Spanish for Beginners : Everyday Handbooks

I'm still working my way through this book, getting near the end, and I love it. Open it up, and it looks like a book, not a textbook. There's not a lot of white space on each page, which makes it look dense in comparison with more contemporary books, but I like that he speaks in whole sentences and not bullet points or lists, and for me, anyway, that seems to be a better way to talk about the complexity and delights of language. So if you enjoy reading a well-written paragraph more than a powerpoint chart, this book will please you as it informs. The author shows his admiration and respect for Spanish, and includes notes about usage and connotation that any lover of language will wonder about when learning, instead of just giving you the rules. The book does cover a lot of information, and once I finish this first read, I'll go back to it for reference as I improve and learn. I'd been watching some videos (well, The Wire) with both subtitles and dubbing on in Spanish, just to hear the language more (no Spanish-speaking communities around where I live now), and that helped me notice and wonder about certain patterns in conversation - this book has been great for explaining the things I've noticed casually through that more haphazard exposure, and it does so in a good, solid prose with a distinct voice. What I love most about this book is the voice - he's old school in the best sense, he neither talks down to you in this age of books "For Dummies" or "Complete Idiots", nor does he use dry educational jargon, nor does he view language learning as a pesky inconvenience to be done as quickly as possible (in the car, in the shower, 5 minutes a day, etc.). I looked at and was uninspired by many beginner books that took one of those approaches, and am happy I settled on this one instead. One quibble: toward the end of the book, where he gives a bunch of irregular verbs, some of the declensions are listed with the first person for each tense and then "etc.", leaving the reader to flip back to the original regular tense charts to see what you would fill in there for the 2nd and 3rd person. It would have been nice to have the irregular verbs a little more thoroughly written out, but for that maybe another book that's just verb declension (like a Becherelle for Spanish, if it exists) would suffice as a reference. In sum, reading this book is like listening to a teacher who knows his stuff and expects you to work hard, because there are no shortcuts to learning a language well. He doesn't spoon-feed, but does give suggestions for how to make the most of the material, on your own. If you're willing to take your time to think about and absorb a series of lessons that will build a strong base, I highly recommend this one.

I have been taking Spanish for two semesters at a local community college and had to purchase two "one hundred dollar" books. (Actually $150 each with workbooks!) Those were good to follow along with the instructors, are only good with help, but that is where this book comes in! Yes, it is old but I have found this book to be the best resource I have. This book actually explains the Spanish language to you rather than just drills or by clumsy illustrations. (In fact, this book has no pictures or drawings!) One thing I really like about the book is the emphases on idioms. The Spanish language does not translate directly to English and vice versa (of course!). So this book has explained to me many phrases I have come across in my readings which did not make sense to me before. The only thing I do not really like about the book is the "reading selections". Yes, they are interesting...but they are extremely technical; using words which most people wouldn't even run into the English or Spanish languages. But then again, maybe I'm just whining. Once again, the book was written in 1958, maybe our reading abilities have declined. Or is that just me? I have completed reading 75% of the book and once I am finished I plan on reading it again to try and soak as much of the knowledge into my thick skull. Great book, buy it! Beware, it is not easy reading and you need to be motivated to make it through. Now, judging from my writing ability the next book I will need is an English 101 book!

Duff's "Spanish for Beginners" is concise, comprehensive, and especially suitable for self-study. It starts from the very beginning, requiring no prior exposure to Spanish, but by the end one's knowledge reaches significantly past the beginner's level; the goal seems to be dealing with unabridged Spanish by the time one has gone through it.To allow such rapid language acquisition, the approach taken differs from many other textsbooks. There are no drill exercises; instead, the student is asked to be proactive while learning the language. The grammar is eventually taken to a fairly advanced point; the explanations are not exhaustive, however, and for the most part come in digestible chunks. Once the foundations are laid in the initial chapters, reading unmodified excerpts from original literature supplied with interlinear translations is used as the key teaching tool; the selections are not very long, are quite pleasant and include both Spanish and Latin American authors. Finally, a targeted situational vocabulary (airport, hotel, bathroom, restaurant, etc.) with sufficient examples of use is introduced in each section, nicely balancing the more literary flavor of the reading selections.I found that by supplementing Duff with little more than a set of inexpensive tapes with dialogues, a simplified first reader, and a good dictionary, I was able to understand unabridged Spanish in both written and oral forms much sooner than I had expected. During a subsequent trip to Spain, I found that I could speak the language too.This book was first published in 1958, so some (minor) aspects of grammar, orthography, and usage may have evolved since then, but I found them to be inconsequential to the learning process. The book performs an incredible feat of teaching Spanish from scratch to a rather advanced level in only some 330 rather modestly-sized pages, and its approach has worked very well for me. I recommend it highly.NOTE: The book does not come with tapes, but I accompanied Duff with the inexpensive collection of graded dialogues provided on two 90-minute cassettes in "Spanish on the Go" from Barron's, and I found them to be very helpful and sufficient to break "the sound barrier". (Beware of the Castilian Spanish, rather than Latin American, accent on those tapes, at least in the first edition I have; this may or may not be what you want.) Any simple introductory course on cassettes would also do, and may be preferable for many learners as a starting point; Duff can then be used, in parallel or subsequently, to teach onself the rest of the language, since it covers far more advanced material than most audio-based courses.

I have tried and failed with other approaches to learning Spanish. This book seems much better. It emphasizes an understanding of the language over mere memorization of phrases. I have purchased Duff's French and Italian for Beginners, too. I hope they work as well as the Spanish one.