Laugh 'n' Learn Spanish : Featuring the #1 Comic Strip "For Better or For Worse" [Paperback]

Lynn Johnston (Author), Brenda Wegmann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2003

Pictures and humor help readers build their Spanish language skills

To its millions of fans, the Pattersons are just like their own families, facing universal issues among daily concerns. Containing a selection of 100 syndicated Spanish-language versions of the strip that is widely read in Latin America, Laugh 'n' Learn Spanish provides an entertaining and effective way to expand and polish conversational skills in Spanish.

Readers learn by understanding and learning natural, everyday verbal interactions at home and about town, following John and Ell Patterson as they attempt to come to terms with middle age; daughter Elizabeth as she spreads her wings and goes off to college; son Michael dating and then marrying his childhood sweetheart, Deanna; daughter April as she rebels against discipline, anther grandpa who finds a second love in the autumn of his life. Each strip is graded by difficulty--Beginning, Moderate, or Challenging--and is accompanied by:

• Glosses that translate difficult vocabulary
• Usage notes to build proficiency
• A summarizing activity that tests comprehension
• Additional exercises for key idioms and word patterns appear at the end of each section

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The most popular, most-read comic strip in North America is now the most fun way to learn Spanish!

Learning a language should be fun! So sit back, laugh, and learn Spanish by following the antics of the Patterson family in Lynn Johnston's hugely popular comic strip "For Better or For Worse." Now featured weekly in several Latin American Spanish-language newspapers, these cartoons will have you laughing your way through your lessons as you expand your vocabulary, comprehension, and conversational skills.

To help you focus on the learning level with which you are most comfortable, Laugh 'n' Learn Spanish is divided into three sections: beginning, moderate, and challenging Through the comic strips and their universal themes of family values in a modern world, you'll learn how to talk in Spanish about everyday things: making demands and requests, expressing hope and plans for the future, discussing household chores, going shopping, asking for types of food, exploring relationships, and so on. The engaging storylines offer a strong incentive to keep reading and learning.

Using laughter to break through the language barrier, Laugh 'n' Learn Spanish features:

• Vocabulary notes that translate difficult or new Spanish vocabulary
• Language notes that provide guidance on correct usage
• Entertaining, picture-based review questions that test your grasp of vocabulary and commonly used structures
• Plus the original English text for the cartoon strips, should you need to check your understanding

About the Author

Lynn Johnston is the creator of the comic strip "For Better or For Worse," which is distributed by United Feature Syndicate. It appears in more than two-thousand newspapers worldwide, in twenty countries, and in eight languages, reaching 220 million readers every day. In the twenty-four years since it was developed, there have been thirty books of cartoons published.

Brenda Wegmann is an experienced teacher and author of ESL and Spanish-language textbooks and instructional guides; she also teaches at Edmonton Community College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (December 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007141519X
• ISBN-13: 978-0071415194
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #97 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Spanish

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, March 10, 2004

By 

Elmonica (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Laugh 'n' Learn Spanish : Featuring the #1 Comic Strip "For Better or For Worse" (Paperback)

Most self-study workbooks I buy are tedious but this one is fun and surprisingly informative. The right side of the page has the cartoon in spanish and the left side has the analysis of the sentences used in the cartoon. The analysis actually does more than just interpret words but gives helpful grammar pointers. The cartoons are divided into beginning, moderate and advanced levels.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Work of its Type, August 17, 2005

By 

Gregory Paul Adkins "Stickler" (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Laugh 'n' Learn Spanish : Featuring the #1 Comic Strip "For Better or For Worse" (Paperback)

I bought two copies, one for me and the other my my teacher. When we are fed up with the copreterito tense we turn to this for relief. What a Godsend!

It is funny and easy to use. We cover the cartoon on the right and read the discussion of key word and grammar on the left. Then we wade into the cartoon. It is remarkable how often the day's cartoon reinforces the day's lesson.

The only problem is we are running out of book much too soon. They need to publish a follow-up. I would buy a whole set of these.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for intermediate learners!, January 21, 2006

By 

Senora Gose (Bryan, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Laugh 'n' Learn Spanish : Featuring the #1 Comic Strip "For Better or For Worse" (Paperback)

As a teacher, I recommend this book as a review to my Spanish 2 and 3 students -it's a novel approach, which goes a LONG way in motivating the junior high age and up.

It's staying power is a little lacking - it doesn't have the BEST methodology as far as what order we should learn in, but as a review, it's fantastic. Very thorough explanations, good vocabulary lists, and even a few exercises! Great for anyone over twelve, as long as they had a teacher or tutor to help them along, I would think.

Update (Feb 19, 2008) - I'm now teaching an advanced conversation course for 9 to 13 year olds with this text as the main resource. Each child read through the comics, makes flashcards and studies the words, and then we change the comics to say something different. To practice more practical nouns, the students label the items shown in the backgrounds. I like the review pages, and I often assign reading the explanations as an "extra" for my older children. They are not ready for full fledged grammar yet, but this is a great intro, and will cause them to just zoom through it when they get to State Accredited High School Spanish.

All in all, I'm still very pleased, I really enjoy that the authors took the time to give several different uses of words - as in "this phrase is more common in Mexico... this one is more common in Spain." Very helpful, as it cuts down on my students' confusion when they're studying on their own.

Sra. Gose

Author of Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 1 & Spanish Fun Activity Calendar