Customer Reviews

Streetwise Spanish : Speak and Understand Everyday Spanish

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There are a plethora of books purporting to deal with Spanish slang on the market; a surprisingly large number of them have come out in just the last few years. After having checked out many of them, I must say that this is far and away the best one that I have encountered to date.

One of the problems with dealing with colloquialisms in Spanish is that they differ so much from region to region. This book addresses this by setting the dialogues in different Hispanic countries, including (dare I say it?) that particularly large Hispanic country called the United States, specifically in California and Florida. The book then selects out the colloquialisms covered in the lesson and tells you what the equivalent terms are in other Hispanic countries.

Another problem with learning colloquialisms, and this is true in any language, is that they tend to vary considerably depending on the social type you're dealing with: students, business types, street people, etc. Not infrequently, the learner may have to deal with several different strata in the course of his or her travels, and so familiarity with several situations is called for. The different lessons, and lectures, in this book intentionally vary the milieu of the characters so that you get an even spread.

The book also has an abundance of cultural notes and asides, jokes, and situational items to polish up your skills. Among the features I enjoyed best was the essay on that famous Hispanic folk art, the "piropo", including examples of the genre, along with some snappy comebacks for women to use when encountering this phenomenon on the street.

So may study aids come out on Spanish every year that it's hard to single out the real winners. This book is definitely one of them, and regardless of your interest in the language you'll find your money well spent on this one. To top it all, it's a good read!

This book is the best birthday present I ever got from a friend...It is at once a GREAT read, with hilarious jokes, situations, and catroons sprinkeled throughout; and a solid educational resource...although you won't find it in your high school Spanish class. Also, it covers a wide spectrum of slang, from innocent proverbs to informal greetings to more risque or vulgar phrases. Which of course help you to be an informed global citizen, haha. When you think you're done learning all the words for one lesson, you can quiz yourself with the brief excercises at the end of each chapter!
But wait, there's more! Since Spanish is the official language of a dazzling 21 countries, this book also does a great job at pointing out and explaining regional differences. All in all, this book will teach you to greet, express a multitude of emotions, complain, respond to lewd comments, spout proverbs, and overall feel a lot more comfortable with your usage and understanding of everyday Spanish. With readings, excercises, vocab lists, fun, and a dictionary in the back, this book is your one-stop for picking up tons of casual Spanish as it is really spoken.

This book is a great buy. I bought it recently for my final stage of Spanish, slang. I have already mastered the grammer and much of the vocabulary, so this is the last thing. When I say slang, I do not exactly mean profanity. I am talking about idiomatic expressions. This book greatly helps you to sound like a native speaker. It has a dialogues, translations, vocabulary notes and lists, exercises, jokes and cartoons, and some culture notes. It also has reviews and answer keys, as well as a bilingual glossary. I appreciate its warning of how vulgar a word can be, and also its explanation on how different words are used in different Spanish-speaking countries. You can't get confused while using this book, because everything is so easy and clear. A very good choice to learning everyday Spanish.

i have been studying espanol for about 4 years now, and it seems like every book tell's you the same thing. i wanted a book that would tell me how to say "what's up!" not "how are you?" so I bought this. it was the best twenty bucks i ever invested. my boyfriend, who is mexican, was shocked when i started speaking not just fluent spanish, but common fluent spanish. a definite if you want to learn how to speak in a less formal manner. nothing stiff about the book at all.

I'm surprised more people haven't written a review of this book. In fact, I was reading a review of a similar book, "Street Spanish, Volume 1", and the reader who wrote the review stated that "Streetwise Spanish" is the best in this genre. I agree. I have been largely unimpressed with the Street Spanish series, which I have browsed through but never bought. I am proud to say I own a copy of "Streetwise Spanish". The editorial description posted here at Amazon is very thorough, describing all the features and instruction methods of this book, so I'll just add a brief commentary.

I think the dialogues in this book are great. They're based on a variety of everyday situations, which facilitates self-study. In the preface, the authors state that they chose the thematic approach because it helps readers retain new vocabulary words better. Dialogue-based instruction is nothing new, of course, but the problem with many textbooks is the exchanges are stilted, wooden -- and usually just plain lame. "Streetwise Spanish" provides a refreshing departure from the so-called conversations that many other books pass off as examples of language in action.

Besides the realistic dialogue, the book contains vignettes that focus on culture, traditions and literature of the Spanish-speaking world. The essays range from a primer on Spanish names to a primer on "palabrotas" (bad words) and their euphemisms. Another essay describes the preoccupation Chileans have with pigeonholing people into one social class or another, a practice that gives rise to a uniquely Chilean set of slang terms that defy translation. This book links language and culture so well that at times it reads more like National Geographic. BTW, there's also a companion volume, a dictionary/thesaurus. Both are well worth the money, but I've used the dialogue book a lot more.

"Streetwise Spanish" is entertaining and extremely informative. I've read it from cover to cover (well, if you don't count the glossary in the back, that is!) twice so far, and every chapter has at least one satisfying tidbit. You can't help but pasarlo bomba (have a blast). Who knew learning Spanish solo could be so much fun!

This is a book that the market has been waiting a long time for! As a Spanish professor I think that one can only take so many text books before craving some real "street" Spanish. My students hear Spanish alot outside of class and they often have questions about Slang. This is a great book for learning new vocabulary and colloquial expressions, but also, with the CD, it is awesome to have the opportunity to listen to native speakers from different countries engaged in conversation with notes about the various accents you're hearing. I highly recommend this book to any of my high intermediate and above students.

I bought this book to help "demystify" some of the alternate usage I was hearing in those interesting Argentine films I was watching. While I surmised that "vos sos" meant the same thing as "tu eres", this book actually verified that I was right! While it doesn't go into great depth about vos vs. tu, it does offer at least a basic idea of the alternate "vos" verb conjugations of the second person singular familiar form.

