Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
Based on the student's ability to create--not memorize by rote--the Madrigal method can help readers convert English into Spanish in an instant, develop perfect pronunciation (thanks to a handy pronunciation guide), form sentences from the very first lesson, and more. Previously announced in September.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
One of the best, fun, easiest Spanish learning guides, but......
Customer Rating:
When learning a new language, you come across many many different products naturally claiming that they are the best. Eager language learners try many of them. Some stick, some don't. This book DEFINITELY stuck. The look of it is very old-fashioned, but the content seemed to sink in just a bit better. The lessons explain things in a thorough manner and end with many oral translation exercises that really drill the material into your brain. That being said, this book is really old and does not include the "tu" form of anything whatsoever. Anyone who is learning Spanish knows that there is a polite (usted) and an informal (tú) way of addressing someone. This book only includes the polite forms and does not touch on the informal forms, which in modern Spanish is used quite frequently. In fact, countries like Argentina pretty much ONLY use the informal. Experts say that no one should use just one text to learn a language. Whoever heeds this advice will most certainly come across that which this book omits. Aside from the omission, this book is wonderfully organized and extremely helpful. I highly recommend it. If someone were to update this book to include the informal way to say things, 5 stars all the way.
Don't Hesistate! Buy this Book!!!!
Customer Rating:
There is a reason this book has five stars from over 80 reviews and has withstood the test of time with impunity.........the book works!
great buy
Customer Rating:
great buy! I was referred to this book by a family friend. It arrived in perfect condition and on-time.
Comprelo ahora!
Customer Rating:
What was refreshing about this book is the fact that the past tense is immediately introduced. Think about it, how many times do you tell people what you did a day ago, an hour ago, etc? The answer is - often.
In my high school Spanish class I took more than a decade ago, it was unfortunately anchored by slower/uninterested students. We never even got to the past tense. I was stuck in the present with no past and future!
Not anymore!
This book will make one the master of the preterite as well as the present. What I can understand and speak has multiplied tremendously. What I wish this book delved into a bit more is the subjunctive tense. It seemed merely touched upon. Also I really loved doing the exercises. When I was confused about a concept, the exercises would finally make things clear for me. The last two chapters have no exercises, it's only reading. I wish at least an exercise or two appeared in order to cement the rest of the concepts home.
Despite that, this book is wonderful for people like me who need to refresh their high school Spanish and would be great for beginners who wish to have a try at different verb tenses immediately.
My hint- DON'T SKIP ANY OF THE EXERCISES!
Make no mistake, you won't be fluent. But you will have a great Spanish foundation to build upon after finising this book. I ditto what others have said about also getting resources to go along with this book. I found the Michel Thomas Method to be an excellent accompaniment and found his explanations for the preterite as opposed to the imperfect are very similar. He will slam dunk the grammar into your brain without you realizing it!
Also I just started listening to Learning Spanish like Crazy based on recommendations. After doing the book and MT, I feel pretty advanced right now(I am just starting at the beginning so that may change as I progress). But for pronunciation practice it can't be beat!
Also Madrigal's book See it and Say it in Spanish is also a great little book you can use. Small enough to carry around everywhere!
A great improvement to this book would be audio! Publishers are you listening? Still a great learning tool without it. This book was published, I think in the 60's?? It still holds up to this day!
Very good
Customer Rating:
OK, it's not perfect. It is, however, a good book, better than most textbooks, and way, way ahead of Berlitz, for learning Spanish. Most Americans think they can learn a language in like 2-3 weeks. This is not so. It takes consistent practice to learn a language. This book supports that rather well. I'm sure the author is long gone, however, the book lives on. It is cited in The Next Whole Earth Catalog, by way, which is why I got my first copy of it.
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