Spanish at a Glance: Foreign Language Phrasebook & Dictionary

This is a great little Spanish phrase and vocabulary book that is much more useful than I at first thought. In addition to the other features, they do one thing that really makes this a nice little resource. Each chapter contains useful phrases such as "Would you please give me _____," with a blank at the end of the phrase, and below it are the other words or phrases you can plug in. Or to give another example: "I would like to make a reservation ______," and below it are the words "for tonight," "for tomorrow evening," "at 9 pm," "for two persons," and so on. This gives you the applicable phrase and some other possiblities to "plug-in," and after that you can make up your own from your own knowledge, now that you know how to construct the key phrase.The book is organized into chapters devoted to specific situations, subjects, and needs, using dynamic and realistic phrases and dialog in the now well-known Berlitz approach, developed by the great Maximilian Berlitz in the mid to late 19th century as an improvement over the traditional rote learning of languages. There are over 1500 useful phrases and over 2000 vocabulary words. The author gives travel and cultural notes for Spain, Mexico, and other Spanish-speaking countries. Chapters are color-coded and are organized by activity, as I mentioned, such as Food and Drink, Going Shopping, Small Talk, Accidents and Repairs, Dating and Socializing, etc. Each of these has a number of subcategories. For example, the section on Entertainment and Diversions has Passive Sports, Active Sports, and under Active Sports has the further subsections of On the Slopes, At the Beach/Pool, Sports Equipment, Camping, On the Links, Tennis, and so on.At the end there is a basic grammar of Spanish in the appendix and a Spanish/English dictionary. Considering the book is only 7 bucks and is over 300 pages long, it's a great value for the amount of information you get.It's small size makes it easily portable and it has a nice protective plastic slipcase, and even the paper is nice, glossy, high-quality paper which is rare in paperbacks these days. Finally, there are maps of Madrid, Barcelona, and Mexico City on the front and back inside covers. I just keep it in my car to read during spare moments to improve my vocabulary. This is a great book to improve your Spanish for specific situations and subjects and as someone else said, combined with a tape course and a Spanish grammar makes an even more valuable addition to your Spanish learning library.

I am an advanced student of Spanish and at the present time, am just getting off what linguists call a "learning plateau". One may find plenty of reviews of this book as a simple tourist book for those staying in the Hispanic world for a few weeks. But I am currently using this book to help fill in the missing pieces to he puzzle of being able to speak in colloqial terms. This book is excellent for the serious learner who has mastered complicated grammar subjects and wishes to be able to converse about everyday topics. This no doubt, along with a nice grammar reference and perhaps a verb book, and some tapes could make a perfect method to learning to speak everyday, colloquial Spanish.

I purchased this book before a study trip to Spain. Its organization by topics ("Eating Out", "At the Post Office", etc.) was great for quick reference. It includes the basics along with some idioms and colloquialisms which I would have been totally lost without. Of all the dictionaries and Spanish reference books I have, this is certainly the most useful for travel and quick reference. I highly recommend it for travelers and students.