To start with, some letters are pronounced differently. This is mainly the case with s, z, x, ll. Then some expressions are quite different. For example for hello and good bye, you don't say 'que tal?' or 'hasta luego'. You say 'que hubo?' and 'chao'. When it comes to directions, people don't say 'recto' but 'derecho' and you must not use 'coger' which has a bad meaning.

And there is more to come, like different language structures. You don't use 'vosotros', the past tense is different, etc, etc.

All in all, you will be helpless if you rely on this course to learn for Latin America. Better buy a better one!


Excellent method to teach tourist Spanish   June 30, 2004
 47 out of 56 found this review helpful

I have used TALK SPANISH to teach Spanish for holidays and have found it extremely useful. It covers all the necessary travel elements a student needs, is well graded and has plenty of useful exercises. Grammar is well explained and the tapes are lively and easy to follow. They are ideal for self-learning.

The only snag is that the course has been designed with the audio-learner in mind. Therefore it has little text and the lay out is somewhat dull, lacking in pictures or colour. If the BBC were to create a pictorial version of this book, it would sell like hot cakes. At present, there are very few tourist Spanish courses on the market, and this is an excellent product.

I have learnt some Greek using the Greek version and have found it equally approachable.