World Famous Comics: Correct Your Spanish Blunders
Correct Your Spanish Blunders
By: Jean Yates Publisher: McGraw-Hill Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: McGraw-Hill Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 356 Publication Date: November 04, 2004
Product Description: A witty, fast-paced guide to eliminating Spanish bloopers for beginners Mixing genders, inverting subjects and objects, and trusting falsos amigos (a.k.a., false cognates) are just a few of the blunders English-speaking Spanish-language learners commonly make. In Correct Your Spanish Blunders, veteran Spanish teacher Jean Yates identifies these and other common trouble spots and clearly explains the reasons behind them.
Learners discover how grammar patterns of Spanish differ from those of English and why trying to translate word for word, structure for structure, from English, can lead to big trouble.
Great for Knowing what NOT to say Especially for English speakers learning Spanish at an intermediate to advanced level. I am a Spanish Teacher and I bought this to share insights to my students of WHY you don't say something a certain way - usually when directly translated from English. I also keep it as a reference myself. For intermediate to advanced speakers can help to finally rid yourself of common language mistakes - you may be making all the time and not realize it!
How to Stop Making the Same Mistakes in Spanish I've been reading through this book, and I think it would be helpful to any Spanish student. Although I find highlighting the blunders in red troublesome. It would probably reinforce the mistake instead of preventing the student from making it.
The book's blunders are divided into the following sections:
A mi, no me gusta este libro I have been studying Spanish for 5 years or more, and am always looking for another book to help me improve. This book may be beneficial to some.....it depends on how your brain is wired. This book has a highlighted box around each "blunder" while the correct way to express the Spanish is not highlighted, and in fact, at times can be difficult to find in the paragraphs preceding or following the highlighted blunder. So I am blinded by the glare from the highlighted blunder, without being able to see the correction. I agree with a previous reviewer: I feel that the errors are being cemented in my brain, not the correction. This is the only Spanish instructional book for which I have ever wanted a refund. But I own it now. I keep picking it up, thinking maybe this time it will help me. Then I put it down, thinking that this book and I really do not get along. Good luck to you, but I would not buy this one.
I Agree That The Book's Presentation Is Not Great I never liked books that point out the wrong things. That is because you will remember those things more than the correct things as one reviewer rightly pointed out. I remember going to a cashier's training for spotting conterfeit money. Rather than show us conterfeits they made us spend hours examining genuine bills and later tried to throw in some conterfeits and they were easy to spot because we were so used to the real thing. That being said the book could have been made more effective by having more emphasis on the correct way to say these things and de-emphasis on the incorrect way of saying the same things.
This book will help you correct your Spanish Blunders While I do think the author should change the box that says, "Avoid the Blunder" to "Speak Like a Native Speaker, Say..." and then list the correct phrase(s) to say, the content of the rest of the book is excellent. The author clearly states the rules to follow and gives good examples. The book is well written and comprehensive. To get past the minor shortcoming of the book, the reader can pencil in the correct way to say things into the blunder boxes so they're imprinted in the reader's brain. I also learned a lot from reading "Pitfalls of Spanish" but I find this book to be more comprehensive and with more numerous examples.
Jade Lindquist 'Finally Learn Spanish' podcasts by Edufone
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
