal rate of speech on the tapes, you'll be surprised at how you'll be able to pick up the key words and phrases that let you know at least the "gist" of what they are speaking about. You also get to hear native speakers talking.

In short, this book is great if the immersion method is for you! Good luck learning Spanish whatever road you choose! GRIN

I used this textbook for two semesters to teach an Elementary Spanish class at college.

The instructions for grammar and exercises were in Spanish. It was allright when students were in class and I could translate and explain everything to them but when they tried to study or do any of the exercises at home, they had many difficulties.

The exams taken from the test bank had questions and exercises which had not been taught yet. They asked me why they were being tested on something they had not yet learned. I made up my own exams.

The hispanic students were confused with a lot of the vocabulary from Spain. I gave them additional vocabulary in Latin American Spanish. A young woman said that her husband's company had been thinking of sending their employees to our college to learn Spanish because they do business with Latin American countries but now were having second thoughts. Many of the books began to fall apart as the bindings and soft covers were not strong enough.

In fairness, they did provide an excellent "GENTE Que Canta" CD with companion song book which the students enjoyed. Also, there was enough materials and variety to satisfy native speakers. I have a copy of their recent Second Edition which now includes many instructions and explanations in English. The layout and illustrations are very improved. There is a new video which accompanies GENTE.

This book has been used in courses for beginners, and I don't know why... There are hardly any grammar explanations... directions for the exercises are in full-blown Spanish which only a person who has studied the language could ever really understand...Spanish, once you know how to form verbs from the infinitives of same, is pretty regular.. Students should be discouraged so soon in their studies from such an important and relatively straightforward tongue (at least at the earliest stages) please discard this book as quickly as possible from introductory courses and pick a more explanatory textbook, like Facetas, Dos Mundos, Así es, etc. which worked very well for me.