Unlocking Spanish with Paul Noble: Use What You Already Know

by Paul Noble

For anyone who has tried to learn Spanish or failed to progress beyond a few phrases, this book will help. Discover Paul Noble’s secrets for achieving independence in learning Spanish with his tried and tested method. • Teaching you how to learn Spanish more effectively, an easy way to boost your learning efforts• Tips and tricks from a renowned language expert with a tried and tested method for success• Also ideal for anyone learning for the first time, giving you the tools to learn efficiently and quickly• Pocket sized format with easy pronunciation guidance – so you can learn on the go! “There is nothing so complicated in foreign languages that it cannot be made simple.” Paul Noble

Genres: Nonfiction, Spanish Literature, Language, Spain

256 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2017

Reviews

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlocking Spanish with Paul Noble is a great book for beginners to learn words and phrases. I found it very easy to follow and I would recommend it. I look forward to trying out my phrases on my next trip to Spain.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Collins for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me start by saying that I have wanted to learn Spanish for a while as I intend on living there sometime in the near future so it is a language I need to get a grip of. Paul Noble knows exactly how to get you engaged and absorbing information rapidly. This book is miraculous! I have read plenty of books that tout themselves as being the one book that can teach you the language in a very short amount of time. Up until I read "Unlocking Spanish with Paul Noble" I have not found any of them lived up to my expectations or their claims. Here, Noble truly has you learning by methods I have never seen before and, most importantly, they work!

If you are looking to learn a language you cannot go wrong with these books from Collins. I can't recommend this highly enough. As it says in the synopsis, even if you struggled at languages in school or find it difficult to learn or remember what you have been taught this is the perfect title for you! Absolutely brilliant!

Many thanks to Collins for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

[Théo M. (bookswiththeo) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book is excellent for A2 level Spanish improvement. Its focus is on using cognates and simplifying the potential the language, for faster acquisition of the language. This resource approaches grammatical structures through clear examples rather that using jargon that would be off-putting to people who are not die-hard lovers of grammar. My intent, while reading through book was to assess it on its viability as a resource, not to actually get anything from it as I am an advanced speaker of Spanish as it were.
The examples that are given can be repetitive, but they do serve a purpose. It is to get the learner to learn more through the patterns in the examples rather than a list of do's and don't's of Spanish grammar rules.
This would be more appropriate for the castilian/european dialect of Spanish, which is my dialect, so I would personally recommend it to people who wish to travel throughout parts of Spain.

[Chazza · Rating 3 out of 5]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[Fatima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlocking Spanish with Paul Noble is marketed as a “fun and easy way to unlock your basic language skills”. I’d heard of Paul Noble’s courses before and remember the emphasis being on how it’s so different from other language courses and “proven to work…even [for] people who think they’re incapable [of learning a language]”. Those are pretty bold claims and to be honest, “unique” and “tried-and-tested” are phrases that every language course uses but they all usually end up being the same 10-minute podcast format with an emphasis on repetition and memorization with coloured flashcards and conjugating verbs... But I can honestly say that I was blown away by this course and it really is like no other language course I’ve ever tried!

(For context, I went into this course with a very basic level of knowledge and comprehension of Spanish. I had just started to learn Spanish through other courses but was very much at the absolute beginner stage.)

The foundation of Unlocking Spanish constitutes three rules: don’t skip anything, don’t try to memorise anything, and don’t read the orange text (the answers) until you’ve taken a guess yourself. If you’ve had any practice with learning languages before, “don’t try to memorise anything” probably sounds really counter-intuitive and you’re probably questioning how effective this method could possibly be. But honestly? It works – and it’s revolutionary! I found that taking away that pressure of memorising every little thing and remembering a word or phrase straightaway not only made the process more enjoyable but also helped me to actually remember things.

