sushi13 Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 4692 days ago 49 posts - 64 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish
| Message 1 of 3 13 October 2014 at 8:23pm | IP Logged |
Hola!
I've been trying to decide on a book to buy to learn Spanish. After some
researches, I decided to try the Teach Yourself series. But, I found that there is
a ''Complete Spanish'' and a ''Complete Latin American Spanish''. I'm quite
confused about the differences. I tried to search on the Internet, but couldn't
find much information..
I'm wondering if any of you would be able to explain to me the differences and
which one would be better?
Gracias
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Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4056 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German
| Message 2 of 3 13 October 2014 at 9:04pm | IP Logged |
Hi Sushi!
I have noticed that European publishers of "Spanish" courses often teach "Iberian Peninsula Spanish" even though this might not be specified. Some publishers offer both "Spanish" "Latin American Spanish" versions of their courses. If you check the Teach Yourself website, you'll notice that they describe the text as useful "when in Spain". However, their website is not the easiest I have ever consulted!
As an aside, I suspect that some publishers are responding to market pressure. Yes, there are small differences in pronunication and usage between:
"Spanish" and "Latin American Spanish"
"English" and "American English"
"Portuguese" and "Brasilian Portuguese"
The same could be said about the pronunication and usage of all of the above languages within their respective regions, not to mention French, Italian, German, Russian, Polish, and just about any other language you might wish to mention. But do these differences genuinely merit separate courses? Answer: if the customer is willing to PAY for a different course, well ...
Edited by Speakeasy on 13 October 2014 at 10:02pm
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4913 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 3 of 3 14 October 2014 at 2:24pm | IP Logged |
Speakeasy wrote:
As an aside, I suspect that some publishers are responding to market pressure. Yes, there are small differences in pronunication and usage between:
"Spanish" and "Latin American Spanish"
"English" and "American English"
"Portuguese" and "Brasilian Portuguese"
The same could be said about the pronunication and usage of all of the above languages within their respective regions, not to mention French, Italian, German, Russian, Polish, and just about any other language you might wish to mention. But do these differences genuinely merit separate courses? Answer: if the customer is willing to PAY for a different course, well ... |
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I didn't get the point of this last statement. It's not like the publishers are expecting users to buy both courses. You buy the course which is more suitable for your specific needs. Of course they need separate courses for some of these different regions. If I was learning English in preparation for moving to the USA, it would cause me serious headaches if I learnt from a textbook that teaches British pronunciation. Regional textbooks aren't available in most cases, so we should be grateful when a publisher makes the effort to produce two books (which costs them more to produce even though most learners will only buy one or the other).
To answer the OP's question, Speakeasy is probably correct that the differences in a beginner book won't be monumental. However, think about where you expect to use the Spanish you learn, and choose your book accordingly.
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