
Dover Publications - Dover Publications
Release date: 1994-05-26
Paperback
Language & Linguistics, Juvenile Nonfiction, Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books, Spanish: Grades 3-4, Spanish, Foreign Language Study / General, Foreign Language Study - General




For the price, you get a lot of bang for your couple of bucks. Although this little book doesn't cover much material or grammar rules, you can use the ready-made phrases to make more phrases as you increase your Spanish vocabulary. This along with a Spanish/English dictionary helped me pass my introductory Spanish class when I had to write sentences in Spanish for homework. Some other reviewers didn't like it because the phrases sound touristy, overly formal or out-dated, but I would rather learn proper/formal Spanish before trying to master the colloquial. Besides, it is probably safer to use the more-formal Spanish when traveling. What if you get an idiom wrong trying to use the local dialect, offend the natives, and then who knows what may happen?! If you speak formally and get it wrong, the locals might be more forgiving because they'll figure that the gaffe was unintentional. Besides, it is unfair to critisize a $2.00 phrase book for sounding touristy when that is the main purpose for the book-- to help a vacationing English speaker communicate in a Spanish-speaking country. That's it's purpose, and that is just what it does, despite whatever gringo-isms it may contain. Since it is so cheap, it's not a big loss if you don't share my enthusiasm about it's worth (especially if you are going to buy other books anyway and qualify for amazon's free shipping). So whether you are going to travel to a place where the people "no hablan en ingles" or taking your first Spanish class, you should click on "add to cart" and buy it today!