Just what I needed!!
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This is such a wonderful book. Having lived in Spain for for a few months I was still having problems with conjugation of verb, especially the past tense. It was just not sinking in!!
This book helped in clearing this up due to its infinite number of exercises, including the subjunctive. I was able to speak naturally without having to mentally conjugate verbs when in mid sentence.
I wish I had discovered this book when I first moved to spain.
Lucy Wilson, Spain
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Only useful for Spanish spoken in South America
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Whilst this book is interesting in its approach to learning Spanish, it is only of use if you are learning Spanish for South America. It totally ignores the tu and vosotros verb forms which are used in mainland Spain. It's a shame that the author/publisher doesn't explain this.
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Difficult to maintain interest
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I bought this book following the good reviews it's received here. However, despite many attempts to use it, I have found it just cannot maintain my interest. Most of the chapters have huge long lists of similar words and it's near impossible to stop yourself from just scanning quickly down these without really taking them in (at times it looks like a dictionary). You then get to the short exercises and the chapter is complete. Yet I felt I had learnt nothing.
I am also using the Michel Thomas method which is excellent, but this book which some have said is similar just doesn't work. Yes it follows a similar path, but it doesn't intergrate things together anywhere near as well. I am really enthused about learning Spanish and have given this book several goes, but it is just not for me and doesn't engage my brain in the same way Michel Thomas does.
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Broad brush strokes to make learning simple
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I've bought a number of books to learn Spanish but this is the one I have methodically worked through whilst I dip in and out of the others.
It paints broad brush strokes of words you already know and rules of thumb to help with the feeling of progress during the tougher initial days.
The list based approach reinforces learning by building and translating sentences on a slow but well pitched learning curve.The only downside of the book is that tu and vosotros forms aren't covered until the end - but this means that concentrating on the main 4 conjugated verb endings makes it easier to conjugate quicker by having to remember less. Tu is then pretty simple as you have a good grasp of Usted endings. Thoroughly recommended, especially for the price.
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Novel but overly-long approach to 'mexican' grammar
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This is basically a grammar book so you will need to look elsewhere for vocabulary and usage. I used this book in conjunction with other more readable grammar books such as Shaums Outline Grammar to help get me up to intermediate level.
Pros:
1. I like the idea of teaching verbs by starting with the Past Tense. It's so mush more useful and you can start constructing more meaningful conversations sooner.
2. There are a few chapters at the end that handle the subjunctive pretty well.
3. It is very example driven. There are plenty of exercises and practice with the answers available immediately so no leafing to the back of the book.
4. The price. It's worth having for £7.
Cons:
1. The layout is very cramped and dull. Surely it could have spruced up a bit to make it a bit more readable. There is no need for this book to be 450 pages long if the layout was improved and the book edited.
2. The book is overly verbose and there are far too similar many examples of conjugations. The examples are often overly simplistic. It should be enough to give the rules of conjugation for standard, stem changing and then the irregular verbs in each tense. Shaum's Outline Grammar manages to condense the same information into less than ten pages of an appendix!
3. There is a lack of everyday usage information for particular verbs.
4. This book teaches South American Spanish. If you are going to Spain after using this book you might get some funny looks. It sticks to Usted rigidly and omits the Tu conjugations. All the exercises and answers are in Latin American Spanish throughout. Examples include 'boletos' instead of' billetes',' tomar' instead of 'coger' (not that you would use 'coger' in Mexico!), 'estacionar el auto' instead of 'aparcar el coche' and so on.
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