PDF Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners Teach Yourself Olly Richards Books

Product details Series Teach Yourself (Book 1) Paperback 238 pages Publisher Teach Yourself; Bilingual edition (November 13, 2018) Language English ISBN-10 9781473683259 ISBN-13 978-1473683259 ASIN 1473683254

Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners Teach Yourself Olly Richards Books Reviews

• I use this book with my students. It's not perfect, but there's not a lot to choose from. A few observations
  1) It uses European Spanish. This means some things sound odd, or even confusing, to Latin Americans like me.
  2) It has errors. I purchased the version of the new edition that will be released in paper in November 2018. This edition eliminated the dragon story and added a space story about a capsule. This story seems rushed, and it not only has errors in the Spanish, but also one in the story itself. Hiring a proofreader won't hurt.
  3) It contains too many low frequency words. This is most definitely not for beginners. Some words are unknown even to natives, such as pergamino in the Knight story. I re-typed part of a story into a text editor where I use a user dictionary containing the top 20K Spanish word forms. There's about 6-10% of word forms OUTSIDE THE TOP 20K! Something written for "beginners" should focus on high-frequency words instead. Anything beyond 2% unknown words becomes a chore.
  4) Reading is made difficult by the names. Some stories use really odd names instead of native Spanish names. This makes reading more difficult even for natives.
  5) As for the stories themselves, the first one is boring. The second one is mildly interesting. The remaining ones are more interesting and I kept reading them like I would with native materials. But sometimes you wonder if something was lost in the translation (Remember Olly's native language is English), because it can be difficult to follow what's going on.
• I'm a Spanish beginner (English is my first language) and it can be hard to find stories that are put together well enough to be fun, yet have a depth of variety—in both vocabularly and grammar—to be worthwhile.
  
  These stories fill an important slot in my learning process, when I don't want to do vocab flashcards, or read real-world articles, or use apps like DuoLingo, etc.
  
  I'm docking a star because there are occasional errors/typos, especially in the end-of-chapter summary/vocab sections. But it's not egregious (I'd make it a 4.5 star review if I could). I even contacted the author on Twitter and he said an update was forthcoming that should sync to my automatically.
  
  I would definitely purchase a 2nd set of such stories if one came out.
• Finally, I have found a reading tool that actually helps me, rather than frustrates me. Olly Richards has put together a great combination of teaching and fun reading. For me, his instructions on how to read the stories takes all of the "I will never get this!" feeling away, and it is awesome to have enjoyable short stories specifically targeted to my level. Plus the short quizzes at the end to ensure that you understood the story are a great addition. My opinion is that this is a must-have addition for anyone seriously learning Spanish.
  One note, however - it is written in Castilian Spanish, not Latin American Spanish, so if you have been studying mainly Latin American Spanish (like me) there will be a few times when you have to use your own dictionary or on-line translator in addition to the provided vocabulary list after each story. This has not bothered me at all, as 99% of the time, I understand the gist of the paragraph without having to interrupt and translate.
  I highly recommend this book. The confidence it gave me when I realized I could read MUCH more than I previously thought - it was and continues to be a great boost to continue my studies and to me not feeling 'stuck.' I look forward to getting to the next level and purchasing the next level of Spanish Short Stories. Big thanks to Olly Richards for providing an enjoyable and essential learning tool.
• This book isn't mean to be rated using s rating buttons for books. I had to click on of them to get to the typing part so I chose predictable. But of course it is. This is a Spanish reader for those seeking to learn Spanish, like me. It's written with the learner in mind and the story aspect is just to help you learn new words. So far, I've found it very helpful in that regard. I am reading it using so it gives me the ability to click on a word and have it translated into English so if I don't know one and can't figure it out using context I can still learn. This book was $1.99 when I purchased it and it's worth every penny as a way to help learn a second language.
• The author has the right idea for what a book of introductory short stories for learning a foreign language should be. It is good that there is no accompanying English text--is is better for the reader to figure out the puzzle of reading a foreign language without such training wheels!
  
  The author works into his stories the kind of words that a tourist needs, rather that load you up with arcane vocabulary words.
  
  There is one odd thing about these stories however. I have started reading the author's book of introductory Italian short stories and the first story is identical to the to the first story in this book! Only the names of the cities, characters, and food have been changed--every event in the Spanish book correspond to an event in the Italian book! Stay tuned as I read more of the Italian stories!
• Fun, fun, fun!!! Oh wow, so I've read a few of Mr. Richards' short stories in different languages (and about to start another one here shortly), and they are tons of fun and I honestly do believe that I am catching on to some words. I love the way he starts out with telling how the easiest way to try to learn it through reading, then to go back with a little bit more understanding, and then again as you catch on more. But he makes this learning fun! It's not the monotonous drowning of repeat the word over and over. I was fortunate to have received this book complimentary in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.