Streetwise Spanish (Book + 1CD): Speak and Understand Colloquial Spanish (StreetwiseSeries)

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.

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.

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.

Only slighlty useful. The CD is of no use at all for learning - it has too little information about too few places. It would have been better to teach U.S. urban terms instead of jumping from country to country giving single phrases.

A waste of money.

Throughout my student years I had always learned "proper" Spanish. Just learning proper spanish does not give you a real "feel" for the language. I found many of the phrases in this book quite entertaining and funny. There are chapters for different situations (expressing anger, romantic relationships) each with two conversations in Spanish and then an English translation. One of the most valuable aspects of the book is that they let you know which Spanish-speaking country the phrase is commonly used as well as giving you tips on what phrases are OK to use in one country but can be offensive in another.

The only reason I knocked one star off the rating is because it would have been helpful to include a list of commonly used English phrases with their equivalent Spanish phrases. It's good to know what people are saying, but it is equally good to know how to express yourself. For a more "dictionary" style book, get "The Red-Hot Book of Spanish Slang" written by the same authors.