So if you’re wondering how exactly you get around to learning and remembering any Spanish if you’re being encouraged not to memorise the words and phrases you come across, the answer is repetition – but not in the standard flashcards or mnemonics way. The structure of each chapter (essentially a lesson) is completely geared towards repetition. The chapter starts with a phrase (in English), which always sounded way too complicated for me to even conceive translating it into Spanish. Then, throughout the course of the chapter, Noble breaks down each element of the phrase, talking you through how you would translate it into Spanish, adding in examples of different words and phrases that you could also use to construct different phrases (which I found was a great way of contextualising individual words/phrases while also growing your vocabulary). As you progress through the chapter and pick up these different words and phrases, you also begin to slot them together, working towards forming the full phrase that was presented at the start of the chapter, but all the while, previous words and phrases that you’ve learnt pop up, so there’s really no chance of you forgetting them. Then, at the end of the chapter, after you’ve successfully translated the introductory phrase, there’s a checklist section where all of the new words and phrases you’ve learnt in the chapter, plus all the words and phrases you learnt in previous chapters, are listed and you’re able to go through them and test yourself on whether you remember their meaning in both English and Spanish. This is probably the part that’s most similar to traditional language-learning techniques, but even still, Noble emphasises that the point is not to go through the list and expect to remember all of the meanings straightaway, but to give them all a go and not skip any of them. As the same checklist is repeated throughout every chapter (with more words/phrases added to the end each time), there really is no need to force memorisation because even if you just read through the list each time you go through a chapter, it’s bound to stick.

I really liked the progression of the chapters, too. It starts off fairly simply, with Noble introducing the idea of “word robbery”, where he talks about words that are similar in Spanish and English and how certain word endings in Spanish correspond with word endings in English (such as -ic and -ical in English corresponding to -ico in Spanish). So in the space of a few pages, you’ve already picked up a whole heap of words. While this is obviously a really basic and surface-level way of learning vocab, it’s undoubtedly encouraging as it makes you feel like you’re making progress and eases you into the course. As you make your way through the chapters, you start to translate increasingly more complicated phrases. You also slowly start to incorporate different elements of the phrases you’ve learnt in previous chapters so that by the end, you’re essentially able to translate a whole conversation that includes present, past, and future tense phrases!

Also, something I was surprised about is that Noble jumps right into the past tense. I was completely new to the past tense in Spanish when I covered this lesson, so I felt a bit daunted at first and expected to get rather confused, but it was very straightforward and completely manageable. Sure, there’s no way you could learn how to form the past tense in Spanish just through using this book, and it definitely isn’t teaching you the grammar in any in-depth way, but as an introduction, personally I found it pretty useful. I’ve just started to dip my toes into learning the grammar of the past tense in Spanish through another course and I found the verb conjugations (particularly for irregular verbs such as ser (to be) and hacer (to make/do), which are pretty complicated in Spanish) much quicker and easier to pick up because I’d already come across them and begun to get familiar with them through Unlocking Spanish.

So, this course does cover grammar in a very superficial way in general (for example, when explaining the differing conjugations of verbs for tu and usted, we’re just told to add an -s to the end of the usted form of the verb to get the tu form, which of course isn’t always the case and doesn’t help at all with understanding the actual grammar!). However, as this book is aimed at people who don’t like or want to learn a language through traditional methods, it certainly suffices. If you’re trying to learn the language more comprehensively, you’ll definitely need to supplement these lessons with other sources to teach you the ins and outs of the grammar.
One of the drawbacks of this course for me was that there’s no audio accompaniment, which means you don’t really know how the words and phrases you’re coming across are supposed to be pronounced. The transliteration is included, but I actually didn’t find it very helpful at all, as in a lot of cases where I’d come across a Spanish word before, when I read the transliteration, it didn’t actually read like how I’ve heard it pronounced. So when I came across words that were completely new to me and I wasn’t sure how they should be pronounced, I looked them up elsewhere without bothering to refer to the transliteration.

Now while I have been raving on about how Paul Noble’s techniques are pretty revolutionary, I just want to note that the way I’ve followed this course is by completing a chapter every day (or every couple of days), so I haven’t really given myself a chance to “forget” any of the phrases that keep coming up. Also, as I’ve mentioned, the technique involves a lot of repeating set phrases and isn’t trying to teach you the underlying ins and outs of the language, so I’m not really sure how useful it’d be in terms of reproducing what you’ve learnt and having a natural, “non-scripted” conversation in Spanish. The words and phrases in the checklist at the end of each chapter are presented in the same order every time, which does make me wonder whether I was actually committing these words to memory and they were becoming part of my permanent vocab or whether I was just getting so used to going through the list that I was just mechanically rattling through the definitions. When I got to the last checklist of the book for the last chapter, I actually paused and waited a week before coming back to it to see whether that (granted, pretty short) time away would have an effect on whether I was able to remember the vocab, but I actually got through it perfectly when I did come back to it, so perhaps this technique of repetition does actually work in the long term. I plan to come back to this book in a month or so and see how much of the vocab I can remember and whether I can translate the chapter titles unprompted – I guess that’ll be a better test of the effectiveness of this technique!

