Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish by Joseph J. Keenan
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Book Reviews of Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish
Book Review: I liked it
Summary: 5 Stars
Having read only the first few chapters, it has taught me quite a few things about the hispanic cultures I have experienced and read. Combining this book with other cultural experiences like TV, songs.... Paid sites like LomasTV, free sites like Livemocha, and other sites like the University of Texas spanish online references..... One realize that this book summarizes regional customs and vocabularies quite well. I would disagree about this book is only helpful for intermediate users. While it is of excellent value for intermediate and advanced Spanish speaker - it would equally be beneficial for a beginning Spanish student in an immersion program, or to supplement the teachings of a college spanish course. It is nice to know, for instance, that there are over a dozen way to say "how is it going?", and how to be polite in Spanish culture. While one pick up bits and pieces here and there, this book does a good job of summarizing the daily phrases that one encounter on the street, walking into a store, or as you meet hispanics along your way. I would say it is an excellent read before you head off to Europe, central or south America - even if you are still a beginning Spanish learner.
Once you've gone through the first few chapters, the book really is loaded, and will give you a royal headache to absorb the content if you read it from cover to cover. I would suggest jumping around a bit. Read about ser and estar. Read about proper use of the verb tenses. Then read the hard to memorize stuff last. It is very loaded..... Tonnes of good information that is not touched on by college spanish year 1 or 2. And lots of stuff that is explained in an easy to understand way that is often too dry and boring in standard textbooks. Although it is a thin book, don't expect to read it in 1 week. It is loaded with facts and didactics, that will need to be read again, and again.
In term of needing a brief index - it would be very helpful, especially for the beginner who will use it as a supplement to their spanish textbook. As reading it from cover to cover would be difficult without an intermediate spanish background. However, it is small enough that flipping through it will often get you to the chapter you'd want to be in. I think this book goes into more detail the details of spanish language than many introductory spanish texts.
For the advanced spanish user, chapters on cognates, spanish verbs etc. are invaluable to help develop that instinctive sense in speaking thee language.
I would suggest a brief index with the next edition, but the book still deserve a 5 star.
Addendum: I've read through about half of the book. This book is intense. It is like the equivalent of a 300 level college spanish class I've taken, plus more. My guess is that I will continue to refer back to it, and reread it again. It is of value to a beginner who is doing an immersion course, or a spanish major at any level of spanish. Don't expect to plow through this book. I would select a chapter, and focus on it for the week.
Book Review: A unique reference that tackles important concepts
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this book 3 years ago and I clearly remember my first impressions. I thought to myself "how handy this is the first of its kind". This Spanish reference will definitely give you the finishing touches to your Spanish in terms of authenticity and helping your day to day Spanish sound natural and on the level of a native speaker. I bought the book to find out the greatest challenges that students who are studying Spanish face outside of grammatical, pronunciation and phonetic issues. Although the title of the book is: Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish, the topics covered and the information offered is definitely beneficial to the advanced student and to those who have travelled around Latin America or Spain. Chances are these students will have heard the numerous verbs, phrases and expressions used and have had difficulty understanding the meaning, nuance and how to use the verb or expression correctly in everyday speech.
The book's intent is to clarify traditional errors that non-native Spanish speakers make and to offer an explanation and the logic behind the usage in Spanish. The book covers a broad range of topics such as: tricksters (also known as false cognates which are words that look similar to an English word but have a completely different meaning),verb usage and key exceptions, tips for correct usage of the subjunctive which always proves to be problematic for non-natives, a special look at sixty-four verbs with a complete analysis of proper usage, key phrases typically used by native speakers, making the right choice of words and anglicisms.
The book answers questions that grammar books and dictionaries don't offer. As an educator of the Spanish language I am familiar with and have read numerous reference material in English and Spanish and this is the first of it kind. Finally, a book that focuses on problematic concepts in Spanish that need to be addressed in order to speak correctly, avoid blunders, to know when you have been insulted, increase cultural awareness and to sound as authentic as possible when speaking Spanish.
The book is definitely beneficial to those who have advanced knowledge of Spanish and a solid command of its grammar, those who have travelled to several Latin American countries and those who have specific queries about an idiom, verbs, "must know" vocabulary and terms. I suggest reading the book thoroughly for understanding of the its objective and then re-reading the book with a focus on your own queries that need clarification. I think the book is great and true to its objective, unfortunately I have yet to use the concepts with my students because of their level but it has been put to good use thus far as I enjoy reading it from time to time because it has such a wealth of information beneficial to all. I strongly recommend this purchase to all students and those who have an interest in Spanish. This was a carefully compiled reference material.
Book Review: Intelligent, sympathetic, and extremely useful
Summary: 5 Stars
The only thing wrong with this excellent book is the title. This is not for beginners - the author assumes that you already have a good working knowledge of the tenses, and that you have at least made a few forays into the subjunctive. 'Breaking out of Intermediate Spanish' would have been a more accurate title.
