Customer Reviews

Household Spanish

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This books provides much more help than communicating with Spanish-speaking household help. I purchased it a couple years ago and to my surprise, it's been one of the most valuable Spansih-reference books I've bought to date. It's got just about every household object listed in Spanish, cleaning, and commands.

The best part about this book is that every-single word in Spanish is spelled out phonetically in English; so if you're not familiar with Spanish pronunication, this book has you covered!

I'm nearly fluent in Spanish and my mother is trying to learn the language using Pimsleur's Spanish CDs (which by the way is possibly the BEST way to learn basic conversational Spanish for the basic basic beginner). She came to me and asked if I knew of a book that could teach her to "read" Spanish (i.e., correctly pronounce the words). I immediately thought of this book, adding that it could teach a lot of useful household Spanish as well.

I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to expand their Spanish vocabulary, not just learning how to communicate with your Spanish employees.

This mini dictionary focuses on "household terms in Spanish". Don't expect anything more or less. The book is divided into seven chapters each with thematic vocabulary. Within each section there are mini sections that focus on cultural themes (temas culturales), a review of what has been taught (repasemos), key words (palabras claves), to name a few sections. There is a pronunciation guide in brackets beside every word but I don't think it would be helpful if you are a true beginner in Spanish. I believe that sounds and phonetics need to be taught to ensure correct pronunciation and accentuation. I found the vocabulary to be interesting at times but there are so many ways in Spanish to say a word it just depends where a person is from but I think that Barron's tried to use the most generic word at all times. I really believe the book is good if you want to learn some Spanish vocabulary without having to worry about grammar and sentences etc. If you decide to purchase this book you will instantly increase your vocabulary and most of all know how to say everyday household terms in Spanish. This is a fun resource for learning Spanish vocabulary.

We have a Latin American person living in our home now who only speaks Spanish, and I have taught myself how to "converse" in Spanish in just over a month, thanks to this book and the cassette tapes. I have checked out many Spanish books at the library, but none gets to the heart of conversation like Household Spanish does. The introduction of vocabulary is useful and gradual, and the presentation of verb conjugation comes at just the right speed. To complement this quick-start book, I have purchased a Spanish/English dictionary and a workbook for reinforcement. With this combination, I can say almost anything, but it helps if your Spanish speaker is very patient!

This book was a lifesaver. I have forgotten all my high school Spanish and my new housekeeper does not speak English.This book is a great resource for quick help such as "please vacuum under the bed" as well as a guide to enable you to recall that Spanish that you have forgotten.

At first I wasn't certain that I was reviewing the right book, because the Amazon description says that it contains 88 pages while my copy has 280 (including the lexicon), and a couple of the reviews sound like they are referencing a different book than the one I have. But the ISBN number matches, so onward we go...

I have long held the opinion that if a person's goal is to be able to carry on a conversation with a non-English speaker (as opposed to the goal of being able to diagram sentences in that other person's native language), the way that "foreign" (no offense intended) language is generally taught in high school is the worst of all possible ways to accomplish that goal. I took 2 years of high school Spanish, and retained practically nil. A much more helpful approach is to learn a foreign language in the same way that one learned one's own native tongue--i.e. through immersion in and increasingly complex usage of that language. This book is a helpful step in that direction, as it does not laboriously take you down unwanted paths of verb conjugation and grammatical rules. Rather, from the first chapter it has the reader learning simple vocabulary, helpful phrases, greetings, declarative sentences, etc. which would be useful in a variety of situations (not merely addressing household help, as the subtitle implies and at which at least one reviewer has taken offense). When points of grammar are introduced, they are inserted in an unobtrusive "Oh, by the way, this is WHY it is done this way" manner, so that the end game of learning to effectively speak the language is kept in view.

Also helpful is that the material is presented in such a way that the reader does not have to learn every Spanish word, phrase, and sentence contained in a chapter in order to be greatly helped by the book. I found myself highlighting some parts and by-passing others, safe in the knowledge that I probably never will have occasion to use those words & phrases that I passed over.

I agree with the reviewer who stated that the pronunciation guides might not be totally helpful for someone who does not have opportunity to hear the words actually spoken in conversation; however, living in Texas has solved that particular problem for me!

I did deduct one star because of the length of the chapters--I would have found the material more easily digestible if there were 15 shorter chapters instead of 7 lengthy ones.

I recently started using a cleaning service and thought I had picked one where they spoke english but when the ladies showed up I learned that only the owner of the service speaks english. This book has been so very helpful, along with another book called "Your Housekeeping Source Book for the non-spanish speaking home owner." These two books have been invaluable to me. This book, household spanish, gives you the tools you need gramatically and word-wise to make sentences (simple ones) which is useful if you want to go beyond the very basics. It also has some helpful tips like putting labels on certain items etc. Great resource!

The course is great if you already have a little knowledge of conversational Spanish. I really learned a lot from it. The first CD goes through basic Spanish at a very rapid pace. I never studied Spanish in school. But I have previously gone through the entire Pimsleur Spanish courses, Levels 1,2,3, so I already know some very basic Spanish. This course is excellent if, like me, you have a little knowledge of Spanish to begin with. It's at a fast pace, and it adds lots of vocabulary relating to specific household duties that I didn't pick up in the Pimsleur courses. If you have no knowledge of Spanish, William Harvey has some other videos and CDs that would be good to review before tackling this one.

I speak a fair amount of Spanish, but I found this book to be VERY helpful at the specific terms one encounters with Spanish speaking household helpers. Many of the terms used with household staff are not covered in Spanish classes, so this book is a very easy to understand resource for the exact terms I need.

The book has two chapters with the basic spanish you need to know. The other chapters have content specific to cleaning, the kitchen, childcare, the yard and errands. It is a good addition to a non-credit course I am taking. The two basic chapters may be hard for someone with no spanish to take in without help. The information is compact as opposed to other books that would take the whole book to cover that information.

The other chapters deal with groups of vocabulary that you would use or see around you everyday which makes it easier to relate to. The chapters also include sections of action words, cultural tips, exercises, key phrases and words, and tips and hints. It is nice that each spanish word has a translation to show you how to correctly pronounce the word.

Best Spanish/English book of its kind. I'm recommending it for our local police department (where I work.)