Customer Reviews

Spanish for Beginner's (Passport's Language Guides)

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Isn't is amazing how fast the children learn a language when it takes adults forever to master even the basic words/verbs?
I think the reason is that we, the adults, try to buy a language more than we try to learn it. For us, the most expensive course is also the most effective. For example, I tried the "coveted" Living Language" course for learning Spanish for 3 months before I realized that the best way to learn a language is the Kids' way. To learn you don't read a language, you live it, you speak it, you hear it, you even think in it! That's how I learned English. That's how I am learning Spanish.
And this is where this book comes in. Instead of those boring 300 pages books, Spanish for Beginners, familiarizes you with common words and phrases in few short lessons. The comical illustrations help new words stick to your mind. Within a week you can start speaking and constructing basic sentences. It will prepare you for that trip to Macchu-Picchu in Peru or Cancun in Mexico.
The book teaches how to ask for (and tell) directions, dates, numbers, about family etc.
This is all you need to get started! If you want to learn more, you can go for a comprehensive course (many available for free online) like Living Language.
Before you start, remember the following rules for learning any language:

1) There are only a few words/verbs (100 - 150) you need to learn to get started (this book will help you with that)
2) The trick to learning any language is to learn the rules of grammar. So spend some time (1 -2 weeks) on this.
3) The most challenging part of learning Spanish is to understand the verb forms so spend around a week on that.

If you start with this book and spend a few hours (2 - 3) every day, you can start communicating with your Spanish friends within 5 weeks, gauranteed.
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I have started a journal (http://www.livejournal.com/users/aquiyahora/) to track my progress in Spanish. Feel free to view it and provide comments and ask questions. I am sure it will help and motivate you.

I am an adult and tried 4 or 5 programs and this one is the best one. It is very helpful in beginning to learn spanish.

For beginning Spanish speakers, this book is very helpful. It presents spoken Spanish in context, with some grammar explanation, and then with practice of the target area. Students find it interesting to use, it is humorous and easy to turn into practice, either with Spanish speakers from the community, with each other in the classroom, or for traveling in Spanish speaking countries.

If you intend to travel, live or work with 'Hispanohablantes' this is a resource that will give you a good beginning with the ability to build on what you learn!

¡Buena suerte!

Thank you for publishing the, usborne language guides for beginners books and audio series. I am excited about learning other languages and have chosen the spanish for beginners as my stepping stone to success. We have found the contents though simple and basic to be useful which once understood and practised would provide the fundamental foundation needed.However there is one thing I would like to bring to your attention, and that is the ladies voice on the audio cassette is hardly audible, hampering our ability to gain the maximum satisfaction from this otherwise good product. My prayer is that the information provided will be of assistance to you.

Each two page spread covers a language topic. They are the typical ones such as introductions, at the store, in the house and so on. The presentation distinguishes this book from the others. Much more information is covered for each subject and the cartoon drawings are lively and help to show how common phrases are used. While targeted to a younger audience, teens & adults will appreciate the easy style (although they may not want to show off that they're reading it). I found that more information was covered for each topic than is typically presented for beginner language texts, which allows the student to become familiar with more ways of saying things. The student does not need to know how to say them all, of course, but the awareness certainly builds confidence.

Perfect complementary resource for Spanish levels 101 through 202, or Spanish 1-3 or 4 in middle school/high school grades.

This is a great book for beginners, it's great for children as well as adults. Very helpful, the pictures are colorful and it's not confusing just gives the basics. I'm using it with my preschooler son he's learning Spanish and I don't speak Spanish so the book helps me with helping him!