Street Spanish 1: The Best of Spanish Slang (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

If a native Spanish speaker were to tell you that the pez gordo (fat fish) met a merengue (meringue) with lots of pasta (noodles) who is going to become his media naranja (half an orange), you may not know whether to offer your condolences or your congratulations — that is, unless you’ve read this first book in David Burke’s Street Spanish series. Street Spanish 1 lets you quickly become an insider by presenting some of the most popular slang terms used throughout the many Spanish-speaking countries. With the help of entertaining dialogues, word games and drills, crossword puzzles, and word searches, you’ll finally be able to understand the everyday language used on the street, in homes, offices, stores, and among family and friends.

Language Notes

Text: English, Spanish

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (October 9, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471179701
• ISBN-13: 978-0471179702
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #113,352 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #15 in	Books > Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > English as a Foreign Language > Slang & Idioms
  #27 in	Books > Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > English as a Foreign Language > Pronunciation & Conversational English
  #51 in	Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Slang & Idioms

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad Intro to Spanish Slang, February 17, 2003

By	Thomas F. Ogara (Jacksonville, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've owned and used this book for a couple of years, and while it is worth the read, if you need to buy one book of this sort I would go with "Streetwise Spanish" by Mary Gill and Brenda Wegmann. While the format of both books is surprisingly similar, I think that "Streetwise" covers more turf, and does it more entertainingly, than "Street Spanish."

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book on Spanish slang, February 17, 2001

By	John Moore (St. Michael, BARBADOS, Caribbean) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Street Spanish 1 is the best book I have come across on Spanish slang. It provides a wide range of phrases and terms not generally found elsewhere, but which a native speaker would normally use when talking to friends or family, or which often crop up in movies and books. In other words, it teaches the real Spanish that is needed to promote a better understanding when conversing with or listening to native speakers.

The dialogues are made up of the most popular slang expressions that are used in various Hispanic countries, allowing their usage to be observed in context while on the facing pages an English translation is provided for easy reference.

The vocabulary section that comes at the end of every dialogue focuses on each slang term and explains its usage even further by means of additional examples, while synonyms, antonyms and variations used in different countries are included to ensure that a thorough grasp of each term is reached. To gain that extra edge, this book is highly recommended for travellers and students alike.

(Having the cassettes, which are not part of the package, would be an added bonus since you would hear the dialogues being spoken by natives of Mexico, Argentina, Peru, and Spain, providing a better feel for the language, its speech patterns and the varying pronunciations).

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not your best bet, September 23, 2004

By	El Gallo (Mexico) - See all my reviews

This is a very mediocre slang book, typical of so many that are written from dictionaries instead of real living experience. Half the words are not slang at all...just examining the pages available for free look you see stuff like tropece, nena, platicar that are ordinary speech. No depth, nothing you don't learn in your SPanish class in Iowa.
Additionally, the Spanish itself is faulty---for instance, donanadie instead of dona nadie with tilda over the n in dona.
Not so hot. Better than that "Forbidden" and "Taboo" crap, but really....not for the serious speaker.