Customer Rating:  
Summary: Much Better with Behind the Wheel Spanish
Comment: Rick Steves is sort of a hero of mine. I enjoy his programs on PBS.
He does sometimes tend to oversimplify travel and now languages. The real problem with Rick is that he can't speak languages, admits that he can't and then he goes on to write books about how to speak them.
Still, the 'blind leading the blind' has its advantages. Rick knows what works for a 'tongue tied American' and therin lies the advantage.
You will never learn to speak Spanish with this book alone. It is a guide that will help you.
I have gotten excellent results using Behind the Wheel Spanish 8 CDs
in my car and reviewing Rick's book out of my car.Behind the Wheel Spanish/Complete Illustrated Text/Answer Keys/8 One Hour
Customer Rating:
Summary: RICK STEVES SPANISH PHRASE BOOK
Comment: This little book contains very essential phrases that you need to know. Also i liked that the book is small enough to carry around in my travels to South American & Mexico.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Probably helpful for Spain, but not for South America
Comment: I bought this book for a trip to Argentina. I know different countries speak variations on the same language - the English we speak isn't identical to what you hear in the UK, for example - but I didn't know how relatively useless this book would be there.
I found some words and phrases I needed, and the content at the beginning, the numbers, days of the week, months, and so on, were useful, especially the counting, because numbers are always the hardest to grasp in another language. The dictionary, greatly truncated as these usually are, has lots of helpful words, in both Spanish-English and English-Spanish.
I also thought the tear-out cheat sheet, printed on heavier paper, was handy, and appreciated the sly funny stuff Steves has slipped into the book - the handy phrases for picking up women, or for imploring the speed-demon taxi driver to slow down. The situational phrase section, covering what you need to know to travel, eat out, get medical care, and so on, were also useful, for the most part.
My complaint is that there is no acknowledgment of linguistic differences between Spain and the rest of the Spanish-speaking world. So I couldn't use much of the dining-out section, for example, because cuts of meat have different names in Argentina than they do in Spain. (I can't speak for Venezuela and Bolivia and Uruguay and Colombia and..., although I asume that they also have their own variations on the language.) And I didn't find some of the phrases I needed translated from Spanish to English, because the Argentines don't always use the "standard" Spanish words.
So while I'm sure this book is excellent for travel in Spain, I think the title is misleading - it should be retitled "Spanish Phrase Book and Dictionary FOR TRAVELERS TO SPAIN."
It's only marginally useful in other countries.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great little phrase book
Comment: This phrase book was a great resource. My Spanish is okay, but not stellar, and this book gave me the extra that I needed to feel comfortable with my spoken Spanish. When I needed to know how to say something, I was always able to either find it, or piece it together from this book. The organization of the book made sense to me, making it easy to find what I was looking for as quickly as possible.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Essential travel accessory
Comment: Just enough information and just the right size for taking along wherever you go in Spain. It got me out of a jam on a number of occasions by providing just the right phase at just the right time. Don't leave home without it.
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