I've been giving myself a quick, crash course in Spanish using Getting Started with Spanish by Antonia Orto and William Linney. William Linney wrote the book Getting Started with Latin, which I like so much as a very easy, direct and fun way to get a solid introduction to Latin. Well, here, his friend Antonia uses the same exact, step by step approach and teaches Spanish. It is amazing how solid a foundation one can get just by learning one simple thing in each of the 177 short lessons.
To honest though, I am just up to Lesson 122 or according to my Kindle 48% through the book. Since I am flying through this book (I started it about 10 days ago) I have to say I am really just learning to read simple Spanish. If I took the time I'd go back and really focus on speaking it. But while I say a few of the exercises out loud, I haven't been emphasizing that part of my study.
If you want to hear audio helps related to this book, here's your link. While I think the whole approach that Linney has developed is just pure genius in terms of making learning a language easy, the version on the Kindle has some flaws. For instance the Lessons are set up in one big chunk so it is very hard to go back and refocus on a particular lesson. Secondly, the grammar charts are way too tiny in print. I have my Kindle type set to a fairly large size because of my bad eyes, but the print in the charts is tiny! I have to use a magnifying glass to read them. Also, I can't find a glossary of all the new vocabulary words. So if I forget the meaning of a word I have to go back, chapter by chapter, searching for it. So it isn't as user friendly as it could be. It probably would be much better to get the actual book.
Anyway, now I can say things like Yo quiero leer libros in espanol!
This is a really solid way to introduce young (and old!) students to Spanish.
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Sounds good - I'd like to look at it just to understand conjugations better. I've been learning Spanish through Duolingo (which focuses more on the speaking aspect); it's been great!
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