Jean Yates (1)

Languages can be intimidating, and hearing Spanish around me all day set my mind into a tizzy. I picked this book up to see if it would help me and I left the book store a happy person, because it truly is for someone like me, utterly confused. The vocabulary, grammar and common phrases and expressions are explained in a way that I was comfortable learning the concepts. The author has taught many people and has used this expertise to teach us by way of the written word. If you want to be prepared for this new language around you, do not hesitate to start with this book. The author Jean Yates, has taught for ten yeasr and her instructional approach is based on the concepts developed while teaching English as a second language; you will be learning as if in her classroom.
This is an ideal book for anyone whom wants to learn the language, and would make a wonderful gift at any time, especially at graduation time.… (lisätietoja)

To start off with: on the back of the book, there is an indication that this is meant for intermediate learners. There is a grammar review/reference in the appendix but I suggest that before going through this book, you know how to conjugate most verb tenses, including the subjunctive, but you don't necessarily need to know when the subjunctive modes are used (some of this is taught).

Even if you consider yourself past the ¨intermediate¨ stage, it's likely you'll still find some useful information. I was able to have conversations in Spanish fairly easily before picking up this book, but now the vocabluary I use will be more varied.

Each chapter starts off with a dialogue (I've gone through several Practice Makes Perfect books and none had dialogues, although it makes more sense in a book like this which is about conversation!). The main parts to be learned in the dialogue are bolded, and explanations of these follow the dialogue (with examples). After this, there are several exercises for practice. This format is great I think, for a book whose goal is to help you improve your conversation in a language.

The author goes over many useful little parts of conversation. Some that I'll try to include more in my conversation are:

·así que (meaning ¨so¨...I used to use ¨por eso¨ more often)
·parece mentira (it doesn't seem possible)
·ya sea (whether)
·o sea (in other words)
·a propósito (speaking of which)
·para serte sincero (to be honest)
·quisiera (used instead of ¨quiero¨ sometimes for the sake of politeness)
·por otra parte (¨in addition¨, ¨furthermore¨ or ¨plus¨-I used ¨ademas¨ most often before)
·fíjate que/imagínate que (actually/just imagine)
·no acabar de (which indicates that something ¨just seems impossible¨)
·incluso (including/even)
·en efecto/efectivamente (indeed)
·en cuanto (as soon as)
·por cierto (by the way)
·estar harto (to be fed up)
·cuanto antes (as soon as possible, right away)
·evidentemente (¨obviously¨-not ¨evidently¨)
·por lo visto (evidently)
·la persona indicada (la persona ideal)
·en el fondo (basically, deep down...)
·ya que (since)
·educado & culta (well-mannered & well-educated)

This is just a small part of what's in the book though.

If you decide to go through this book, you'll be writing your own conversations sometimes. As you go through the chapters, it's a good idea to flip back to previous ones and add as many phrases or words (that you reviewed before)as you can, also including ones from the current chapter. That way, after you finish the workbook, you'll have remembered/learned much more. Also, for things you need more practice with, it's a good idea to write your own sentences and if you have a diary or journal, write in Spanish using these words or phrases.

This book isn't just about how to use little words or phrases, but of course sentence structure is included as well. One of my favorite chapters has to do with this (Chapter 12-¨Retelling a Conversation¨) where you must change direct quotes to indirect speech and vice versa. (Example: Les dijo «No lleguen tarde.» becomes: Les dijo que no llegaran tarde.)

As usual in the Practice Makes Perfect books, there is an answer key as well as an English to Spanish glossary and a Spanish to English glossary. Included as well (which I mentioned before) is a grammar review/reference in the appendix.

To me, ¨Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Conversation¨ stands out as a unique book in the series and I think it would be useful to any intermediate to advanced learner who wants to improve their Spanish conversation skills.… (lisätietoja)