Customer Reviews: Read 106 more reviews...
 A great easy reference for the most basic Spanish needs August 18, 2004
S. D Haynie (carlsbad, nm United States)
94 out of 103 found this review helpful
If you are intending to learn any new language, I first recommned that you read How To Learn Any Language. In that book, you'll find a recommendation to get a phrase book. The purpose of the phrase book is to give you prior practice in real-life situations. When you get a chance to memorize phrases ahead of time, that is the BEST way to use a phrase book. Your grammar book, and sometimes even your course, does not give you the "Which room is mine?" kind of phrases. Yes, you will need to flip through the book to find responses or the next question on different topic, but that is only if you do not practice a bit ahead of time.
This is a great phrasebook and is a great value!
Learn Spanish on the ... June 3, 2003
Chris Salzer (Gainesville, GA United States)
76 out of 84 found this review helpful
You can't beat this book - for the price and the small, yet concise and relevant content. Learn how to tell time, order food, go through customs, as well as greetings and social conversations just to name a few. Especially helpful are the pronunciation guides listed below each phrase. Muy bueno for the traveler or beginner.
Easy Spanish Phrase Book is Invaluable June 17, 2000
58 out of 61 found this review helpful
This book was invaluable on my recent family vacation to Zihuatanejo, Mexico! Spanish phrases are categorized according to the situation in which you will need them; for example, restaurants, banks, stores, post offices, etc. The pronunication keys were great. We ordered food, found an Internet cafe and a bank, and were able to get more toilet paper from the non-English-speaking hotel desk clerk at 10:30 p.m. I don't know what we would have done without it!
Nearly Perfect But Lacks Computer, Internet, & Email Vocabulary September 25, 2005
Patrick Jackson (Bronx, New York)
46 out of 48 found this review helpful
With respect to my qualifications, I am the founder of Learning Spanish Like Crazy, and the author of several articles on the topic of How to Learn Spanish. And I have also purchased nearly every Spanish course sold on the market.
I give this book 5 stars. And I am giving it 5 stars not only based on the content of the book but also because it is so reasonably priced. With less than 70 pages the Easy Spanish Phrase Book equips you with vocabulary and phrases for various topics and situations including but not limited to greetings, customs, baggage, general travel, travel by boat, travel by plane, travel by train, travel by bus and streetcar, travel by taxi, travel by car, at the hotel, at the restaurant, foods, church, sightseeing, sports, money and banking, shopping, colors, drgustores, laundry and dry cleaning, barber shop and beauty parlor, health and illness, dental appointments, telephoning, weather, time expressions, and many other topics and situations.
At $1.50 the book is clearly a bargain. (I actually purchased it when it was still less than a dollar.) The are only two things that I did not like about the book. Firstly, the author tries to teach the Spanish pronunciation for the words and phrases by providing a phonetic transcription below the Spanish lines. You clearly cannot learn proper pronunciation by reading a phonetic transcription. The only way to learn proper pronunciation is through listening and repeating.
I would have preferred it if the book also came with an audio CD. That way the reader could also learn the proper pronunciation of the 770 plus phrases. Realistically speaking, there's no way that the publisher would have been able to do so without significantly increasing the price of the book.
The second thing that I did not like about the book is that the vocabulary is "old." From what I could gather the book was originally published in 1959 and was updated in 1994. In the last 11 years, the whole world has been completely revolutionized by this thing called the Internet. Not one of the 770 Phrases covers the Internet, email or computers. Despite the fact that the Easy Spanish Phrase Book doesn't cover vocabulary or phrases for computers, Internet or email, I am still compelled to give it "cinco estrellas" based on other content and the price.
If you find that this book is useful, I would also recommend 1001 Most Useful Spanish Words by Seymour Resnick.
Indispensable & compact. And unbelievably, under a dollar! November 20, 1999
23 out of 30 found this review helpful
This book was indispensable and it fit right in my backpack. I used this book, the Menu-Master for Spain and the Chile guide by Youman and Estep. These three were all I needed for two weeks in Chile.
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