Learn Spanish The Lazy Way (Learn Spanish The Lazy Way - Macmillan Lifestyle Group)

Member Name: quirky

Product:	Learn Spanish The Lazy Way - Macmillan Lifestyle Group
Date:	31/08/01 (178 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to get into, doesn't bore you with dry presentation, teaches you stuff you will use

Disadvantages: Misses out a big chunk of "proper" Spanish, Americanised in places

What a dream, learning a language without any effort! But in reality, just how lazy does it allow you to be?

When I was at school I took Spanish for a year before starting GCSEs and it was awful. It seemed impossible to pronounce, nothing fitted together and it was deadly boring. Hmph. I gave up and took French. A bad decision, it turned out to be even worse! But I digress.

Now fast forward to June 2000 and for "personal reasons" (see my user page for details, Quirky fans! Well, my Mum *might* be reading..) I decided to learn Spanish again. Being a busy career guy (i.e. goes to work and does it really half a***d, emailing his mates about what time we are going to meet in the pub) I didn't have enough time to invest in a course at the local college. So I decided to buy one of them "teach yourself" books. Gulp. I was a bit worried about the gathering dust factor, so I wanted to get one that would be ideal for me.

Not being an idiot, I decided not to go for an "idiots guide" or some such. As I wasn't a proper student, I thought a proper textbook was a bit much. Then I spotted this on the virtual shelves of an online store. Ahhh! It seemed to be written with me in mind! I know they say don't judge a book by its cover, and judging by its title is possibly worse, but with a name like "Learn Spanish The Lazy Way" I couldn't resist. I sent off my £10 via the virtual post and within a week it was in my sweaty palms.

The first thing that greets you upon opening it is a list of why you should "do it the lazy way". These tips seemed ideal, make the most out of a limited vocabulary with bluffers tips. I was hooked, I *lived* the lazy way, this book was preaching to the converted!

The "paella" bits
=================

The entire book is written in a kind of jovial fashion and made for entertaining reading. The main problem I had at school was that it
was all so…. dry. "OK class, lets read chapter 5 and for homework blah blah blah" But with the writing style employed, learning stuff is second to reading the chapters. They are peppered with Spanish cultural explanations and comical anecdotes.

When it does want to teach you stuff, the grammar is taught well and simply. It teaches you assuming you know virtually nothing of English grammar (which I didn't!) let alone Spanish. This is definitely a Good Thing, as you can wow your chums with talk of "Past Participles". Or perhaps not. But it is definitely useful later. It also manages to do this without sounding patronising.

The author also tries hard not to teach you stuff that you won't use straight away. No "which way to the police station" in chapter 1, for example. I mean, come on, how often do you ask that in English anyway? You are hardly going to ask it in a foreign country. This helpful vocabulary approach means that you gain a bit of confidence, as everyday words are easier to learn than the stuff you would never need. Speaking of confidence, it does get pointed out that the best way to learn is speak to Spaniards, but admits that at first this is daunting. Luckily, the way stuff is introduced, if you can't say the exact something that you want, it gives you tips on how to bluff it. Marvellously lazy.

I was quite lucky in this respect, as I had a few Spanish friends, but it also suggests ways to meet willing victims, er, I mean 'people to talk to'. Even so, this does seem a bit against the ethos of the lazy way, but I suppose you will have to speak to someone at some point.

OK, so far so good. Sadly, as with everything, this book is not perfect. It would be hypocritical of me to say it was, especially after my last opinion. So that brings me to:

The "Costa del Sol" bits
========================

You still need to study! The book does its
best, but sadly I couldn't hide from the fact that sometimes I had to actually sit down and, ugh, learn stuff. Oh well, it's character building I imagine. And ways are suggested to take the learning bit at your own pace. Oops, more praise. Sorry, this is supposed to be the bad bit section...

Now the biggest fault of the whole book: It misses out an entire pronoun and the corresponding way to conjugate the verbs. Errr, I may have lost you there. I will elaborate.

Because the book is aimed at the American market, most of the learning is aimed towards South American Spanish, rather than the Castellano spoken in most of Spain. This means that the author glosses over the "vosotros" form of the verbs. This is used when you speak to a group of people, and say things like "Are *you all* going to..." Apparently, they don't use this in South America. So if you were using just this book, you would have a fairly big hole in you Spanish knowledge. Dang and blast. A workaround is suggested, but it is not really ideal, you would need to consult another text if you were really serious. Or do what I did and look it up on the net.

The book points to a few web sites for information and on the whole these are ok. However, as the book is knocking on for a couple of years old, it's inevitable that some of the links are gone or have changed now. Not a big problem, as you could find most of what you need using a decent search engine.

Finally, being American the whole thing is a bit americanised. This is clear from a couple of metaphors used and some spelling gaffs. It didn't bother me, but I know that some folk get irate at this.

So, in conclusion, this is a really good entry-level book. It starts with the basics and builds up to some pretty advanced stuff, all without making you break into a sweat. Not without faults of course, which is why it doesn't get 5 stars, but I would thoroughly recommend it
to anyone thinking of learning Spanish. It's a damn sight easier than French too.

Book: Learn Spanish The Lazy Way (1999 paperback)
Publisher: Macmillan Lifestyle Guides
Author: Steven R. Hawson
ISBN 0-02-862650-8

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