spanishplease Newbie United States Joined 4999 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes
| Message 1 of 8 20 March 2011 at 5:02am | IP Logged |
I've spent a lot of money on books that I get bored with. The "learn Spanish" type of books, which seem to always bore me like a "text-book". I started to try and read online news websites in Spanish, which is actually an interesting way to learn (if I'm actually learning Spanish).
Has anyone tried one of the books with English and Spanish? If so, are there any that you recommend? One's that maybe have instructions/helpful tips as you read along the way?
Thanks
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dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5023 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 2 of 8 04 April 2011 at 10:53pm | IP Logged |
Personally, Ive been using Assimil Spanish with Ease for about 20 days nows, and this could be the kind of thing your looking for.
A search on this site will bring up a wealth of information.
Assimil is laid out in a completly different fashion to standard "text-books" and if you already enjoy reading the news in Spanish im sure you will enjoy it.
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DeeHerts Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4977 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 3 of 8 12 April 2011 at 12:08am | IP Logged |
Help! I have just start using Assimil Spanish without toil - the old version on tapes - and was getting on well with it, because it is in such small chunks I can actually find the time to listen. BUT I have lost the book. Does anyone know where I can buy a copy? It was hardback blue and white, less than A5 in size.
Or is the new version + CD as good?
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Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7122 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian
| Message 4 of 8 12 April 2011 at 2:57am | IP Logged |
I hate to say this, but you're going to get bored with any book or course you use, if you don't like learning with books and courses. Any course that has a subtitle like 'The FUN way to learn (insert language)' is probably going to be crap!
My recommendations for boring, but good Spanish courses are:
Pasos 1 and 2
Living Language Ultimate
The old BBC courses
Hugo Spanish courses
Edited by Chris on 12 April 2011 at 6:18am
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dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5023 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 5 of 8 13 April 2011 at 11:23pm | IP Logged |
Unfortunately ive got no idea where to find a copy of Spanish without Toil for less than about £45, and Ive tried quite a few secondhand bookshops online. From what I can make out though, the audio is even harder to find, so its probably worth hanging onto.
If you search around, there are quite a few posts discussing the differences between Without toil, and with Ease..
This video also discusses this topic :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLvTEqXqlsI
(hope the link works)
I have a copy of With Ease though, and I would say it seems to go far further than any other books Ive looked at in UK shops.
I would love to get a proper look at a "Without Toil"...
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newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6380 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map
| Message 6 of 8 14 April 2011 at 2:33am | IP Logged |
DeeHerts wrote:
Help! I have just start using Assimil Spanish without toil - the old version on tapes - and was getting on well with it, because it is in such small chunks I can actually find the time to listen. BUT I have lost the book. Does anyone know where I can buy a copy? It was hardback blue and white, less than A5 in size.
Or is the new version + CD as good? |
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I bought my copy of Spanish Without Toil through Abebooks for about $35.
Edited by newyorkeric on 14 April 2011 at 3:14pm
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DeeHerts Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4977 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 7 of 8 19 April 2011 at 10:17pm | IP Logged |
dbag wrote:
Unfortunately ive got no idea where to find a copy of Spanish without Toil for less than about £45, and Ive tried quite a few secondhand bookshops online. From what I can make out though, the audio is even harder to find, so its probably worth hanging onto.
If you search around, there are quite a few posts discussing the differences between Without toil, and with Ease..
This video also discusses this topic :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLvTEqXqlsI
(hope the link works)
I have a copy of With Ease though, and I would say it seems to go far further than any other books Ive looked at in UK shops.
I would love to get a proper look at a "Without Toil"... |
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1 person has voted this message useful
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DeeHerts Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4977 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 8 of 8 20 April 2011 at 12:00am | IP Logged |
Thanks everyone for your advice. I have now ordered a copy through Abe books and am waiting with bated breath to see if it is the correct version for my tapes. The video link is an excellent guide to differences between Assimil versions and the truth about how long it really takes (a linguist) to learn a language!
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