Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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

It's an entertaining read and the book is filled with lots of practical words and idioms and of course the illustrations provide lots of context.

It's not just a bunch of cartoons with English translations. A lot of thought and care went into this book. There is plenty of description and explanation and the the cartoons themselves are arranged in order of simplest to most complex. A great book for anyone looking for a fun supplement to their Spanish learning. Highly recommended.

Que divertida! What a fun way to learn Spanish! Tying the phrases with the drawings really helps to remember the language. The explanations are helpful, with lots of examples. Starts off easy and works up to the subjunctive. For Better or for Worse is a great comic strip, my favorite so it was a great way for me to practice and laugh and learn.

This is absolutely one of my favorite learning and practicing Spanish books. The colorful book is very easy to read and intelligently organized. Though the humor makes the learning more fun, the real life conversations with extremely thorough explanations of idiomatic expressions are truly the outstanding feature. Wonderful!
It has beginner, intermediate, and advanced (includes subjuctive) sections with concise, relevant grammar instruction before each section. The text within each cartoon is mostly first person but the descriptive text about the cartoon is third person so you get very good point-of-view and conjugation practice. All translations are in the book so a dictionary is rarely needed.
Read it through once for awareness then challenge yourself to study it the second time through to know the idioms and expressions well enough to use yourself. After a few days, try going back to a previous lesson and translate the English text into Spanish! Great practice!
The only thing missing is an audio CD.
Me encanta este libro. Ojala que Lynn haga un segundo libro!

You need to have a basic knowledge of Spanish to really get the most out of this book. However, if you have that, this book goes a long ways towards solidifing all those grammar rules and verb conjugation that you've been grappling with. The best thing about the book is that it's just plain fun to read. You're learning Spanish, but it feels like you're just kicking back and reading the funnies.

This is a fun book for learning spanish. The comics make it easier to remember different phrases. I recommend this book for anyone trying to learn spanish.

I bought this book to teach some Spanish to my classmates and they loved it because it is not boring. Besides, it is simple and what you learn is what people use in daily conversations. Also, One of my friends who is learning Spanish bought it and it is impresive how much she has learned with this book. Yo recomiendo este libro para personas que quieren aprender hablar Espanol. Es una excelente inversion.

A gift from my youngest daughter. I love it. it makes learning fun. it challenges you and entertains you. a fun way to learn.