Outreach Spanish

This book was recommended while taking "conversational spanish" at our community college. I found it to be a great help,and recently ordered 5 copies to use with an "at home" study group. The book is divided into manageable sections, and concentrates more on getting your point across "conversationally" than conjugating verbs. If you learn most of what's in the book, you will be able to be understood in most any Spanish speaking country, regardless of dialect.

This book has an excellent, easy to access format that's great for studying or reference use when learning or teaching Spanish.

The book and tape work together great. The book gives you the visual kind of learning, and the tape gives you the hearing kind of learning. I am very pleased with the product.

I bought this book (with tapes) this summer while an intern with a public service agency in Los Angeles where nearly 40%-50% of the individuals we worked with either spoke only Spanish or did not have a strong enough command of English to navigate public bureaucracy. This book didn't make me fluent but it definitely helped in my being able to communicate with Spansh speakers in person or over the phone.

As the title suggests, this book is NOT geared towards "traveler Spanish." Do not buy this book if you're learning Spanish for travel related reasons--instead something like Lonely Planet Language Guides or Inflight CD will suffice for learning basic communication in a short amount of time.

This book was authored for individuals who may need to know basic Spanish in a more professional context. These books are increasingly appearing in the Learn Spanish section of most bookstores. For example, "Spanish for Doctors", or "Spanish for Law Enforcement Personnel." This book fills the gap where individuals may need to know Spanish but whose professional context don't fit neatly in specific categories like medicine.

For me a big help was the "Telephone" section of the book. The section included some of the more common questions and responses when persons call an office.

For example:
"May I speak to_______"/Puedo hablar con_______
"I'm calling about______"/Estoy llamando acerca de______
"I'll transfer you to______"/Le voy transferir a________

This is something I could not find in most other basic Spanish books. At the same time most of the situational dialogues introduced are still basic and/or more common situations. I doubt I'd be able to explain in Spanish legal issues even after reading the book cover to cover and listening to both accompanying tapes. But at the very least I didn't have to hang up on individuals simply because my bilingual co-worker was out of the office.

Please ignore all negative reviews of this product -- it has helped me connect to all the Latino people I've met! It truly is a tool we need to bridge the gap between two cultures. Buy it today!