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Spanish Language Textbook Suggestion | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| rjt64 Newbie United States Joined 4137 days ago 4 posts - 8 votes | Message 1 of 12 19 August 2013 at 4:28am | IP Logged |
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Hey!
I recently posted about my interest in learning Spanish...I'm getting bored/tired with using Duolingo, which I've been using for awhile. While it's somewhat helpful, it doesn't exactly explain some concepts I have questions about. What are some suggestions you have for a textbook? Would you suggest college level beginning Spanish? I've been researching the following: Dos Mundos, Mosaicos, and Puntos de Partida. Any other suggestions you have or advice would be great. I just don't want to spend the money and have it be useless. Thanks! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes  Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 2 of 12 20 August 2013 at 2:44pm | IP Logged |
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Hey!
While my favourite Spanish courses are Czech based, I know a few that might be worthy of your attention. FSI Spanish: It is for free. Lots of grammar drills, it might be a nice complement to what you learnt with Duolingo. And after that, you should be ready for native material. Teach Yourself Spanish or Colloquial Spanish. Traditional approach, both have good reputation. I have a similar styled Czech textbook and the approach works really well. Monolingual courses like Suena or Ven. They can be used for selflearners as well but less comfortably. This kind of books tends to have good audio but worse explanations and a lot of space is wasted on pictures and photos which makes them cost more than they are worth, in my opinion. Assimil. I really like Assimil but I think the Spanish is a bit worse than the others I know but still really good. Or, get separate workbooks by Anaya ELE En or similar and get through grammar and basic vocab with those while using other things for input (graded readers, music, easy podcasts etc. There is a lot on the internet for free when it comes to Spanish). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4145 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 3 of 12 20 August 2013 at 11:17pm | IP Logged |
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I'm using the Practice Makes Perfect workbooks - by Dorothy Richmond. The explanations are clear, the exercises
aren't as boring as one might expect for grammar - and they're inexpensive! A little over 10 dollars each. I'm using Spanish Verb Tenses and Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions. I bought Basic Spanish for my dad. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 12 21 August 2013 at 12:51am | IP Logged |
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Yes. Other such options are Gramatica del Uso (which is monolingual and that might be both advantage or disadvantage, depends on learner) or Basic Spanish grammar and workbook (English based). I used Basic German and it is really good so I suppose their Spanish should be good as well.
By the way, how far did the duolingo take you? I tried but didn't keep using it so I am curious whether it would be worth returning. What are the strong points and weaknesses? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| rjt64 Newbie United States Joined 4137 days ago 4 posts - 8 votes | Message 5 of 12 21 August 2013 at 2:10am | IP Logged |
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Thanks everyone! As for the Duolingo, I enjoy it's convenience ( I use it on my iPhone) and it's organization.
However, it gets boring after awhile. The speaker is always the same and no explanations are available..if you're incorrect, the program just gives you the answer....though there are discussions users can view, I still don't think it's as helpful as it could be. If you're looking to get started with a language, Duolingo would be a good way to do it; it's free to purchase. I want to to go farther with Spanish, that's why I'm interested in purchasing a book to coincide with it. Hope this helps! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| berabero89 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4643 days ago 101 posts - 137 votes Speaks: English, Amharic* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 6 of 12 21 August 2013 at 6:02am | IP Logged |
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I strongly recommend either Assimil's Spanish with Ease or Spanish without Toil (which is
older than with Ease, but better). It has leísmo, which I found annoying but it isn't a big deal and while it does have a few shortcomings, it was the one resource that helped me learn the majority of my Spanish. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 7 of 12 21 August 2013 at 2:14pm | IP Logged |
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I totally believe Spanish without Toil was much better than the current Assimil. If only it was that easy to get my hands on one. :-)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BlaBla Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 4130 days ago 45 posts - 72 votes Speaks: German*, English, French Studies: Nepali, Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin | Message 8 of 12 24 August 2013 at 10:57am | IP Logged |
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I second Assimil. For Spanish there are basically three versions available.
1. "Spanish without toil" - the old 'original' version dating back to the 19-thirties. A great course centered around the adventures of a french traveller who ventures to Spain to learn the language. 2. "Spanish with ease" - first published in 1984 - somewhat 'dreamy', contains some 'odd' phrases and vocabulary you wouldn't expect in a beginners text, one or two poems to much if you ask me, but you can still learn a darn lot from it. 3. "L'Espagnol sans peine" - ©2004, by the same author, so far only available in French, shame shame Assimil. If you speak some french (B1+) this might be your ticket, especially if you're primarily concerned about speaking the language. Modern Spanish with some 2500 Spanish lexemes, lots of dialogues and Gallian humour but on the average the sentences tend to be shorter than those in #1 or #2. Not necessarily a disadvantage in a beginners course. I have them all, the first two in different editions and even though each one of them can take you pretty far I wouldn't use any of them as a single resource for my studies but complement them with other material (Michel Thomas !!!, texts, movies, radio, podcasts, ...), above all a grammar book. So I'm just about to finish the third wave of #2, have started with #1 and will start to study #3 in parallel as soon as I've finished #2. I wasted some money on other courses but for me nothing beats Assimil - if done the right way - each and every day. 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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