Warning CD exercises do not follow book at all! | Streetwise Spanish (Book + 1CD): Speak and Understand...

Very helpful for learning conversational Spanish! Not for beginners | Streetwise Spanish (Book + 1CD): Speak and Understand Colloquial Spanish (StreetwiseSeries) | Mary McVey Gill, Brenda Wegmann

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	• Streetwise Spanish (Book + 1CD): Speak and Understand Colloquial Spanish (StreetwiseSeries) Mary McVey Gill, Brenda Wegmann McGraw-Hill, 2005 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Review of Streetwise Spanish by James

This is James from James Spanish (the learning Spanish blog).
Most Spanish language courses focus on `proper' Spanish, relying on correct grammar rules and dictionary definitions to guide students on how to use the language to the highest standard.

However, when you listen to a native Spanish speaker you will rarely hear them talk like the people on your audio examples. They may talk faster and shorten words or miss some out altogether. Perhaps they use phrases that you can't find in your textbooks, and seem to use words in a strange context. This kind of every day use of language is known as `colloquial', and while it may not obey the correct rules, you might find that it is more useful to learn how people actually speak than how they are supposed to.

Most native speakers use colloquialisms, for example in English we shorten `do not' to `don't' and rather than saying `gasoline' we shorten it to `gas'. While these seem like obvious examples to a native English speaker, would similar differences in Spanish be obvious to you?

This is the beauty of Streetwise Spanish: Speak and Understand Colloquial Spanish.

The book covers common colloquial or slang terms, with exercises, vocabulary lists and examples to help you remember things.

Another useful feature of this book is that it differentiates between some of the most common differences in the various dialects of Spanish spoken around the world. From Mexico to Cuba to Spain, each country has its own peculiarities of how it speaks Spanish. This book reveals these, helping you to get a better grasp of the style of Spanish that you want to speak and understand.

As well as geographical differences in the language, the book also gives examples that might be used in a variety of social situations, from teenagers to business people. This is valuable for helping you to fit in with your peers when you are traveling or working in another country. What might seem professional to one person may seem old fashioned to another. Studying this book will help you to make the right impression.

As you might expect from a book that teaches unconventional Spanish, the text also includes plenty of light hearted stories, anecdotes and cartoons to help you get a real feel for the flavor of each Spanish speaking region. From folk art to chat up lines to jokes, all kinds of Spanish are covered.

Speak Spanish with confidence no matter where you are and never worry about your words having a second hidden meaning.

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.

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Warning CD exercises do not follow book at all!

When someone "borrowed" my 1st edition, I was glad to be able to get an Audio CD with this second edition. But, the CD chapter exercises do not follow book exercises. The familiar exercises at the end of chapters is a nice touch, but I was disappointed that CD doesn't match up with these. The book itself is a good taste of Spanish slang from around the world. The book is especially good for the learner who has become bored with the usual textbook vocabulary from beginner's Spanish.

Very helpful for learning conversational Spanish! Not for beginners

If you want to improve your conversational skills and learn different slang words and idiomatic expressions in Spanish, this is definitely the book for you.

This book (along with the accompanying CD) has helped me tremendously. I speak Spanish daily to people from several different countries: mainly Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and some people (like myself) who speak Spanish as their second or third language. Sometimes it is confusing because of the different dialects, word choices, etc. When I'm studying Spanish on my own I can't just concentrate on one country or region.

I liked that they included dialogues between Central American and Caribbean speakers as well as the "big" ones (Mexico, Argentina, Spain). The dialogues in Venezuela, Colombia, and Uruguay were really interesting too.

My only wish is that they had included a dialogue between speakers in the Dominican Republic because I still have a lot of trouble understanding their type of Spanish. Of course I know that, because it is so difficult and different from "standard" Spanish, that's probably why it was left out.

The best part, though, is that the book was actually helpful and interesting. Who would have known that so many slang words in Spanish come from food? Or how one word can be totally acceptable in one region and be a vulgarity in another?

If you are just starting Spanish, hold off on buying this book. I don't know why anyone would include this on a Spanish 101 list. Because the dialogues in this book step away from the standard grammar, you should have already have a good grasp of the language so that you can notice the differences.

Once you advance in your studies, though, definitely buy this book!

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Streets throughout the Spanish-speaking world

This book will give you a taste of the vernacular used in a wide variety of places in the Spanish speaking world. This is both the strength of the book and, if you're only interested in learning about one particular piece of the Spanish speaking world, say just Spain or just Mexico, a drawback.

The idioms presented are useful and current. This isn't a text book or a grammar book about usage. Rather, its a sampling of how Spanish is actually spoken by regular people.

I highly recommend it and its companion book, Red Hot Spanish Slang and Idioms, by the same authors.

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Easy lessons that help you speak Spanish like a native

This revised edition of Streetwise Spanish features an overview of the ?signature? words that differentiate speakers across the Spanish-speaking world. It also includes an audio CD featuring 30 dialogs from the book, spoken by native speakers from more than 15 countries and exercises that test your grasp of key slang expressions.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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