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Some Great Books! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5381 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 1 of 3 20 May 2010 at 7:38pm | IP Logged |
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Just thought I would recommend a couple books to my fellow language learners :)
"Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish" by Joseph J. Keenan Why I love it: Its great for beginners and advanced students. The book is geared toward English native speakers, who have trouble with cognates and idioms that are commonly used in English, and can't be directly translated to Spanish. It corrects the most typical blunders (even ones you may not make) and tells you what may happen and why you shouldn't use it. Quite honestly, it is one of the best Spanish books I have ever read, and I couldn't be happier with my purchase. It shows how to use certain things that we use in English like "So" "Whatever" etc. Certain things that are difficult to translate. It has a huge section on cognates, and the subjunctive. My favorite part is that it isn't written by a native speaker, and he tells you in the beginning that these are many of the problems that he encountered himself. His situation that he described is almost a mirror of mine. You can hold basic/advanced conversations, using very text-book like things (bland), and you can't translate word for word like a professional but you get the general meaning of something. I recommend it to anyone studying Spanish, I've learned a ton in the first 50 pages. I think it costs around $13. German: How to Speak and Write it by Joseph Rosenburg No frills, no garbage, TONS OF CONTENT. If you can make it through this book (it consists of 40 lessons) You'll be at a high basic fluency in my opinion. It's old school, 1950's. Over 3,000 vocabulary words EASILY. They are sections on Germanic languages, how to write letters in German, etc. My favorite parts are pictures of "settings" like a train station or post office, and there are about 30 numbers all over the picture (maybe more) corresponding to vocabulary terms in the picture. It's really great. You learn clothing, cars and car parts, food, drinks, social conversations, everything. It's very thorough and I think it's much more effective than FSI if you make it through. It's pretty thick, around 400 pages, the only down side is that there isn't any audio to accompany it. If you know German pronounciation, buy this book. I bought it for 8 dollars I think. Definitely a "bang for your buck" type of book. I couldn't be happier with these two purchases! Jordan Edited by datsunking1 on 20 May 2010 at 7:42pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| maaku Senior Member United States Joined 5370 days ago 359 posts - 562 votes Speaks: English* | Message 2 of 3 23 May 2010 at 9:46am | IP Logged |
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Thanks!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6175 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 3 23 May 2010 at 11:57am | IP Logged |
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Both books have previews at google books:
Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish German: How to Speak and Write it 1 person has voted this message useful |
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