Latin American Spanish: A Complete Course for Beginners

This is a great book for beginners to intermediate Latin American Spanish learners. The book not only shows you conjugation of regular verbs but also irregular verbs in addition to unique sentence structure. In the back of the book is a summary of what you learned and serves as an excellent reference for reinforcement learning. It teaches you the past, present, and future tenses of verbs as well as other frequent ways that are used to say the latter. I'm on my 3rd book already because the first book I bought I used it so much I wore it out. My second book I lost. But the book was so good that I had to buy it again. My girlfriend speaks Spanish and I've been trying to learn it ever since we got together. I've purchase a number of books from large to small but this one is the one I refer to and use way more frequently then the others. The only thing I wished this book came with was flash cards. But besides that it is a great book.

A great idea, especially for Americans who are much more likely to go to hispanoamerica than Spain. Lots of info, but not really specific enough. One day maybe there will be a version for each country (Mexico, Agnetina, etc.) It is too easy to confuse local idioms and receive confused looks when you try to use this book as gospel. Still, it is helpful, and well-formatted.

When I took French in college, the emphasis was on everyday conversations, not rote memorization of vocabulary and verb endings. For a long time I've looked for a Spanish book that used the conversation method, and, for me, this book is it. I find it far easier to remember Spanish words and phrases in the context of casual conversation, as in this book, rather than from a lengthy vocabulary list. I do think the audio tape will help with pronunciation -- otherwise, I recommend this book heartily.