Easy Spanish Reader
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This book has been a real help to me as I have started to learn spanish. You do need basics in the language before you start. I have been using the Michel Thomas C.D.s alongside the Spanish Reader. So far I've only read the first of the three sections about two fourth-year students, at high school in America. It's not so much 'easy' but challenging (as I have a shocking memory). At first I used the really helpful dictionary at the back of the book, and scribbled in a few words in English. However, now I'm reading it again and finding it much easier! Can't wait to get my teeth into the rest of it now. If your searching for a way of really pushing your spanish along - then this is it!
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A great way to help yourself learn Spanish
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I'm half-way through this book, really enjoying using it and already wishing there was a follow up that I could move onto. I'm using it alongside the Michelle Thomas audio tapes and they are working really well together. I could read this book and understand the first few pages straight away and as I progress with the tapes they help me to understand the different verb tenses that appear later in the book. I think I would struggle with tenses if I was just reading the book by itself. I can't always be bothered to listen to the tapes or speak Spanish or write something down or any of the other things I know I should be doing to learn the language but I pick this book up and read a bit pretty much everyday and it always feels like something I want to do rather than should do.
I don't think it's that the stories are particularly interesting. It just feels great to be able to understand a foreign language for the first time in my life.
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Potter here I come
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If you learn through reading then this book is a good way of getting into Spanish. The progression is not too fast and the written pieces help learning by using simple to recognise scenarios. I had a dictionary and the Hugo Spanish in 3 Months book handy because the grammar is a bit tricky, but I have found the book an enjoyable read particularly the second section where there are some unusual words.
If you want to learn conversational Spanish then this is perhaps not the best for you. But my goal is to read Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (Spanish version) so this book is helping.
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on the road to Spanish (linguistic) success!¬
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This book (though American - sorry) is an excellent way to encourage even a total learner to progress through varying levels of Spanish knowledge and grammar at a nice steady and easily asorbable rate.
The first part of the book deals with two American college students and their activities at college, home and with friends.
The activities at the end of each short readinig section reinforce knowledge imparted by the simple method of written repetition - without being boring.
The 2nd part of the book goes on to give a simplistic outline of the Spanish-associated histories of South Amercian/Mexico whilst improving the knowledge of the reader.
again the actitivies depend on repetition or additional perusal of any specific test to ensure that progress continues to be achieved.
The third part of the book - the most charming and comical - is loosely based on the Life of Lazarillo de Tormes - the 14th century story of a low born, (lovable) rogue and his trials and tributations in life working (or not) for a wide range of odd masters. Lazarillo finally achieves importance as a towncrier and conssiders himself an 'honorable man' by the end of the book. This section not only teaches word and verb usage but also different sentence structures and, in addition, also gives a very gentle introduction to Spanish Literature (where the original story of Lazarillo means the keen student will spend much time investating interesting archair Spanish usage.
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Very good, well written and interesting!
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Easy Spanish reader.
To make it clear I think that you should be learning Spanish in a classroom environment, before you start to read this book, otherwise you won't have a clue of what is going on.
It doesn't give word for word translations or even give explainations of the grammatical structures or verb tenses that are being used. What it does give, is the occasional word translation for trickier words, so you don't have to keep referring to a dictionary and at the end of each chapter, some questions for you to answer in Spanish.
The book is split into 3 sections, each one progressively more advanced, the first one is very Peter and Janeish, ie not very interesting but essential revision of basic Spanish (by the end of which you'll have read every verb tense), the second section is a fascinating and quite comprehensive history of Mexico and the third an abridged adaptation of Lazarillo de Tormes.
One thing to note is that this is an American book, so the language is therefore American Spanish, however I can't remember seeing any major differences through the book.If you have a basic understanding of Spanish, and are hoping to further yourself I recommend this book.
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