Overall, as you can tell, I was really impressed with this course and would definitely recommend it to anyone, really, who is trying to learn Spanish. If you’re a beginner like me, it’s a great way of getting familiar with different aspects of the language in a really non-daunting way (and certainly boosts your confidence and makes you feel like you’re making quick progress). This would also be a good book for people who have learnt Spanish in the past and are coming back to it, as the methods of repetition will help with jogging your memory and getting that practice at constructing different types of phrases (I’m actually making my way through the Unlocking German course at the moment, which is very similar to this Spanish course. I’d consider myself as being intermediate-level fluent in German, so I’m finding it a useful refresher). Another thing to note also is that this book would be useful to people learning both European or Latin American Spanish, as Noble includes the European and Latin American pronunciations of words and flags whenever there’s a word that’s more commonly used in Spain/Latin America (I always find it kind of annoying when Spanish courses just teach Latin American Spanish as even though the differences are few and not really that significant, I still prefer to know if there’s a word that’s more commonly used in Spain, so I was really glad that Noble considered and accommodated this). Noble also lets us know at the end of this book that he has a follow-up audiobook, which I’ll definitely be diving into next and have high hopes for!

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Vivienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a fantastic book. It teaches you to think about languages in blocks, and teaches you to use blocks to learn to say what you want.

While this book only teaches you a fragment of grammar, it teaches you grammar you use every single day, so you'll be able to speak from Day One.

As for me, working with the sentences taught in the book and using an online verb conjugator, I was able to write a short email to my Bolivian friend, asking how she was, that I wanted to write her in Spanish, that I decided to learn Spanish, and that I wanted to return her love (my reason for learning Spanish), and that Thank you very much.

Frankly, I have a few languages under my belt, but I still feel that this book teaches you how to go for the language you'll actually use in your everyday conversation, and that if you remember to break down the language, and play puzzle with the blocks, you'll be able to say much more than what you've thought possible.

I started learning Spanish with this book, and while I still have a long way to go, it helped me choose the direction I want to go, and select my next materials. I'm also learning Spanish by myself.

[Kendal Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple, fun book that gets you speaking Spanish sentences in a matter of minutes.

Very straightforward and great for memorizing words and phrases. My only concern is that the sentences can be quite specific and not do useful beyond the given context. For example, I now know estaba for 'I was' but couldn't tell you he or she was, they are, we are going to be, etc.

A great way to get to grips with some badics quickly, and lots of vocabulary.

A good Spanish starting point!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book uses a really clever and novel approach to learning a language. Paul Noble quickly gets you speaking useful phrases in Spanish rather than the not so useful phrases you may have learnt on a traditional Spanish course.
I know no Spanish, so this is all totally new to me yet it definitely got me knowing some really useful Spanish surprisingly quickly.

The book starts with explaining to you just how many words are very similar in Spanish to English and how we can use simple rules to move from one language to another (in most cases).

This is a book you have to work through from the beginning, page by page, it's is structured in particular way to aid learning. Each chapter slowly builds up a multicomponent phrase. As you go through the chapter, the author asks you to cover the answers written in orange with a bookmark or piece of card, to get your brain working and so that you actually work through the multiple micro-tasks. Each answer in Spanish has a pronunciation guide as well as the actual written answer. There's no active memorisation required but the use of spaced repetition gets you effortlessly remembering how to say all sorts of different phrases.

At the end of each chapter are increasingly long word/phrase lists that the author encourages you to keep going through until you only get 3 wrong. That sounds hard, but the way you're taught to put phrases together and the spaced repetition actually makes this much easier than it sounds. Noble also reminds you to not try and do too much and that if it takes all week to get through the word list, that's ok.

You start learning how to put together the phrase " I spent the weekend in Barcelona and it was lovely" and end with being able to hold a conversation including things like "Yes, I feel like going back to Barcelona but I’m scared of flying, so I’m planning to take the Eurostar." Unusually you actually start using the past tense before the present one, but it makes sense when you think about the kind of things you usually want to talk about.

There are no long list of grammar rules to memorise, instead there are really useful tips like how to remember when you change a word ending to match gender and when you don’t, and ways to remember how Spanish phrases are put together. For example, " I’m planning to" in English is "I have the intention of" if you literally translated the Spanish. Similarly, "you called me" in English, is literally translated from the Spanish as “me you called".

