Spanish at a Glance: Phrase Book & Dictionary for Travelers (Barron's Languages at a Glance Series) (Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

Heywood Wald (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Spanish

Product Details

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: Barrons Educational Series Inc; 2nd edition (August 1992)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 0812013980
• ISBN-13: 978-0812013986
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 3.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #502,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly useful little book, December 22, 2003

By 

magellan (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spanish at a Glance: Phrase Book & Dictionary for Travelers (Barron's Languages at a Glance Series) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

This is a great little Spanish phrase and vocabulary book that is much more useful than I at first thought. In addition to the other features, they do one thing that really makes this a nice little resource. Each chapter contains useful phrases such as "Would you please give me _____," with a blank at the end of the phrase, and below it are the other words or phrases you can plug in. Or to give another example: "I would like to make a reservation ______," and below it are the words "for tonight," "for tomorrow evening," "at 9 pm," "for two persons," and so on. This gives you the applicable phrase and some other possiblities to "plug-in," and after that you can make up your own from your own knowledge, now that you know how to construct the key phrase.

The book is organized into chapters devoted to specific situations, subjects, and needs, using dynamic and realistic phrases and dialog in the now well-known Berlitz approach, developed by the great Maximilian Berlitz in the mid to late 19th century as an improvement over the traditional rote learning of languages. There are over 1500 useful phrases and over 2000 vocabulary words. The author gives travel and cultural notes for Spain, Mexico, and other Spanish-speaking countries. Chapters are color-coded and are organized by activity, as I mentioned, such as Food and Drink, Going Shopping, Small Talk, Accidents and Repairs, Dating and Socializing, etc. Each of these has a number of subcategories. For example, the section on Entertainment and Diversions has Passive Sports, Active Sports, and under Active Sports has the further subsections of On the Slopes, At the Beach/Pool, Sports Equipment, Camping, On the Links, Tennis, and so on.

At the end there is a basic grammar of Spanish in the appendix and a Spanish/English dictionary. Considering the book is only 7 bucks and is over 300 pages long, it's a great value for the amount of information you get.It's small size makes it easily portable and it has a nice protective plastic slipcase, and even the paper is nice, glossy, high-quality paper which is rare in paperbacks these days. Finally, there are maps of Madrid, Barcelona, and Mexico City on the front and back inside covers. I just keep it in my car to read during spare moments to improve my vocabulary. This is a great book to improve your Spanish for specific situations and subjects and as someone else said, combined with a tape course and a Spanish grammar makes an even more valuable addition to your Spanish learning library.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very useful book for travel to Spain, May 29, 2000

By 

Happy Camper (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spanish at a Glance: Phrase Book & Dictionary for Travelers (Barron's Languages at a Glance Series) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

I purchased this book before a study trip to Spain. Its organization by topics ("Eating Out", "At the Post Office", etc.) was great for quick reference. It includes the basics along with some idioms and colloquialisms which I would have been totally lost without. Of all the dictionaries and Spanish reference books I have, this is certainly the most useful for travel and quick reference. I highly recommend it for travelers and students.