Learning Spanish entirely from a book is not recommended. Because learning Spanish is all about listening for sounds, accents and words, a book will not be of much use to you unfortunately. We only suggest you use a book to "learn" Spanish from if the book gives you simple, quick facts.
Because you're learning a new language (the main basis of communication throughout the world), you need to listen to people speaking Spanish and saying the words in order for you to progress. It's very learning it all in a book, but when you start to try and speak to Spanish-speakers, you WILL fall flat on your face.
This is not us trying to get you to buy a course or to put you off learning Spanish forever... it's just how it is. "Practice makes perfect" is an adage which is entirely true with Spanish. Any bi-lingual person who's learnt Spanish as their second language will tell you about how important listening and speaking are in the learning process.
The books we recommend using to help your Spanish along are more often than not called phrase books and are only small (usually designed to fit in your pocket). These books give you an unparalleled advantage over other Spanish learners because they basically give you the resource you need to learn Spanish right in your pocket. We only suggest the use of these books if you've already learnt quite a bit of Spanish and need some "help" in the wide World when talking to Spanish speakers.
Phrase books only work as "reminders" of phrases and words which are used the most. They are NOT dictionaries and are NOT fully-fledged Spanish courses, meaning you cannot learn Spanish directly from them. When looking for a learn Spanish book, you will have most success purchasing one with the following traits:
- It's small enough to fit in your pocket yet the text is big enough to actually read
- It's got plenty of information and reference material inside
- It covers a wide range of topics / areas of the language.
We suggest that, if you're looking for a resource to learn Spanish from, you don't use a book on its own. We recommend you use a full Spanish course such as Rocket Spanish or Rosetta Stone Spanish to be sure that you're not only learning the correct information, but you're also learning it in the most productive and effective way possible.
If you're looking to learn Spanish and don't know where to start, or just want to start to learn for whatever reason, why not take a look at our homepage? |
