Colloquial Spanish of Latin America: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series (Book Only))

This is a great book as you start basic sentences from Chapter 1. Finishing the book will make you fluent enough to get by in Spanish.

I find this book great as I am learning South American Spanish, not Spanish from Spain. My teacher, who is from Argentina, also has purchased this book and is using it with other students who are learning Spanish to be used in Latin America.

For my situation this product is great. I have been a pitiful excuse for a spanish major. Though i have studied in class,i still have very little ability to communicate verbally in Spanish. I checked this book/Tape series out at my library ONLYA WEEK AGO. The tapes work to connect my full brain in Spanish. I do have a certain familiarity with the language already. But have found myself unable to use the knowledge. I can see that if i had this long ago, i would be much more coherent in Spanish, and be of a mind to be able to quickly reply in spanish, when spoken to. I wish i would have had it long ago.
The book,i see, is very comprehensive, and clear, and well laid out. It appears to cover what you need without a lot of extras to get lost in. Better than any textbook i've ever seen. For someone taking a class in Spanish, or who has studied in the past in a class or on their own, this is a great tool. IF you have no understanding of Spanish whatsoever, I would advise you to begin somewhere else, or if you are a beginner who is serious about speaking it,perhaps incorporate this book/tape series with another more basic learning tool. The first half of side one tape one is very very very basic, then after that it is more for the intermediate student as i am. There is no in between level in this course. It should not be for the complete beginner as it was created for, at least not on it's own. However, for my purposes,I like it, and the price is very cheap. I spent over 200 dollars on another course, and i find this inexpensive one has helped me much more in the one week i've had it,than in the year i've had the other,much more boring course. A note: I do have to utilize my pause button frequently when i am participating with the tape. For this reason it is not a good "learn in the car" resource, unless you are particularly good at hearing spoken spanish. But, it is NOT necesary to use the book to benefit from the tape,provided you are not a complete beginner. THis is nice, because sometimes i am too lazy to read while listening. One disapointment is that there are only two tapes included.

I ordered this product on June 28th and it took 3 months for it to arrive!!! I think that alone disqualifies anyone from ever wanting it, but also, it glides through SPanish as though the individual is already fully conversant in Spanish, ie, has had at least 4+ years in school. I don't believe it's very useful, especially for the cost [$25.99] and wait!

This book get 5 star for a number of reasons, but the main reason its near and dear to my heart is because it actually address things like email addresses and other technology and how they translate in spanish, None of my other book on learing spanish devote any time to things like e-mail. Being that I work in I.T. in a city that is around 75% hispanic I find this to be a nice touch.
The Tapes are nice, and the book is well laid out. I recomend it to fill in all the gaps that spanish 'textbooks' have.