Intelligently written, accessible without being patronising, the the best way to characterise the book would be as a companion to learning; it is not a textbook and does not try to be.
It is however a godsend for people who, like me, find that their conversational level lags behind their academic knowledge of Spanish. The author gives you the all-important sentence starters (es que, resulta que, fijate, la verdad es que ... etc) and explains exactly what they mean in context and when to use them. He also shows you how to get a grip on those almost-meaningless but indispensable fillers (pues, bueno, lo que pasa es que...) which serve the dual purpose of giving you a breathing space while making you sound more fluent and natural. Other chapters include a focus on 64 of the trickiest verbs, how to develop automatic 'snappy answers' (imaginate! no puede ser, da igual), as well as the notorious falsos amigos.
The author is particularly good at illuminating concepts that resist direct translation from English to Spanish ('to become' springs to mind) and encouraging a real understanding of the difference in perspective between the two languages.
Unlike many language-teaching books, which often have a irritating tendency to imply that somehow you 'ought' to know this or that, this author gives the impression that he is entirely on your side, as a learner - he acknowledges all the the frustrations, puzzles, ambiguities and irritations, as well as the excitements, of learning another language. He admits to having learnt Spanish 'the hard way', and there are none of the usual boasts about how he became fluent in a few months or whatever, which can be so discouraging for those of us who find the spoken language difficult. The emphasis is on South American Spanish, but if you are learning European Spanish, don't worry, because where there are differences, the book points them out.
Finally it is never boring - you can sit back, relax and enjoy it - quite an achievement for a book on foreign language acquisition! Highly recommended.
Book Review: Worth every penny!
Summary: 5 Stars
I cannot say enough good things about this book! It is written by a native English speaker who has lived in Mexico for years. So he understands the common pitfalls of the English-speaker and understands (better than most native-Spanish speakers) what concepts are confusing to the English-speaker.
In my experience, your average Spanish textbook presents grammar as a set of rules and uses dry, academic language to explain them. They use a lot of grammatical terminology to explain the rules ("Use the subjunctive in clauses with an indefinite antecedent" and terms like "adverbial clauses", "coordinating conjunctions", "gerunds", and "objective case"). So you spend as much time trying to understand the jargon and English grammar rules as you do learning the Spanish grammar. As Keenan proves, you DO NOT have to teach a foreign language this way!
In this book, Keenan gives simple explanations of Spanish grammar rules. And he does so in a way that is much more intuitive (and humorous) than typical Spanish textbooks. His chapter on idiomatic expressions that help your speech sound more natural and less stilted has really helped me improve my spoken Spanish. The chapter on the 64 most common Spanish verbs is far more helpful and explanatory than any dictionary or verb book that I have used in the past. Rather than list 4 or 5 meanings for the verb "quedar" with no explanation, Keenan gives you the most important/common uses and in what contexts people use them.
A major focus of the book is on mistakes that English-speakers often make in their Spanish--whether it be false cognates or trying to decide which word to use when there are 3 or 4 slightly-different words to pick from.
Keenan's writing is always humorous and easy-to-understand. It's never overwhelming. I highly recommend this book for students who've had about 1 year's worth of Spanish study and have a basic understanding of the various verb tenses. If you are taking a conversation class, DEFINITELY buy this book!
Book Review: This book is deserving of about 10 stars!
Summary: 5 Stars
As a Spanish major who has also spent several summers in Mexico, I have read pretty much every Spanish text I have come across. In all that reading, I have never found another Spanish book that even comes close to this one (in accuracy, helpfulness, readability, and other key areas).Keenan does an excellent job of picking out the specific Spanish words and phrases that cause English speakers the most problems. I have several friends who are also studying Spanish. It seems like 9 times out of 10 when they ask me a question, it is an issue that was covered in "Breaking out.."
This book was written with the reader's attention span in mind. Imagine: a Spanish text that is actually enjoyable to read! I read this book cover-to-cover at least once a year. Every time I glean some new pointer that I can implement in my constant quest to sound like less of a gringa.
Sections include a discussion of the subjunctive, a chapter on cursing (!), cultural info, general language learning tips, useful verbs to add to your repertoire, and discussion of the evolution of the Spanish language. To me, the most helpful sections were those dealing with word choice: a couple of chapters that deal with stuff like "what is the difference between regresar, volver, devolver, etc.?"
If you have a general grasp of the basics in Spanish but feel like your learning has kind of reached a plateau, this book is an excellent resource for learning how to get your Spanish to the next level.
The only negative I can think of is that the book is not indexed. As a result, after reading the book initially, when you find yourself with a question that you know was answered somewhere in the book (a frequent ocurrence), it sometimes takes a moment to flip through the book and find the exact paragraph where he talked about it.
If I could only have one Spanish book, it would be this one. I would even choose it over 501 verbs and probably even my dictionary.