First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book (Beginners' Guides) (English and Spanish Edition),   ISBN:9780486258102

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This is James from James Spanish (the learning Spanish blog). Reading your first book in Spanish is a thrilling experience, but trying to read a Spanish novel without help can be frustrating and leave you disappointed in your abilities. Dual-language books are an ideal compromise, letting you read Spanish text independently but offering the English translation for when you get stuck.

In this book a collection of short stories are displayed in their original Spanish with an English translation on the opposite page. The English text allows you to check that you have understood the Spanish correctly, and by studying both pages you can also get an idea of just how accurate your own translation is.

The stories are extremely well chosen, offering a good view of Spanish culture and includes stories by authors from different Spanish speaking countries. The first fifteen stories are simple and easy to understand, written in the present tense and using basic language. As you read through the book you will find more challenging texts which introduce other tenses as well as some colloquial phrases. These stories are for more advanced Spanish students.

In general the texts are divided according to their use of tense, which is handy for students who are studying a particular verb conjugation, or who need some good examples of how a particular tense works.

The book also includes several exercises, designed to help reinforce what you have learned and to give you the opportunity to practice new concepts and words. The glossary of vocabulary accompanies the stories nicely, and allows you to look up unfamiliar words quickly without reaching for another dictionary.

Longer stories are broken up by shorter texts such as poems and proverbs which let even beginner students experience the satisfaction of translating a full text. This motivation is great for keeping students encouraged and interested. Changing between short and longer sections of reading also stops the book from being boring or too daunting for students who do not have a lot of experience or confidence reading Spanish.

Altogether, students of all levels will enjoy this book. The English translations let you follow the story and gather vocabulary in stories that you cannot understand fully in Spanish, but as your knowledge grows so will your ability to read even the most difficult stories.

In closing my review of this product, I'd like to share with you the three Amazon products that I have found most helpful in my pursuit to learn Spanish. If you are truly serious about achieving fluency, I'd recommend getting all 3 of them if you can afford it.

1. Lights, Camera, Spanish (Book + DVD): Learn Conversational Spanish by Watching a Romantic Adventure This is actually a 90 minute movie for Spanish-language learners. It gives the option to watch the movie with subtitles but I'd recommend not using them to improve your Spanish. This "movie" also includes a workbook so that you can reinforce the Spanish vocabulary words and phrases from the film. The workbook also has lots of exercises to keep you engaged in the film. But be prepared to hear Chilean accents. Although pleasent to the ear, the accents from Chile are very different from most Latin American accents.

2. Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version) This software replaces the traditional verb conjugation books and makes learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an interactive and fun activity. This should be a required resource for anyone who wants to improve their ability to conjugate Spanish verbs. Especially anyone who is challenged by the drudgery of learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs and who is looking for a new way to make learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an easy and fun activity

3. Diccionario esencial de la lengua espanola de la Real Academia Espanola (Spanish Edition) If you are really serious about speaking the language fluently, then at some point you will need to replace your Spanish-English dictionary and get a pure Spanish dictionary with both the vocabulary words and the definitions entirely in Spanish. I use this one only because it was highly-recommended by a friend from Spain who teaches Spanish.

Customer Rating: 

I know my 9-1/2 year old grandson will like this book once he
learns enough Spanish to read it.

Customer Rating: 

My first criticism is that this colorful collection of stories isn't long enough. There are only about 50 pages of actually meaty, readable material.

That said, these fifty pages prove very interesting and easily readable. The best feature of these stories is that they all have depth to them. The stories ask questions of their readers or teach morals, or both. They are designed for the intellectual reader, but written in a very simple style.

The book also includes a review section, with context questions and writing drills on the stories.

Customer Rating: 

I have found this book to be very helpful for practicing my spanish. The stories are fun and the translation on the facing page very helpful. The glossary in the back is great as well. I am able to clarify the meaning of certain words when necessary. I would recommend this book to anyone getting started learning spanish.

Customer Rating: 

It is what I wanted--stories matched in Spanish and English. However, confusing from the standpoint that translated words (*from Spanish to English) did not match the dictionary's definition for the work, and on top of that, the Spanish word was used in two different places that did not match any of the alternate meanings in the dictionary.