The Berlitz Self-Teacher: Spanish

This is a great learning tool/refresher course. I love it!

I haven't had Spanish classes since high school(over 30 years ago) , so it is time for me to refresh and remember how to speak Spanish. This Berlitz is so easy, if you can read you can learn a new language.

I've used Berlitz books for Spanish, Italian, and German. No, you will not speak fluently after using these books, but you will SPEAK. You will be able to understand basic conversation and read simple things. Better than nothing, and it takes only 20 to 30 minutes a day. Besides, these books are fun.

I found this book an excellent way to get started in Spanish. Each lesson takes you through a conversation, illustrating a grammatical point (and teaching you vocubulary along the way). The grammar is illustrated through the conversation first, then certain grammatical rules are pointed out. This way, one can learn Spanish the way one usually learns their own native language; specifically, by hearing the sentence structure over and over again and "absorbing" the rules.However, be warned that the pronunciations provided in the book are characteristic of Spanish as spoken in Spain, and not Latin American pronunciations. I think this book works best if practiced along with a audio tape.The only other complaint is that the present tense is studied for the first two-thirds of the book. Then in the last third of the book, they cover three additional tenses very quickly. But, I still think it is a good book to get started in Spanish.