Customer Reviews

Spanish Now! Level 1 with CDs

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

One has to wonder if the other reviewers either didn't actually use this book or if they work for Barron's because this book is a very sloppy effort and should be an embarrassment to Barron's, especially the chief editor, Nathan Quinones. To begin with, anyone using previous editions of this book will notice that almost all of the errors remain in the book. Misspelling, misplaced accents, they're all still exactly where they were in previous editions of this book.

The CDs are especially a disappointment. Only 14 of the 31 chapters are recorded and do not have the conversational exercises in Part Four (the CD's are far from being filled to their 80 minute capacity). The story introductions are not recorded on the CDs, just the story dialogues, and Lesson 3 was omitted altogether. Additionally, the stories are not translated in the answer portion of the manual which significantly reduces the value of this book for self-study.

Nevertheless, with a good classroom instructor to guide the student through this book's many landmines, it can serve as a decent introduction to Spanish but lacks the perfection necessary to serve as a self-study book.

This is a great textbook for classroom use. I use this book for teaching small adult classes and have found it to be very helpful. This new edition has the added benefit of having the teacher's manual included.

!!!THIS TEXTBOOK SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR TEACHING YOURSELF!!!

This book is designed for someone who has a firm grasp on the language and is either going to teach, be in an insructed class, or is needing a basic review.

If you are looking for a book that is suited for self-instruction, then I recommend "Spanish the Easy Way" (ISBN: 0764119745) by the same publisher. This is essentially the same book but it is presented in a simpler, easier to understand method.

This book deserves 6 stars!!

I have used this text for ages 12 through college aged students to fulfill State Requirements for Spanish One through Spanish "one and a half" - it really goes beyond just Spanish One.

The best thing is that each lesson is begun with a story and picture. Many of them are short skits or plays, and so engage the student in a way that other Spanish textbooks do not. The grammar lessons and exercises are well put-together, though may require a teacher to help truly explain the more detailed points. If you're worried about pronunciation, there is a CD or tape set, I believe, but I have never used it.

There are vocabulary exercises in the back as well as Culture Units. A VERY thorough book, WELL worth the money in a textbook and workbook combination. I love books that are designed to be written in!

For the younger child, this is too advanced and moves too quickly - there are between 30 and 50 words per lesson to memorize.

Sra. Gose
Author of Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 1 & Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 2

I have been using this book and find the format helpful. However, I have come across numerous errors/typos, which can be confusing for a beginning language student. Additionally, the CDs included with the book do not match the lessons. It is almost as if the CDs were made for an earlier edition and never updated.

I bought this book before leaving to spend a year in Latin America. I wanted to hit the ground running with my Spanish, so I did many of the exercises before leaving.

The good: For twenty bucks, you get nearly 500 pages worth of study material. There is a good mix of rules explanations, reading passages, pictures, puzzles, and lots and lots of drills. The latter can get mind numbing but in the end is necessary to absorb the stuff. I found that if you plow the material diligently, and combine this book with a good, cheap spanish learning audio CD (like living language), you can really get a lot for your money.The version (though it was the seventh edition) I bought did not have its own audio CD, so I cannot speak to it.

The negatives: I agree with the poster who called the editing of the book sloppy. There is an irritating lack of attention-to-detail, including typos, sentence drills on phrases, though grammatically correct, would never be said by any real person. Worst of all, some words are introduced in questions before they are ever covered in the material!!! It seems like no one ever gave this book a thorough, cover to cover read for continuity and flow.

Even with all of these negatives, I am happy with the purchase. It really has allowed to me to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. It is a good value purchase, but not without its flaws.

I personally like both the book and the CD very much.
I bought the book only first. Then I found it was very interesting with its stories in each lesson, combined with graded vocabulary and grammar. Those features encouraged me to put more time on studying Spanish. I felt that I need the CD to listen while driving, so I bought a book and CD package lately.
English is my second language, and I considered Spanish to be my third language.
Self studying with this book&CD is not difficult to me. I made a lot of progress in just a couple of months. The CD and the book actually shared 50/50% in helping me to study Spanish.

I have been using this book but because I am not fluent in Spanish and the book has so many mistakes in spelling, grammar, etc. it is not appropriate for those who don't have a basic comprehension of the new language. I find the book to be very disappointing.

This is one of the books that we use with our students. It is simple and uncluttered, and provides ample opportunity for homework or self-study.

This is a comprehensive text for anyone learning spanish. It moves from the basics onto the more difficult verb tenses. Easy to use format, interesting stories, and lots of practice exercises will force you to work at it. Be warned the CDs do not cover the entire book, however. But they are good to listen to especially as learning to hear spanish and comprehend seems to be the hardest part.

This is a good textbook for learning the basics of spanish...but I wish I would have bought the version with audio CD. So make sure you do that, and you will be all set.