Customer Reviews

Inglés hecho fácil

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought my first copy of Englis Hecho Facil because I work with Latinos, and each of them found it so fascinating I gave them the book and went out and bought another. This happened about six times, until I finally told them where they could buy their own copy. They have made great progress with their English and continue to ask me questions. This book comes highly recommended by Latinos. I visit Guatemala for 2 months each year and take my book with me.

Based on previous reviews, I expected a very easy to use resource that would work well for individual tutoring. Perhaps it's just me, but I have been using this book for one-on-one tutoring for several months now and find it somewhat difficult to navigate.

First, the book is written primarily for a Spanish speaker and although I can figure most of the explanations out as I go along, it still can make it difficult for an English speaker to teach using this text. It would be nice to find a book that would work equally well for a Spanish or English speaker.

Second, each sections starts with some type of theme story that presents several sentences in Spanish and English. My concern is that my student seems overwhelmed by so many new words and sentences. I know that this may help teach more conversational English, but I feel the vocabulary could be made more relevant to a new English speaker and the sentences presented after some new vocabulary had first been introduced.

Perhaps my biggest problem is that there isn't a clear index or table of contents that helps me figure out what skills are being taught in each section. It is not a very user friendly type book--it goes through the theme sections and presents concepts as it seems fit, but doesn't lend itself to finding a particular concept or jumping around within chapters.

I think this may very well be a fascinating book for Latinos and quite helpful in learning the English language, but I personally would not recommend it as the best way to go if you are tutoring someone. The material is not indexed particulary well and the sequencing and amount of information presented in each chapter does not lend itself to an effective one-on-one approach.

So please don't vote my review as unhelpful if you don't agree with my comments. I am just trying to offer my honest perspective from my personal experience...your mileage may vary!

In my opinion this is the best book available for Hispanics who want to learn English. I myself speak both English and Spanish and have taught English to Hispanics for 5-1/2 years. I am also a professional librarian. I have looked through large library ESL and Spanish/English language collections and have spent many hours at big-name bookstores looking for materials for my students. Nothing I saw is comparable to Inglés Hecho Fácil.

Naturally it's hard for me to say how helpful this book might be for a tutor who doesn't know Spanish, but I think it would be worthwhile trying to use it, if all your students are Spanish-speakers. It's in an entirely different class from all the other Spanish/English instructional materials I've ever seen. In fact, as far as I can tell, it's the only real Spanish/English text available in the US. (If you know of another, I'd love to hear about it!)

I understand the difficulty of the reviewer who criticized the indexing, and I grant that it's not easy to pick things out at a glance, but in fact, the Table of Contents does give a pretty thorough view of what is being presented. You just have to comb through it. For myself, after going through the book for so many years, I appreciate more and more the skill with which the material is developed. I also want to add that I agree with all of the positive points enumerated by an earlier reviewer, H.Zheng.

Qué lo aprovechen bien, amigos!

This book is great if you are teaching english to non-speakers, the pronounciation is there, the translation, easy words, all the basics for starters. Pronouns, verbs, adverbs all easy grammatical sentences with explanations for the use and most of the rules for changing the endings for plurals, explains the masculine and femine use of words as well. I teach adults the english language and have bought this book to help me help them and as it turns out the students have liked it so much I have had to keep reordering for them to have one of their own.

I have been using this book in multiple English classes for the last six months. Based on my experience, it is a competent beginner's text. I suggest the author update it and correct the typos. There are a few rough translations in both directions and the emphasis is too much on Mexican-Spanish. Nevertheless, I like using it and my students are learning quickly. It would be helpful if there was a cassette or CD to go along.

We ordered this item used because it was described as being in excellent condition. What we discovered when we received it was that every page had been written on, the back was broken down and pages were beginning to fall out. I wouldn't describe that as "excellent" condition.
I would have thought that an item described as "excellent" would have shown some evidence of having been used but would have been clean and not damaged or extensively written in.

great book! makes learning english easy. the fact that it has the english and spanish meaning side by side, makes learning way easier. for someone that has never read any english, the pronunciation will be much easier with this book because it has a pronunciation guide underneath the words.
highly recommend this book!

Inglés hecho fácil is the best book ever written for Spanish speakers learning English. I taught myself Spanish with the sister volume, Spanish Made Easy. The two books follow the same language learning methodology. The vocabulary and grammar is embedded in the the succeeding chapters of a captivating story. It is very easy to master basic English vocabulary and grammar when it is presented in this interesting manner.

I have used this workbook for two years to teach English to my adult neighbors here in Panama. The book uses modern life concepts to teach relevant business and daily life English. It is easy to use and does not get bogged down in arcane grammarian discussions. We have plenty of material to discuss after each dialog and we use the exercises as practice and for review. It suits us well. I will continue to use it for any student that has a smattering of English and little language structure.

I got this for a Hispanic friend who now lives in the U.S. but speaks very little English. I was looking for a book which was easy to follow and especially designed for native Spanish speakers. After comparing all the similar books, I selected this one because of the following:

- it has explanations in spanish, and useful phrases and vocabulary in both English and Spanish side-by-side, perfect for those who don't know very little English

- it has a very good coverage of grammar, phrases, and vocabularyit's not just a phrasebook. It also covers the grammar, just in a more learn-as-you-go way.

- unlike some books which assumes you will be a tourist and teaches you just the "survival phrases", it covers more everyday vocabulary and phrases that you can really use

- the layout of each page is simple and not cluttered, making it easy to follow and not intimidating

- it starts out by comparing the English words that are very similar to Spanish, giving the reader confidence to go on and learn more

- the phrases and new words are given in small portions, so that it's not very over whelming to the reader

- Spanish translation of the English phrases are side-by-side