Spanish Short Stories for Beginners: Learn Latin American Spanish Naturally

"Spanish Short Stories for Beginners vol.2" and the preceding volume 1, have been the most effective and enjoyable tools I've found for learning Spanish. The vocabulary will challenge students but will not frustrate them. Having English translations after each paragraph saves one from picking up a dictionary and figuring out the meaning word by word. The stories are so interesting and well written that they motivate the student to keep reading on and on. Reading these two books is a pleasant pastime, not a drudgery. I highly recommend both volumes and hope more are released.

I am in Intro Spanish II and got this to increase my reading skills. I enjoy Spanish from Latin America the most and loved how this book is set up. I tested so high in reading comprehension on the STAMP (7, should be a 4) that I earned the Global Seal of Bliteracy in Functional Fluency. That is crazy after two basic Spanish classes. Teachers wanted to know what I was learning outside of the classroom and I said just this book. I think this review says alot!

I like that the English translation follows each paragraph. There are regional differences in Spanish that are not lways accounted for, for example, if the story was set in Mexico I would expect wording from Mexico, not another Spanish speaking country.

I bought this book and some spanish grammar books nearly a year ago to begin my spanish journey. Like many, I hadn't had much experience with the language outside of a few interactions here and there and high school spanish classes. That's to say, I knew a bit of the language such as extremely basic vocabulary and some conjugation rules. Nearly a year later, and I consider myself nearly fluent in spanish. I can converse with native speakers, watch movies, and read in spanish without many difficulties. I give a lot of my thanks to this book specifically.This book does an EXCELLENT job at getting you used to the way Spanish is worded and the way verbs "feel". It also does a wonderful job of giving structure to self-study students of spanish with a vocab list for every story as well as reading comprehension questions. The words being used in stories will help you remember them more than you might imagine. One time, my friend and I were speaking in spanish and she was quizing me on words I might know. She tried to stump me with "gaviota" but funnily enough, I remembered it from the very first story in this book. Any future languages I attempt to learn will be using books such as this to get my footing in the language. 10/10 for self study language learning.

I love to read, so for me this turned out to be a very good way of learning a language. I am reading the Spanish paragraph first, try to understand the meaning, try to focus on the vocabulary and grammar that present a difficulty for me. If something is not clear then I read the paragraph in English. Or sometimes I just read it to confirm that I understood it correctly. The advantage of this method for me is that I can spend much time reading the stories since the content is both interesting and at the same time somewhat predictable. This is a good way of enlarging your passive vocabulary. I hope to buy more of such books!

I bought this book to help me learn Spanish. I am an intermediate beginner. I love that the book translates each paragraph into English (in a fainter type) immediately after the Spanish paragraph. It translates the idea (not word for word) which is helpful in learning how to express oneself in Spanish. I’m still near the beginning, but can tell I am going to enjoy improving my vocabulary and reading comprehension using this book. I recommend it!

This book is intended to teach people how to read Spanish. The book is a collection of short stories that are written in Spanish. Each story begins with a summary and is broken into 3 chapters. Each Spanish paragraph has an English translation directly beneath it to help the reader translate any word they’re having trouble understanding. Each chapter ends by asking a few multiple choice questions. There’s also a Spanish glossary list at the end of each chapter.The problem with this book is that many of the words are misspelled. Some of the questions at the end of chapters are misspelled or missing numbers. Sometimes the titles of chapters are misspelled or missing letters. Each chapter begins with a summary of what’s going on and oftentimes the summary has misspelled words and gets the names of characters wrong which is confusing.

Not only did I get to practice my Spanish, but the stories held my attention and made me want to go on. Having the English "sandwiched" between sections of each chapter with a vocabulary list at the end has proven to be a great way to organize a language reader. At least it has worked very well for me. I will continue to buy books organized this way to help me move on to mastering Spanish.

Well made book to learn spanish through readings

Perfect for beginners

Great resource to help develop your Spanish. The stories are interesting and unlike other books, the translation is in the next paragraph

I try to read a chapter a day. Cute stories and it is understandable if you have had some Spanish before. I studied Spanish for two years in college and I think this book is a good study to read on your own.

Good stories but the translation is at times incorrect.