The book ends with ideas on where to go next as this book really is just a stepping stone to further learning although a really useful one. It definitely builds confidence and makes you realise learning a new language does not have to be as difficult as many courses make it. School may have you put off learning languages for life, but this book shows it doesn’t have to be that dull and difficult! I will definitely look up Noble’s audio course as this way of learning does seem much more sensible and useful than the usual ways!

Whether you are totally new to Spanish, learnt a little at school but not used it since, or know some Spanish but don’t feel like you know anything actually useful, this is a great little book to get you going and feeling confident about learning and starting to Speak in Spanish.

[Sweeto Makiko · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok so it took me kinda long to decide between a 2 or a 3 for really good reasons and I arrived at a 2 in the end. Simply because the pronounciation guide is terrible and full of errors. The pronounciation guide is written for British and American English speakers, of which I am not even though English is my materna idioma. Being Southeast Asian in my heritage, I grew up around many Malay speakers, Mandarin Chinese is my second language and I understand a few Chinese dialects too. Hence with this book on learning Spanish, I didn’t need the pronunciation guide 97% of the time because most things are quite intuitive save for the silent “h” and tones. BUT, if like me, you’re not an American/British English speaker, you’re gonna end up learning Spanish with a weird accent. In which case, I wouldn’t recommend this book as a main resource but as a supplement. On top of anglophiled pronounciation guides, the guides are also full of errors. At one point one of the examples said “comenzo” but put “em-pe-tho” in the pronounciation guide which is quite a stretch of an error, no? Things like this occurred a few times throughout the book where I had to ask my Spanish speaking friends about the use of language. If you’re like me, someone who can’t stand errors in textbooks, you’re way better off using something else as a supplement. But if you pick it up, just so yknow.

Now, onto why I felt this can be worthy of a 3 if I’m feeling less cranky about the errors. The socratic way of learning how to form sentences and speak them is great. I am a very socratic learner and my best mode of learning is thru q&a. I can’t memorise tables for days and although I’d have to at some point for conjugation and declension, the socratic way of asking with a q&a is really helpful with getting readers to internalise and learn deeply. Overall not a terrible book but has so much potential to be better.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter is in high school and has picked Spanish as her language to study at GCSE so I wanted to look at this book to see if it could help her out some more with her lessons and homework. Plus I'd already looked at the Unlocking Italian book by this author and knew that it was pretty good way to learn.

Again like the Unlocking Italian Book, this Spanish book keeps everything simple and focuses on you learning words as opposed to simply memorising them and seeing there is a pattern to the words. Some are quite close to their English equivalents again but have standard type of endings in Spanish - by the end of the book we could identify 12,000 words that are close to our own language. This makes it quite easy to decipher.

Each chapter starts with a new set of building blocks. alongside tips and tricks throughout and each chapter is closed with a thorough summary and includes all that you have learned to date. This is really useful as it means that you don’t have to constantly flick back to previous chapters. Each word you learn also is broken down phonetically so you learn how to say it correctly.

I liked the way there was a chart and explanation on how to remember the days of the week and the Great Word Robbery list at the back of the book.

I think this book is great for learning Spanish, especially as it builds up each sentence as you go along and then takes what you have learnt and applies it to future chapters.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlocking Spanish with Paul Noble by Paul Noble is an interesting and unique take on introducing or refreshing a reader on the Spanish language. I enjoyed it.

I minored in Spanish in undergrad, however like many others it has been more years then I care to admit since graduation, and while I read when I can, one can slowly lose the conversational aspects of a foreign language. So obviously I was excited for this refresher.

I enjoyed the author’s unique and slightly different way to educate someone in a foreign language. It is definitely different then the traditional way I was taught, and I really liked looking at things from a different angle. He made things simplistic, engaging, and catchy. It definitely decreases the intimidation factor.

I would recommend this to anyone wanting to be introduced to Spanish, or anyone looking for a quick refresher.

4/5 stars

Thank you NG and Collins Publishing for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR, Bookbub, and Amazon accounts immediately. Date of Publication 1/12/17.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlocking Spanish with Paul Noble by Paul Noble is an interesting and unique take on introducing or refreshing a reader on the Spanish language. I enjoyed it.

