Reseña

Every English speaker who takes on the challenging task of learning Spanish will make the same mistakes. In a sense these errors are unavoidable, because they come from the natural process of translating one specific language into another.
So if the old adage “We learn by making mistakes” is true, why not study the specific words and structures that cannot be directly translated?
This book takes that tailored approach, focusing on the 31 most common mistakes made by English speakers as they learn Spanish. It is more natural, appropriate, and comfortable than merely studying a traditional Spanish book, because each chapter focuses first on a specific structure in English, than explains how that idea is correctly expressed in Spanish.
Moreover, normal Spanish grammar exercises make the mistake of having students fill in the blanks in Spanish sentences, which does not reflect the process that takes place in our brain as we speak a second language. You can do all the Spanish exercises that you want, but in the moment of actually speaking most people draw a blank because they are not practiced in translating their English thoughts and words into Spanish. Therefore, the exercises of this book require you to translate entire sentences from English into Spanish, all the while focusing on correcting one specific common mistake per chapter. These exercises are both more realistic and more helpful in the moment of actually speaking.
To give an example, Chapter I explains why “Thanks for coming” would be expressed as “Thanks for to come” in Spanish, and why “without eating” would be “without to eat”. Then it asks you to translate 15 complete sentences that use similar expressions. This process will transform you into a grammatical and communicative juggler, placing everything in its proper place while correctly expressing full ideas in a second language.
In addition, each chapter also recommends a song in Spanish to help recognize and remember the topic of each chapter. Listening to these songs will provide a real world, enjoyable reinforcement that will also help with pronunciation.
Furthermore, the book provides a glossary of commonly mistranslated words. These words are underlined so as to be easily identified, and they are carefully chosen because they are commonly used in Spanish and can be misinterpreted if used incorrectly.
The result is a unique book designed to address the specific needs of English speakers who want to speak Spanish at an advanced level. It represents the knowledge gained from making mistakes while learning and speaking Spanish for over 7 years, and will hopefully help you avoid making the same mistakes yourself.

NOTE: This book is not ideal for BEGINNERS. It is more appropriate for INTEREMDIATE or ADVANCED level Spanish speakers who have some fundamental bases in the language.