Customer Reviews

Mierda!: The Real Spanish You Were Never Taught in School (Plume)

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

 

 

Firstly, I would like to summarize my credentials for writing such a harsh review: I am a quasi-native speaker of Spanish, having learnt the language at the age of five and lived a total of more than twenty years in six different Spanish-speaking countries. Furthermore, I am a federally certified court interpreter for Spanish and have become acquainted with the speech patterns of all Spanish-speaking countries without exception.

Now Ms. Berger clearly is unable to construct a correct sentence in Spanish. Much of her pseudo-Spanish is a crude translation from French and/or Italian. She does get some things right, but spoils it by failing to specify where such words and phrases are used. Cusswords are among the terms which most vary from country to country. A Spaniard curses completely differently from a Mexican or Argentine.

All in all, a waste of time and money.

This form does not allow a rating of NO STARS, so I had to give it one, even though it doesn't deserve it. For someone who really wants to learn "dirty" idioms in Spanish, Street Spanish (published by Wiley) is MUCH, MUCH better. Frances de Talavera, in Mierda, goes for shock value ONLY and many times gets things wrong. Street Spanish, on the other hand, focuses on many idioms which people actually use, plus it contains a section on how to avoid saying something embarassing (or unintentionally obscene).

...especially for gardening! Actually, I bought this book in college, and it's great! I am a teacher with lots of hispanic students, and it enabled me to understand what vile things they were calling me. I could then politely tell them (in Spanish)how their mothers would enjoy hearing our discussion. It was very effective. My high school age daughter thought it was the most fantastically funny book she had ever read, and is now majoring in Spanish in college. And no, mierda is NOT our favorite word.

I am not going to try to convince you that this book will teach you a lot of useful Spanish slang. As one reviewer pointed out a lot of the Spanish "cusswords" are so regional that much of the material may be useless. But if you study Spanish as much as I do there comes a time when you need a break from your studies and you simply want to be entertained. For learning Spanish entertainment I think the book is great. If you find this kind of stuff amusing I also recommend a set of tapes called Spanish for Adults Only : A Complete Course in Sexual Slang.

I thought this was a good book, BUT, I think everyone interested in buying it should know that it is not for beginners... which is cool for me, but not for the person I bought the book for. In order to follow this book, you have to already be familiar with pronunciation and verb usage and stuff. It is very helpful being that colloquialisms and cliche phrases aren't taught as often as they should be in most Spanish courses and textbooks (everyone should know how to say "pain in the neck" or "my back is killing me"), but this book has to be used as a supplement or "refresh" book.

I laughed all while I read this book (however my instructors did not think it as funny as I did!). This book was really helpful before I traveled. I did not use many of the words but I did hear them spoken and understood what the Spanish speakers were saying to, and about, me. It opened a new world, a sort of secret society. Not the kind of Spanish you are taught in your high school, but then nobody uses the kind of English we were taught either.

A lot of people try to avoid learning swear words in other languages. I don't understand why. These words are part of the language, and you shouldn't avoid them because they make you feel bad. Barry Farber and A.G. Hawke say in their books that you shoud avoid learning profanity in other languages. I say you should as long as you avoid SAYING them. Just KNOW them. I discuss this in my new book.


Brandon Simpson

This book was great! I have never laughed so hard when learning about Spanish. There were words and phrases that will definately come in handy. Even if you just want to speak in another language, so people can't understand you. It was wonderful! I got glances from Spanish people that wondered how in the world I knew what they were saying. I highly reccomend this book if you plan to go anywhere that Spanish is spoken.

I have NOT received it yet so I cannot rate this item. I am still waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting.

This is almost "hard-cord" street Spanish and if you are looking for help with basic language skills, look at other titles!