Reading and listening are both essential parts of learning Spanish. Since we don't live in a Spanish-speaking country, students should try to immerse themselves artificially by reading books and magazines and watching movies.
There are many periodicals in Spanish which are good for building vocabulary (if not necessarily educational otherwise), such as People in Español. These are available at larger newsstands in Berkeley and Oakland, or for loan from Mariposa Academy. Some recommended magazines are shown below at Magazines.
Below are some materials we recommend.
Dictionaries and Other Reference Materials
Oxford Spanish-English Dictionary. If you are a serious student of Spanish, you will have the Oxford Spanish-English Dictionary at hand. It is really good because it includes a lot of idiomatic expressions and also tells you in which countries the word is used. Here in California a lot of what you will hear comes from Mexico, of course. To a Mexican, if you say "ahorita" (literally, "little now"), it means "right now." But if you say "ahorita" to an Argentinian, they laugh because to them it means "little now."
This book is incredibly boring but a consistent best-seller because it is useful for conjugating verbs.
We use this at Mariposa Academy for beginners and you can obtain it from us at the Amazon price.
This is a great pocket dictionary with a kind of plasticized cover, at a fair price. Between this and the Oxford (above), you will be set.
Yes, grammar. If you try to study grammar books, you will be bored out of your skull and quit, and who could blame you. We advise just using them as reference tools. This one is good for that.
Magazines
This is not a translation of the People from the English. They concentrate on Latin personalities.
Like People, this magazine concentrates on subjects of interest to Latinas
If you like National Geographic in English, and enjoy learning equivalent terms in Spanish, you will like this. (Technical terms are very often more similar to the English than other words.)
We have not actually reviewed this magazine. It looks like it would be similar to a family- homemaking magazine like you would see in the supermarket.
This is just like Reader's Digest in English. It is an excellent vocabulary builder because they tend to not throw in words a beginner will stumble over.
Kids' Books in Spanish
CD's for Kids
Kids' CDs in Spanish are not always as instructional as they look. But try these:
CD's and Audio for Grown-Ups
Just like music CD's in English, the clarity of the lyrics is often sacrificed for artistic goals. If you like Latin music, listening to it certainly will not hinder your progress, so by all means "adelante" (go ahead. But if you want to improve your hearing comprehension more quickly, we recommend listening to the news in Spanish or watching films. Both satellite companies and the cable company have packages that include just about all the Spanish language stations you could ever wish for. Check these links:
