111 of 112 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I am REALLY teaching myself Spanish using this book, March 4, 2003
This review is from: Practical Spanish Grammar: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides) (Paperback)
Alright, I have read all the reviews that precede mine and many of them mention the book's one major deficiency -- it has too many typos. Just one example: on page 145, the word "descubrir" ("to discover") is introduced for the first time, appearing there in the main vocabulary list of new words for Chapter 9, and it is misspelled "descrubrir", which is inexcusable. I suspected the misspelling but was not sure until I checked my dictionary and also saw the word spelled correctly in the exercises that followed. This sort of thing is unfortunate in an otherwise fine text.
That said, this book is excellent. I am learning Spanish using this book as my main text. I started studying Spanish using this book in November 2002 and have completed fourteen of its fifteen chapters. It's now the beginning of March 2003 and I am reading the news online in Spanish with almost total comprehension. I had no prior experience with Spanish.
"Practical Spanish Grammar" has many exercises in each chapter covering both vocabulary and grammar and also three major "quizzes" of a hundred questions each covering Chapters 1-5, 6-10, and 11-15. The answers to all exercises and quizzes are given in the back of the book. In my opinion, Professor Prado has done a great job of giving me just what I need (and no more or less) to master new words and new grammatical concepts. The material is presented in a manner that fixes those concepts in my head and reinforces them with the exercises that follow.
When I finish this book, I will start going through Prado's "Advanced Spanish Grammar", which recapitulates and elaborates in more depth upon almost everything presented in "Practical Spanish Grammar" and introduces new concepts besides. Plus, "Advanced Spanish Grammar" is written ENTIRELY in Spanish and, looking ahead, I have found that I already understand it.
Now, there is one more thing: if, like me, you are trying to teach yourself Spanish on your own, you will need more than this book alone. I have purchased a few bilingual books that have texts of Spanish stories on one page and the English translation on the facing page. I don't need to be constantly referring to my dictionary when I read Spanish this way, since the translation is on the facing page. It has been the combination of Prado's "Practical Spanish Grammar" with these bilingual "story books" that have helped me to make so much progress in such a short time, especially with idiomatic expressions and other vocabulary material not found in Prado's book.
Angel Flores' "First Spanish Reader" is the best place to start with these bilingual stories because it's very much designed for the beginner (although many of the stories are real sleepers). Her "Spanish Stories" book seems to be the follow-up; the Spanish is much more advanced and the stories much more interesting. Both of Flores' books have excellent glossaries. John King edited "New Penguin Parallel Texts: Short Stories in Spanish", whose stories are more contemporary in theme and idiom.
And finally, there is a lot of Spanish to be read online for free. You can read a bilingual newspaper (containing English and Spanish side-by-side) ... ("Dos Mundos" bilingual newspaper out of Kansas City).
I don't know Prado and I am not trying to sell anyone's books. I just know that, to my surprise, this approach is working for me and "Practical Spanish Grammar" has been the fulcrum for my efforts. I recommend it highly.
A proposito, in my opinion the paperback version of "The New World Spanish/English English/Spanish Dictionary" is easiest on the eyes and easiest to handle of the dictionaries I have used or examined. Buen viaje!
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40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A dream for some, a nightmare for others..., March 7, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Practical Spanish Grammar: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides) (Paperback)
If you are a visual, structured learner with the long-term goal of fluency, I can think of no better place to start than with PSG. The book is logically structured, comprehensive, and has linear-qualities hard to find in most texts. I probably knew ten words of Spanish when I bought this book and when I finished (five hard months later) I could get almost any point across.
I've found the language business to be a little like the gym business: "Rock hard abs in three minutes a day" is replaced by "Two months to fluency without memorization or conjugation." PSG takes the higher road, making it a serious learning tool ill-suited to the dilettante. Each chapter starts with as many as 100 vocabulary words that must be memorized before even getting into the dialog and grammar discussions. In addition, exercises (with answers in the back) must be completed at the end of each section. If you're willing to put in the time, though, this book will give you a rock-solid foundation in the language.
What bugged me? Prado's clear, concise explanations sometimes seemed a little too concise with regards to complicated subjects. The focus on S. American vs. Spanish dialects wavers constantly, exercises were sometimes lazily conceived, confusing typos and accidental repetition are common, and vocabulary is sometimes less than practical (though if you want to be a weight-loss guru or auto mechanic in Mexico, you'll be set.) Of course, there's also the issue of books teaching you to read and write a language as opposed to speaking it-but that's a limitation of the medium and not the author...
Humble suggestions for Mr. Prado. 1: Use this forum to post a hotmail address and invite people to email you with suggestions on unclear sections and editing errors (assuming you plan to write a 3rd edition of this excellent book.) 2: Bribe some of your Mexican-American students with extra credit to record the books vocabulary, dialogs, etc. and post the recordings to the CSU website in MP3 format.
Despite my nitpicking, this was, for me, the best learning tool available.
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38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good self teaching guide that needs better editing, November 14, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Practical Spanish Grammar: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides) (Paperback)
I bought this book so I could brush up on Spanish for use at work. I don't know how a complete novice would fare with it; I took several years of Spanish in high school (a long time ago) so I had some prior background in the language. The book is easy to use. The explanations of grammar are fairly clear but some of them could be less concise. I did have some difficulty with one or two points that were completely new to me. The vocabulary lists are mostly relevant for travelers but they do include some terminology related to business and health care. The main thing I do not like about the book is the poor editing. It has a LOT of typographical errors. This is particularly bad when a word in one of the vocabulary lists is spelled incorrectly (more than once for the same word!) Other minor problems are annoying. The exercise sections of the book include space for writing answers but the spaces are not large enough for normal writing. Many of the more advanced grammar exercises should be longer. It would be helpful if the author had recommended Spanish language reading materials appropriate for beginners and/or more reading exercises. Despite the deficient editing the book has been useful. I learned a lot.
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