This is the clumsiest language learning book I've ever completed all of (for lack of options!). It's not "advanced" (introducing us to the imperfect?)This is the clumsiest language learning book I've ever completed all of (for lack of options!). It's not "advanced" (introducing us to the imperfect?); it never reveals its Eurocentric focus; it wastes acres AND ACRES of space re-printing the SAME VERB conjugations it just conjugated a couple pages ago; it tells me that soccer is called -- wait for it: FÚTBOL. I do not need my grammar decorated up with your facile witless "cultural notes." If I want culture notes (WHICH I DO) I would like them to be pithy and linked to the language I am here to learn.
Don't buy this book (talking to you, too, libraries); don't support a publisher who thinks a pretty picture of mouths is what we want. I want my print workbooks dense and rigorous. This one isn't....more
WHOa. This is a feat of translation and also an exhibit of its complications. And -- ah! -- such an interest in rhyme (that the English 1960s edition WHOa. This is a feat of translation and also an exhibit of its complications. And -- ah! -- such an interest in rhyme (that the English 1960s edition did not bother much with). (My young Spanish-speaking student didn't know what "tutiplén" was -- so hm. I suspect the urge to rhyme may have driven this to a cliff.) Some phrases are just not nearly as fun as they were in English: "Si en un espejo se mirara un oso, siempre se vería hermoso." --- Nice, but wait: "If a grizzly bear was caught unaware, he would polish his nails and comb his hair." DUDE.
The one time the Spanish translation aced it over the English: "Si el correo lo repartiera un caracol, no habría cartas los días de sol." (If the mail was delivered by snail, there would be no letters on sunny days" is SO much more electrically daring than the original English: "If a snail delivered the mail, he would never go out in snow or hail."
Me and this workbook -- we have spent so much time together. We went to Mexico twice. Vermont, California, you name it, we've probably been there. ButMe and this workbook -- we have spent so much time together. We went to Mexico twice. Vermont, California, you name it, we've probably been there. But it wasn't until the pandemic that we really got to know each other. Lunchtime was our special time. And then, towards the end -- when we hit "Special Uses of Certain Verbs" and knew it would all be over soon, we spent time in the evening, too. Thank you, serious grammar workbook, for making things cheesy or light. You named all the parts of speech as they are named and I didn't always get it right away, but that's how it goes. Adios....more
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