Perfect for beginning students of Spanish, this affordable anthology is filled with 41 delightful stories and proverbs based on works of Don Juan Manuel, Luis Taboada, Ricardo Palma, and other noted writers. Complete and faithful English translations are featured on the facing pages of the Spanish text. Exercises are also included.
First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Classy and elegant are the first words that come to mind upon going through the first few pages of this book.
The book is a selection of stories, or their portions, from the original literature, ranging from the medieval times to the first half of the 20th century, and covering both Spanish and Latin American authors. In addition, it has an occasional interlude consisting of a short poem or a selection of proverbs to tempt the neophite into further exploring the richness of the Spanish language. Being a dual-langage book, the english translation of a story appears on a facing page. I found the translation of varying utility in nailing down the nuances, but the glossary at the end of the book is quite good, so one can read without a separate dictionary at least on the first pass.
The book generally avoids the use of subjunctive and introduces the past tense only in the middle. I had thought that this would make the stories look emaciated, as is the case with a number of such readers I'd seen. Somehow, it does not happen with Flores' delightful volume; if anything, it drives the point home that verbs is not all there is to a language, rich vocabulary and phraseology are just as important, and Flores' selections definitely get across that aspect of the beauty and expressiveness of the Spanish language.
As you work through this reader, more likely than not, your motivation to keep going with your Spanish and, furthermore, to get familiar with its rich literature, will be reinforced tremendously. It will also encourage you to venture into unabridged novels and stories in Spanish sooner than you had thought possible.
Finally, an attractive price helps make it a real winner.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First Spanish Reader was a very enjoyable read. I ended up reading it twice because the first time I did not realize that there were exercises at the end of the book for every story that you read in First Spanish Reader. The exercises at the end of the book were a tremendous help for me. That way after I read a story in the book I could then go directly to the exercise at the end of the book to see if I really understood what I read. There are both "ejercicio oral" (oral exercises) and "ejercicio escrito" (written exercises) in the end of the book.
My only complaint is really minor. This book does not have answers to the written exercises so you have no idea if you wrote the correct answer or not. But this is a small gripe. Obviously, you won't learn how to speak Spanish with this book alone. The purpose of this book is to help you read Spanish better, and by learning how to read Spanish better, you will learn more vocabulary words, which ultimately will help the reader speak Spanish better. You will still need an audio course to help with you with your Spanish. My preference is Learning Spanish Like Crazy. I have used a few courses and I think they did an excellent job teaching practical useful real-life conversational Spanish with the Learning Spanish Like Crazy course.
My only complaint is really minor. This book does not have answers to the written exercises so you have no idea if you wrote the correct answer or not. But this is a small gripe. Obviously, you won't learn how to speak Spanish with this book alone. The purpose of this book is to help you read Spanish better, and by learning how to read Spanish better, you will learn more vocabulary words, which ultimately will help the reader speak Spanish better. You will still need an audio course to help with you with your Spanish. My preference is Learning Spanish Like Crazy. I have used a few courses and I think they did an excellent job teaching practical useful real-life conversational Spanish with the Learning Spanish Like Crazy course.
By Wct
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is way above a beginner level reader, more like intermediate level.. I would not recommend the book to anyone.
Want to see more reviews on this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 69 reviews
4.1 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Decent book
Simple stories,with notes,exercises & vocab lists at the back of the book.I think this book is good value for the money.
Published 5 months ago by acaaleks
5.0 out of 5 stars
First Spanish Reader
This was the first time I read a story in Spanish. Even though I didn't understand some stuff at first, it's easy to check the English side to make sure you understand. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Lucy Ling
5.0 out of 5 stars
First Spanish Reader
I purchased this book as a used item, however it was as good as new.
I haven't read the entire book as of yet, since I'm using this as an aid for learning Spanish. Read more
I haven't read the entire book as of yet, since I'm using this as an aid for learning Spanish. Read more
Published on Nov 30 2009 by D. Pidgen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great for Beginners
Excellent reader for beginners. It is broken in to "tense" sections, i.e. present tense, past, subjunctive, etc. I read it outloud with my tutor and it is very helpful. Read more
Published on Mar 12 2003 by TangoBomb
5.0 out of 5 stars
First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book
First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual Language Book, is an excellent beginner book for the Spanish neophyte or for the individual with some background in Spanish that needs a... Read more
Published on May 30 2000 by Charles
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Study & Reference > Instruction > Dictionaries; Polyglot
- Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Study & Reference > Instruction > Spanish
- Books > Education & Reference > Words, Language & Grammar
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Foreign Languages > Spanish
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
