My grandmother is a native of Cataluña, Spain. There are many occasions where I get to see her and she decides to speak to me in Spanish, but I only know some Spanish words and I can barely engage in a decent conversation. That is why I have finally decided to get a book and start learning this beautiful language. When I went to the book store, I came across the book Practice Makes Perfect: Basic Spanish by Dorothy Richmond.
The cover page of the book is not that appealing but at least the content of the material is packed with useful lessons for a total beginner like me who seriously wants to have a good start in learning Spanish. I’ve tried a lot of Spanish books before and I ended up being bombarded by complicated sentence structures that I myself couldn’t comprehend. I sometimes felt overwhelmed with difficult grammar and vocabulary and I became so intimidated by the information that I didn’t continue studying the language.
But this book is very different. It is very easy to use and it is specifically created for beginners. The book is designed to help students understand the fundamentals of Spanish grammar. Lessons are short but they are very concise and detailed. In a day, the typical student can spend a minimum of 30 minutes on one particular lesson and cover all of the topics and exercises. This works especially well for me since I have such a hectic schedule.
In terms of the specific lessons tackled by the author, I find them really useful. To my surprise, I didn’t get bored whenever I worked on the material. The workbook is practical since I get to learn about many things about the Spanish language like present tense verb conjugation, the ser and estar verb forms, sentence structures, adjectives, indefinitely articles, tener idioms and a whole lot more. To further increase my vocabulary, the book includes several kinds of topics for beginners like family, clothing, friends, animals, food and drinks to name a few. Common verbs used in Spanish like the “poder”, “hacer” and “saber” are also clearly explained in each lesson.
"The book is designed to help students understand the fundamentals of Spanish grammar. Lessons are short but they are very concise and detailed."
As the title suggests, the only way to perfect Spanish is to practice and practice. There are different exercises that students can work on for each and every lesson. After studying a particular lesson, there is a comprehension activity that helps students assess their comprehension. These exercises are extremely helpful because they enable me to keep track of my progress and work on my weaknesses throughout the whole book.
For the price of this book, I would highly recommend this to my friends and to others who want to start learning Spanish. At the very start, the author already made a remark saying that this material is not intended to be a primary teaching tool. I think I can understand her in that aspect. The book is created for beginners. It emphasizes grammatical concepts more than vocabulary. Intermediate and advanced students do not need this book. Teachers who want to use a comprehensive Spanish guide to teach students may have to look for other materials since this book is strongly recommended as an additional material.
