Complete Spanish Step-by-Step 1st Edition

I studied Spanish for five years in middle and high school, but then I lived in Europe for ten years and concentrated on speaking German, French, and Italian, mostly. I sadly let my Spanish slide despite numerous vacations to Spain. Lately, I've been wanting to brush up on the Spanish I once spoke because, at one time, I could read anything written in Spanish (I remember reading EL CID with no problems), and I was almost a fluent speaker of the language. This book is wonderful! Marvelous! I am so lucky to have found it! I think it's going to be the only Spanish book I'll need to become fluent once again. The lessons are so orderly and take the learner from one lesson to another with no problems whatsoever. Spanish doesn't have a complicated grammar, but this book makes even the rather easy Spanish grammar even easier. And learning new vocabulary words is so easy with this book. I love the fact that reading lessons are included almost from the very first page. And self-check lessons. In short, I can't say enough good things about this book. Every student of Spanish, every traveler to a Spanish-speaking country, everyone simply interested in Spain or Latin America should own this book. I have had to learn several languages in my life so far, and this book is head and shoulders above any I have ever encountered, in any language. It is far, far superior to any recorded language learning program. If you're learning Spanish, on any level, beginner, intermediate, or advanced, you need this book! I plan on wearing mine out!

I have greatly enjoyed using this textbook as my main resource for independently learning Spanish (self-study). I only have about 20 minutes a day to spare, but with this book I've been able to make steady progress in small increments. And since the book covers plenty of vocab, idioms, and advanced grammar topics, I expect it will be the only textbook I'll ever need.What I appreciate most, besides its comprehensiveness, is that 'Complete Spanish Step-by-Step' is well-organized and straight to the point. A lot of language textbooks (In what I can only assume is an attempt to capture the attention of unruly classrooms) break up each chapter with so many boxes, disconnected stories and tidbits, and cryptic chapter titles that it is impossible to tell at a glance what any given page (much less a whole chapter) is even about. It's often hard to tell what is there for you to learn, and what is just there to entertain you.Not so here: the focus of 'Complete Spanish Step-by-Step' is on (surprisingly enough) learning Spanish step-by-step, and as such it doesn't patronize you by trying to dazzle you with extras. The result is that this book is a pleasure to work through methodically (as one must in order to learn a language).In my personal study procedure, I copy all the vocab and most of the exercises into spaced repetition software (namely Anki) as I read each lesson. Reviewing these cards daily makes it painless to master each lesson completely before moving on, at whatever pace I have time for.Most (but not all) of the exercises are single-word fill-in-the-blanks, which means there is usually exactly one right answer, found in the answer key in the back. This makes it possible to (re)use the exercises in the text as a comprehensive set of conjugation drills.

Let me start off by saying this book is almost perfect, and a huge improvement on trying to learn from apps like Duolingo.My wife's family is Colombian, and I've been trying to learn Spanish for years. I started with Duolingo, but the way it presented the learning just never caught on and I found myself distracted with the access to the internet.This book is a great way to distance myself from distractions, has notes about the differences of grammar between the cultures, and has a wide range of lessons with perfect pacing.The only minor issue I have is that there are a few words it presents in the reading comprehension lessons that they forget to mention the definition of prior. However, these are few and far between, and so I don't believe it merits a point loss - just a mention. If you are learning alone, you may have to go to google or something to fill in the VERY few blanks, but if you're learning with a friend / family / loved one, they'll be a great help to judge your progress.If you're like me and learning with a loved one, order a red pen along with this book and you'll be able to hold a basic conversation relatively quickly! I imagine I'll be able to hold my own with her family within half a year despite my age!

I like that it is very well explained and has all the details, if you are teaching Spanish it is like a to-go-to encyclopedia, you will probably find any answer there. But I would not recommend it to start teaching Spanish or to someone that wants to learn by themselves. You actually have to know some Spanish to be able to use it. It starts of to complicated.The other thing is that every subject is gone in to so much detail, every exception in the rules, that it makes it more complicated for the students to learn/memorize. It just confused them, instead of simply teaching them the basics they need to go on.Also I don't always agree the order in which the contents is taught.What I do is I use the "Practice makes perfect basic Spanish" as my class book, and then when they have mastered certain subjects I use this book as extra information. So they have the information if they want/need it but they don't get confused or spent to much time with things that won't be used so much.