Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Vocabulary (Practice Makes Perfect Series)

This book might be good if you are a real beginner learning Spanish. As an intermediate learner, I found the vocabulary sections to be of very limited use. One other thing I didn't care for was the way the writer explained concepts in the non-vocabulary (i.e. grammar) sections. Rather than getting straight to the point, the author rambles quite a bit and uses odd analogies to convey information that could be delivered in a quicker, shorter and much more straight forward manner. I at times wondered if she thought she was either a talk show host who had to fill the air with pointless drivel, or was writing for a kindergarten audience that needed to be entertained with little stories and analogies.

Many students find that they just don't have enough vocabulary to carry on a simple conversation. This book will solve most of your everyday problems.

Let's examine the problem of foreign-language vocabulary acquisition. First of all, the vocabulary you'll need will not be exactly the vocabulary you use in English. While it's a very good idea to make lists of words to cover the things you normally talk about in English, this strategy ignores the fact that there are words you'll need in Spanish that have to do with that "world" or "culture" and that often have no exact counterparts in English. Still, Ms. Richmond's book will get you moving in the right direction!

If you're a bit more advanced and need help with specific aspects of Spanish grammar, there are other, more focused treatments.

Keep on working with this beautiful language!

Eric W. Vogt, Ph.D.

Spanish Vocabulary is a much better product than its French counterpart. Still, there needs to be more translation exercises!!! I'm not looking for anything "cutesy" or "hip". I want to increase my vocabulary with translation exercises, including paragraph translations.

Also, there are "adult themes" in this book. (There's a warning on the back cover.) Why we have to have adult themes in this book, I do not know. I loved the focus on professional situations, like chemistry labs, office, etc. But, I could only roll my eyes and shake my head when she mentioned a Filipino "adult film" star.

My preceptions of this book is as much a product of my learning style as anything else. I first this book at Borders, and it looked like just the type of thing I would need to get a quick working vocabulary in Spanish, then I can come back and tighen up on the grammer and converstaion.

It does this in a general way, but there are a few points that keep it from being a truly 5 star publication.

First off, there are just too many words! Really...the author says close to 10 000! Thats way way to many to learn effectively. The begininer vocabulary for a language is pretty standardized, and while I appreciate wanting to add value to a product, it would be much more effective to concentrate on fewer words and themes.

Second, there are all these words, but no dictonary in the back! If you miss its definition, your on your own trying to find out the meaning. This type of thing is also pretty standard among language training texts.

Lastly, categorizing the chapters by themes would also be helpful. This type of assocation certainly helps in my ability to remember things, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Outside of this, I found it a worthwhile study aid. Lots of short, focused excercises with just enough whimsy ("Mi vaca está en el garage" is the answer for an excersise, for example) to keep it intresting. I would still recommend it, but gosh darn it, these issues are just to glaring to ignore.

Wish I had started with this book as an overall view of Spanish. It was very helpful presenting many subjects in a very simple meaningful succinct way. Would recommend it to the begining student as well as the more experienced learner.