Product Description

Speaking Spanish Like a Native makes eye contact with the reader. This book will awaken the student to a more lively way of learning while spicing up their Spanish speaking ability. Written in an entertaining and colorful style, Speaking Spanish Like a Native pulls you out of the classroom and places you into the huddle with native Spanish speakers—giving you the inside scoop on words, phrases, and expressions you cannot get from textbooks. While many books merely inform, this one also teaches, and it leads by example—practical and engaging examples that show the student how to speak in the context of real conversations with native speakers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43192 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-30
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 193 pages

Charles Hall, author of Mazatlan IS Paradise
A "must read" for anyone interested in convincing native Spanish speakers that they are serious about learning Spanish.

Martha Armenta Director of English & Spanish for All Language Learning Center, Mexico
I enjoyed the language and the approach and I would recommend it to all of our students of Spanish.

Alan Cogan, Cogan's Reviews, Mexconnect, March, 2006
It's an excellent book for learning widely used words and expressions not found in textbooks.

Customer Reviews

Finally!!
all i can say is that finally i have found a Spanish book that allows me to actually understand a native speaker. Numerous times, I have struggled because I would speak in "formal" Spanish as taught in the classroom and textbooks and the natives would understand me but I didn't understand their responses. This book has been a great help in bridging that gap. gracías!

Great for Intermediate/Advanced Speakers
Don't be fooled by the low-budget, cheesy-looking cover (sorry, Mr. Kim). This book is fantastic, well organized into useful phrases that even very advanced speakers may not be familiar with until they really look into speaking like a true native. For those of you who loved Keenan's Breaking out of Beginner's Spanish and want something in the same style, this book will not disappoint.

Spanish Instructor's Review of Speaking Spanish Like a Native
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R368SB5KQ1B1T6 Speaking Spanish Like a Native is a book that I'd recommend for intermediate to advanced students. There's definitely a greater emphasis on "Mexican" Spanish in this book than the Spanish that is spoken in other parts of the Spanish speaking world. It is probably not the type of book that a Spanish instructor would find helpful when preparing her own classes. But it is certainly a book that intermediate to advanced students will find fun to read on their own. Here are some other Amazon products that I either use when teaching my own private students or tools that I recommend that they use while studying Spanish at home.

1. The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice w/CD-ROM (Ultimate Review & Reference) No Spanish Instructor should be without this book. Besides 501 Spanish Verbs, I believe that this is the most important tool for learning Spanish. As an instructor, I use this book to get ideas on subjects that I wish to teach. This book also has many exercise that students can perform at home.

2. Learning Spanish Like Crazy: Spoken Spanish, Vol. 1 (2 volume set) When my students ask that I recommend a self-study audio course to use at home, I always recommend this one. I like it because it has Spanish speakers from many different Latin American countries, and in some cases you will hear speakers from the same country but from different cities or regions from the same country which gives them distinct accents. I like this method because it helps the student become accustomed to hearing different accents.

Although Learning Spanish Like Crazy does cover colloquial Spanish, it does not cover slang. It also does not cover nearly as much colloquial Spanish as this book "Speaking Spanish Like a Native." But LSLC uses a teaching method that will have your students Pronouning Spanish Like a Native.


3. Easy Spanish Phrase Book: Over 770 Basic Phrases for Everyday Use (Dover Easy Phrase) This phrase book is an excellent buy. It has lots of phrases that will help your students quickly begin learning lots of new phrases. Your students will also like the fact that it is a bargain. It was written a long time ago so it does need some updating.

4 1001 Most Useful Spanish Words (Beginners' Guides)This is another phrasebook. It is also an excellent buy with lots of new vocabulary words and phrases. This one is also a bargain. But like Easy Spanish Phrase Book: Over 770 Basic Phrases for Everyday Use (Dover Easy Phrase) it was written a long time ago so it does need some updating.

5. Vox Modern Spanish and English Dictionary
No teacher's teaching-Spanish tool box would be complete without a Spanish-English dictionary. This one is my favorite. No matter which dictionary I choose for my students, there are always words missing, mainly because many times we'll use different vocabulary words depending on the Spanish speaking country that one is from. But let's just say compared to other Spanish-English dictionaries, it is less common that I will not be able to find a Spanish word listed in this dictionary.