Most books I've studied simply mention the vos variation in a kind of "by the way" manner, as if nobody needs know more, because nobody will ever meet anybody from Uruguay or Argentina. This book is different! Personally I could use a little less vosotros and a little more vos information.

Lots of useful information about other regional variations in meaning and what NOT to say where. Handy "tests" at the end of each chapter plus "reviews" after every five chapters. ANSWERS at the back, so you can check whether or not you're actually learning anything.

Also includes appendix of "signature" words arranged by country from Argentina to Venezuela, AND a handy Spanish to English glossary of words and phrases that mean something other than the literal translation.

Humorous stories, anecdotes and cartoons keep the learning fun. Definitely a handy guide, presented in a simple enough format that even non-advanced "students" of Spanish can use. As confusing as some of these Spanish slang usages are, it makes one think of how much MORE confusing English slang must be to native Spanish speakers! Just think for a moment about the differences in American, British, Australian and Canadian (eh?) English, plus all the sub-dialects in each country and those Caribbean and South African versions. Not only different standard nouns, but alternate verb meanings, pronunciations, spellings, contractions and slang! I guess the old saying about Americans and British being two people separated by a common language really is true.

But, back to THIS BOOK. STREETWISE SPANISH really is useful. You'll learn a LOT! Easy to browse through randomly as well, no need to go from front to back. About the only question it didn't answer for me was, "What does 'guey' mean?" That word is still a mystery!

When someone "borrowed" my 1st edition, I was glad to be able to get an Audio CD with this second edition. But, the CD chapter exercises do not follow book exercises. The familiar exercises at the end of chapters is a nice touch, but I was disappointed that CD doesn't match up with these. The book itself is a good taste of Spanish slang from around the world. The book is especially good for the learner who has become bored with the usual textbook vocabulary from beginner's Spanish.

This book presents slang in a chapter by chapter format each with new topic, greetings, put-downs, love, etc. The format is concise not exhaustive, meaning you must reread bits and pieces at your own pace until you develop and understanding. Even if you don't memorize every phrase, by reading the chapters you get a feel for Spanish idioms and slang so later you are more aware that you are hearing/reading colliquial Spanish, even if the terms were not in the book. My difficulty with this book is that I hesitate to use the phrases until I've heard a native speaker ratify the authors advice. Whether that's the authors fault or my own, I still wouldn't use this as a focus of study, more of a supplement and reference guide.

This is James from James Spanish (the learning Spanish blog).
Most Spanish language courses focus on `proper' Spanish, relying on correct grammar rules and dictionary definitions to guide students on how to use the language to the highest standard.

However, when you listen to a native Spanish speaker you will rarely hear them talk like the people on your audio examples. They may talk faster and shorten words or miss some out altogether. Perhaps they use phrases that you can't find in your textbooks, and seem to use words in a strange context. This kind of every day use of language is known as `colloquial', and while it may not obey the correct rules, you might find that it is more useful to learn how people actually speak than how they are supposed to.

Most native speakers use colloquialisms, for example in English we shorten `do not' to `don't' and rather than saying `gasoline' we shorten it to `gas'. While these seem like obvious examples to a native English speaker, would similar differences in Spanish be obvious to you?

This is the beauty of Streetwise Spanish: Speak and Understand Colloquial Spanish.

The book covers common colloquial or slang terms, with exercises, vocabulary lists and examples to help you remember things.

Another useful feature of this book is that it differentiates between some of the most common differences in the various dialects of Spanish spoken around the world. From Mexico to Cuba to Spain, each country has its own peculiarities of how it speaks Spanish. This book reveals these, helping you to get a better grasp of the style of Spanish that you want to speak and understand.

As well as geographical differences in the language, the book also gives examples that might be used in a variety of social situations, from teenagers to business people. This is valuable for helping you to fit in with your peers when you are traveling or working in another country. What might seem professional to one person may seem old fashioned to another. Studying this book will help you to make the right impression.

As you might expect from a book that teaches unconventional Spanish, the text also includes plenty of light hearted stories, anecdotes and cartoons to help you get a real feel for the flavor of each Spanish speaking region. From folk art to chat up lines to jokes, all kinds of Spanish are covered.

Speak Spanish with confidence no matter where you are and never worry about your words having a second hidden meaning.

In closing my review of this product, I'd like to share with you the three Amazon products that I have found most helpful in my pursuit to learn Spanish. If you are truly serious about achieving fluency, I'd recommend getting all 3 of them if you can afford it.

1. Lights, Camera, Spanish (Book + DVD): Learn Conversational Spanish by Watching a Romantic Adventure This is actually a 90 minute movie for Spanish-language learners. It gives the option to watch the movie with subtitles but I'd recommend not using them to improve your Spanish. This "movie" also includes a workbook so that you can reinforce the Spanish vocabulary words and phrases from the film. The workbook also has lots of exercises to keep you engaged in the film. But be prepared to hear Chilean accents. Although pleasent to the ear, the accents from Chile are very different from most Latin American accents.

2. Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version) This software replaces the traditional verb conjugation books and makes learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an interactive and fun activity. This should be a required resource for anyone who wants to improve their ability to conjugate Spanish verbs. Especially anyone who is challenged by the drudgery of learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs and who is looking for a new way to make learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an easy and fun activity

3. Diccionario esencial de la lengua espanola de la Real Academia Espanola (Spanish Edition) If you are really serious about speaking the language fluently, then at some point you will need to replace your Spanish-English dictionary and get a pure Spanish dictionary with both the vocabulary words and the definitions entirely in Spanish. I use this one only because it was highly-recommended by a friend from Spain who teaches Spanish.