Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish
by Joseph J. Keenan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joseph J. KeenanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1994
ISBN: 029274322X
Number of pages: 229
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Book Reviews of Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish
Book Review: The book you need to really understand and speak Spanish
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great book. Among the chapter highlights are:
- Ten Ways to Avoid Being Taken for a Gringo: Excellent things to think about if you want to fit in and not insult people by your actions.
- Minding Your Verbal Manners: Things Spanish-speakers would take for granted that any considerate, well-groomed person would know.
- The Secret Life of Verbs: Almost everything you need to know about verbs in general. (I like the summary of the future tense: for the most part, forget about it. But he does give a good summary on the use of the "Future of Uncertainty" construction.)
- The Twilight Zone: All about that beautiful, nasty subjunctive mood. Those who have studied Latin or Greek will not find the subjunctive terribly scary, but for everybody else... well, that's probably another story. I find Keenan's categorizations of the subjunctive usages very, very helpful. He does it differently than any grammar I've ever seen; taken together with a grammar, you have two different ways of looking at the same thing, which greatly helps you remember. For example, one of his categories is the "Traveler's Subjunctive"; when in Costa Rica, it was because of this book that I asked "¿Hay autobuses que vayan a Birri?" instead of the incorrect "... van a Birri?".
- Sixty-four Verbs: Better descriptions on their range of meaning and usages that the one-liners usually provided in dictionaries don't cover. Coverage varies from short to comprehensive. Has many good parts but some of the treatments are a bit weak. This is a common place for unexpected things to be thrown in due to his train-of-thought writing style (see below).
- Cranking Up Your Spanish: All those sentence starters ("En fin," "Es que," "A ver," etc.) that don't show up in grammars and can drive you crazy since they set the scene for the rest of the sentence.
- Snappy Answers: Quick responses to things that may catch you off-guard.
- Invective and Obscenity: Survey of forceful, rude, and obscene speech (with the obligatory warnings about things that may get you in a fight)
- Which is Which: Words that English speakers often confuse.
- Influences of Spanish on English and vice-versa
From my point of view, among the good points of the book are:
1. It helps with many problems the beginner is likely to have. Most language books are written by native speakers of the language. In this book, Keenan takes a different approach: he is going to explain all of the problems he had himself while learning the language and using it for many years among native Spanish-speakers. Since I expect I will have most of the same problems, having them laid out is very helpful.
2. It is extremely engaging. I have spent many nights up late reading it. Yes, you read that right. Don't think in terms of your typical grammar book: think in terms of an long article where a fellow Spanish learner says "Ok, here's everything I learned about the language."
3. It has filled in my experience with my other Spanish courses. Often, idiomatic words or phrases will come up in them that don't make a lot of sense. Keenan explains virtually all of them, including which sound stilted or odd to Spanish-speakers.
4. It has excellent sections on the difference between ser and estar, between the imperfect and the preterite, and the subjunctive. These are some of the bugaboos that traditionally plague us Spanish students. The ser/estar treatment in particular is better than any book I've used: he goes far beyond the typical "estar is for things that change" explanation - which is true but incomplete. I finally understand, for example, why you say "está muerto" instead of "es muerto."
5. It has good sections on how not to give offense to people from different cultures. In every culture, people do some things completely innocently that are interpreted in other cultures as aggressive or insulting. Although there is no single "Hispanic" culture, Keenan helps by pointing out some things that are commonly considered negative that I might not expect. I should note that Keenan's experience is primarily in Mexico, so most of the cultural and localized language usage tips are centered on Mexico.
I really, really, wanted to give this book 5 stars, but I can't. So what's not to like? Just two things, really:
1. It has no index. This makes it difficult to find words or phrases. I would expect this kind of book to have a fairly extensive index, but none is provided. As I use this book more and more, I find this to be a bigger and bigger problem. Often, I'll find I need to use some verb or construction and want to look it up. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to do because it could be in one of several chapters. Let's say I'm trying to remember something about a given verb: do I look in "Tricksters," "The Secret Life of Verbs," "The Twilight Zone," "Sixty-Four Verbs," or "Spanish Roots?" Or, let's say you are trying to remember a word or expression that you seem to recall is sometimes misused, and you want to use it right. Do you look in "Tricksters," "Invective and Obscenity," "Which is Which?", "Say it Right," or "The Big Mix?" I have spent more time than I like leafing through the various chapters looking for a word that could have been indexed.
This problem is made worse by Keenan's train-of-thought writing style. He introduces verbs and expressions in places where they don't at all fit, analytically speaking. Now, don't get me wrong - the writing style works, and very well. A more rigorously outlined writing style would not be nearly as easy and fun to read. But it makes it darn difficult to find what you're looking for. I have taken to writing cross-reference notes in my own copy.
2. Keenan uses obscenities more freely than I'd like (even outside the chapter specifically on obscenities). Now, I'm not a "schoolmarm" (Keenan's words); but I don't think this kind of language is really necessary. Not that the book is full of obscenities: it's not. But they pop up here and there (again, the train-of-thought style); it would have been fairly easy to substitute non-obscene language in most of these places, but he doesn't.
For these reasons, I could not give this book five stars. But, overall it is an excellent book, and one that will greatly enrich both your understanding and your fluency.
By the way, I've read other reviews and lists saying that this book is more for advanced students of Spanish. ¡No es verdad! While I'd agree that it's probably not for rank beginners, I believe one of the keys to really learning a language is to get out there and starting speaking to people as soon as you can. And this book gives you the tools to get out there, speak confidently and semi-fluently, and not give offence when you don't mean to.
Summary of Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish
Many language books are boring - this one is not. Written by a native English speaker who learned Spanish the hard way - by trying to talk to Spanish-speaking people - it offers English speakers with a basic knowledge of Spanish with hundreds of tips for using the language more fluently and colloquially, with fewer obvious 'gringo' errors. Writing with humour, common sense, and a minimum of jargon, Joseph Keenan covers everything from pronunciation, verb usage, and common grammatical mistakes to the subtleties of addressing other people, 'trickster' words that look alike in both languages, inadvertent obscenities, and intentional swearing. He guides readers through the set phrases and idiomatic expressions that pepper the native speaker's conversation and provides a valuable introduction to the most widely used Spanish slang. With this book, both students in school and adult learners who never want to see another classroom can rapidly improve their speaking ability. "Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish" will be an essential aid in passing the supreme language test-communicating fluently with native speakers. Joseph J. Keenan is a journalist, editor, and environmentalist who has lived and worked in Mexico since 1984.Spanish Books
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