Rating: 
Summary: My first Spanish book
Review: I have familiarity with several languages but just started studying Spanish about 6 months ago. This was the first book I bought. I agree that this is not sufficient by itself. It has a lot of good side bar information as well as dialogues and highlights of important words. However, I found that it also has a lot of items that are inappropriate for the level that is being taught. A simple example is the first verb taught is "trabajar"- to work. A much simpler one could be used when you are learning pronunciation/conjugation. Also dialogues used past and future tenses which are not even taught in this book (they are listed with the verb conjugations). Now that I have more knowledge, I am going back and reading it again and am getting a lot more out of it. I would pick a simpler book for my first one were I to do it again-- but not a phrase book. Another aspect of this book is that it has a lot of sections like "at the marketplace". Those are words less well known and not really that helpful or essential at this stage of my progression. There are a lot more valuable words to be learned first. I have also studied tapes like Pimsleur at the same time and it was excellent on continuous building one block at a time. I also found that often when I tried to look up a word in the included dictionary, it wasn't there, so a separate one is really required.
Rating:
Summary: My first Spanish book
Review: I have familiarity with several languages but just started studying Spanish about 6 months ago. This was the first book I bought. I agree that this is not sufficient by itself. It has a lot of good side bar information as well as dialogues and highlights of important words. However, I found that it also has a lot of items that are inappropriate for the level that is being taught. A simple example is the first verb taught is "trabajar"- to work. A much simpler one could be used when you are learning pronunciation/conjugation. Also dialogues used past and future tenses which are not even taught in this book (they are listed with the verb conjugations). Now that I have more knowledge, I am going back and reading it again and am getting a lot more out of it. I would pick a simpler book for my first one were I to do it again-- but not a phrase book. Another aspect of this book is that it has a lot of sections like "at the marketplace". Those are words less well known and not really that helpful or essential at this stage of my progression. There are a lot more valuable words to be learned first. I have also studied tapes like Pimsleur at the same time and it was excellent on continuous building one block at a time. I also found that often when I tried to look up a word in the included dictionary, it wasn't there, so a separate one is really required.
Rating: 
Summary: Prety good book!
Review: I like this book. A lot. It's one of my favorites for learning and reviewing bite sized pieces of Spanish. I agree with the reviewer who said that it should not be used alone. Actually, what I am finding after trying to learn Spanish for business for about a year, is that there is NO single resource that can be used alone. I travel a lot on business to various Spanish speaking countries and this is the book that I take along most often. It deserves a place in your Spanish-learning library. My experience has been that to learn Spanish on your own, you need books, tapes, dictionaries, videos, Spanish TV, newspapers, PLUS you have to practice, practice, practice with native speakers. Every type of resource you can think of. If you want to learn quickly, move to a Spanish speaking country for a year and devote the year to learning Spanish. Otherwise, it will require persistence and patience.
Rating:
Summary: Prety good book!
Review: I like this book. A lot. It's one of my favorites for learning and reviewing bite sized pieces of Spanish. I agree with the reviewer who said that it should not be used alone. Actually, what I am finding after trying to learn Spanish for business for about a year, is that there is NO single resource that can be used alone. I travel a lot on business to various Spanish speaking countries and this is the book that I take along most often. It deserves a place in your Spanish-learning library. My experience has been that to learn Spanish on your own, you need books, tapes, dictionaries, videos, Spanish TV, newspapers, PLUS you have to practice, practice, practice with native speakers. Every type of resource you can think of. If you want to learn quickly, move to a Spanish speaking country for a year and devote the year to learning Spanish. Otherwise, it will require persistence and patience.
Rating:
Summary: Good for beginners
Review: I liked this book. It was useful and easy to read. I recommend it. You could learn basic Spanish grammar and words. However, I would buy it used. It's not very in-depth as it could be. Still, a good book!
Rating: 
Summary: This is the best Spanish book I found for my purposes
Review: I never took spanish classes and wanted to learn on my own as I have a boring job but with lots of spanish speaking customers. I looked in the ... and...bookstore near us through all their books and this one was the best for my learning abilities. The #1 reason is that throughout the book it breaks down the pronounciation of each new and old word it gives you, without having to keep refering to rules in the beginning of the book. #2 it seems to have a logical lesson plan that I can follow easily, and not just touristy type lessons as I don't really plan on just asking where the hotel is, but need a practical more rounded learning experience.
Rating:
Summary: This is the best Spanish book I found for my purposes
Review: I never took spanish classes and wanted to learn on my own as I have a boring job but with lots of spanish speaking customers. I looked in the ... and...bookstore near us through all their books and this one was the best for my learning abilities. The #1 reason is that throughout the book it breaks down the pronounciation of each new and old word it gives you, without having to keep refering to rules in the beginning of the book. #2 it seems to have a logical lesson plan that I can follow easily, and not just touristy type lessons as I don't really plan on just asking where the hotel is, but need a practical more rounded learning experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Useless
Review: I now have about 10 different books, tapes, and CDs for learning Spanish. I bounce back and forth among them as each has stengths and weaknesses. Except for the this pretty useless Idiot's book, which is too heavy to be a phrase book and too light weight to actually teach you anything. Fortunately, I only checked this out of the library rather than wasting money on it. On the positive side, you can listen to and repeat the phrases on the CD to help with pronunciation. But for really learning the language, I direct you to Hugo's Latin American Spanish in Three Months.
Rating:
Summary: Not to be used alone
Review: Im trying to learn spanish because I live in Miami and I think I'll have a better time getting a job if I can speak it. However, this book is really like a primer book for the absolute basics. personally, I dont think anything beats a computer program for pronounciation. On the computer, you can hear certian words over and over and have the program help you pronouce. But, I find the computer programs to be pretty much useless unless you already know the basics of the language, so I think this book would go perfectly with any material that teaches at a higher level. And in response to the person who gave this book one star I would say that this book is not designed to get you fluent, its for people who have no clue when it comes to the language and I think its excellent at preparing you for the real study of spanish
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much Stuffing and not enough Spanish
Review: Thank God I didn't have to pay for this book. It's overloaded with information that I didn't find helpful in actually learning to speak Spanish. Even a retired person, such as myself, began to grow impatient with the abundance of information that was not directly related to speaking Spanish. If you really want to get to the "meat" of Spanish vocabulary and grammar, you would do much better by purchasing "Spanish Grammar for Indepedent Learners." It is expensive but I think it's much better than Spanish for Dummies.
But even with Spanish Grammar for Indenpendent Learners, you will still need private lessons or a good Spanish course. If you like learning on your own, Pimsleur is excellent. It's my favorite because the Spanish is very formal, you'd have to go to Spain if you wanted to learn Spanish more formal. If you don't like the formal Spanish and just want to learn Spanish for communicating with employees, customers, co-workers, or for dating, then you may prefer Learning Spanish Like Crazy.
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