[.ca] Spanish Made Simple: Revised and Updated (ISBN 0767915410)

A bit of a bad rap.:
Certainly not a one-star book. It can be very helpful, but you have to be willling to devote time for memorization. It is not for everyone. This book is very dense in information and will give you a solid background in Spanish, but you must devote time to studying it like you would any textbook, and limit yourself to one lesson a day, or it will frustrate you with all you cannot remember. Also, I do not like the 8-1/2 x 11 format.

The Best Beginner-to-Intermediate Spanish Language Book:
While studying Spanish using the excellent Pimsleur CD's, I began to look for a book to add variety to my study. After trying several books from my library I concluded that Spanish Made Simple was far-and-away the best. I bought the revised (2004) edition which has an improved layout over the earlier (1984?) revision. After a brief introduction to pronouciation, the reader follows along as Mr.Adams is taught Spanish by a native speaker. I recommend that the reader also use an audio method of learning to supplement the book to get the pronounciation right. (The CD's mentioned above are very expensive but excellent.)

Spanish Made Accessible:
This book, like the other four language Made Simple books, is a helpful resource for students who need a grammar base for their language learning--as most second-language learners do. The exercises eliminate the need to memorize and each lesson builds on the previous lessons. No, you won't become fluent with this or any other text; but you will develop a working knowledge of the language. I wish the publishers of Made Simple books would fund more books of its kind. Buy it.

Horrible.. terrible.. unbelievable:
I bought this book for a spanish class. Since I am not a native english speaker, I have studied many other language teaching books, but this one has a very special place. It is the worst one that I have ever seen. There is no teaching methodology, only trying to give some useful sentences. Best of it, it also translates names, such as Jorge -> George, Jose -> Joseph. It is radicilous. After reading that I started to think people should call me Burak in my home country and Barry in english speaking countries. Keep away from this one, unless it is a must to buy for a class or something like that.

Great book for learning Spanish:
This is a great book for learning Spanish. You have to devote a lot of time to it. But keep in mind that there is no course out there that can teach you a language fluently in a short time. I found the letters at the last chapters very interesting. It gives you some practice in reading Spanish. I think this course give you all the basic Spanish you need to know and with further practice you are well prepared for a visit to Spanish speaking country. I just would like to tell you that in order to speak a language fluently you have to practice a lot. No one book or course can teach you that. Especially with all the variations of Spanish in Latin America. But this book gives you the fundamentals, and a little more.