I minored in Spanish in undergrad, however like many others it has been more years then I care to admit since graduation, and while I read when I can, one can slowly lose the conversational aspects of a foreign language. So obviously I was excited for this refresher.

I enjoyed the author’s unique and slightly different way to educate someone in a foreign language. It is definitely different then the traditional way I was taught, and I really liked looking at things from a different angle. He made things simplistic, engaging, and catchy. It definitely decreases the intimidation factor.

I would recommend this to anyone wanting to be introduced to Spanish, or anyone looking for a quick refresher.

4/5 stars

Thank you NG and Collins Publishing for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR, Bookbub, and Amazon accounts immediately. Date of Publication 1/12/17.

[Roozbeh Daneshvar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the only written (non-audio) book I have read from Paul Noble. It had the same style as his audio books, with emphasis on verbs and the quickest ways to steal the most number of words from English. I found his approach prompt in building usable and practical set of phrases, with multiple repetitions without getting boring. I highly recommend it along with his audio books.

I found the following two pieces interesting:

Around half the words in modern English have come into our language via Latin languages, such as Spanish. Once you can identify them, you will have a large, instant, usable vocabulary in Spanish.

unlike in English, days of the week in Spanish don’t need to be written with a capital letter

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how useful "Unlocking Spanish" would be to someone who has never taken as Spanish course before. This book doesn't teach any grammar and instead relies on teaching how to "steal" vocabulary from English to quickly and effectively expand the vocabulary of someone trying to learn Spanish.

The phrases that are taught are rather basic and not really useful in real circumstances, so I think that this book might be more useful to someone like me who already knows basic grammar and is just looking for a way to improve their vocabulary and become better at constructing sentences.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well I was hoping to try out my Spanish on holiday this year but it was not to be. Paul Noble has come up with a fantastic way to remember things. I’m surprised how many words as similar to English. I managed to use the book to say phases and my husband to translate. Even he said ‘ gosh this book makes it easy’
Having a place in Spain we really want to learn the language. I certainly can’t wait to get out there to try out what I’ve learnt.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc in return for an honest review

[D L · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just been allowed the opportunity to review Paul Noble's 'Unlocking French' by NetGalley and requested his Spanish version and found it just as good as his French one.
This is a great book that builds on each chapter, helping you to put together phrases and sentences as well as showing the differences and the similarities in both English and Spanish.
A brilliant book for anyone looking to learn a new language.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read for a beginner or lower intermediate Spanish. This was a little below my level of Spanish, but I still learnt a couple of things and the method used here is really effective.
I really like how the whole book leads you to be able to have a short conversation; Paul Noble clearly understands how to teach a language effectively.

[Bookwormbadger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this very useful on my recent trip to Spain. I already had a good basic grasp of Spanish and this book built on my existing knowledge in an easy to use way. A bit repetitive at times but otherwise great. Recommended for beginner and intermediate level Spanish speakers.
Thanks to Netgalley and Collins for my copy of this book.

[Rajarajan RJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you already know a bit of Spanish basics - this book will help to fast track your learning.

To me, it is like “word power made easy” book.

The author ensures that you understand and remember the basics

[Duard Bok, MD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Logically and systematically presented.

Easy to follow. I'm encouraged by having used this book I recommended to everybody who is wanting to learn Spanish especially people who planned to go to Spain or south America on holiday.

[Emma-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This honestly has some good info and tons of repetition. I almost found it to be too much repetition though. I wish the topics would have branched out a bit more because I did think this method was helpful for retention!

[Croplify · Rating 5 out of 5]

Defintely worth a read. ❤ A great starter for anyone wanting to learn useful conversational Spanish and constructing sentences in no time!

[Stevie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty useful, I picked up a good amount from this book but I was using it in conjunction with weekly lessons too. Maybe 3.5 stars out of 5 rather than the full 4.

[Enda Hackett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been using various platforms to try and learn Spainish and this has been by far the most effective with the most measurable results.

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best start to spanish is here

[Christopher Tang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and effective. Don't memorise!

[Matt Laatsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good! Short on vocab but great for formulating sentences and natural grammar.

[Ravenclaw Library Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the perfect book for those who want to learn Spanish. It keeps everything simple and truly focuses on you learning words as opposed to simply memorising them. I would highly recommended to anyone wanting to learn Spanish.

[Kayleigh Farey · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a languages student, I was so excited to find this book on NetGalley and absolutely had to read it! I have studied Spanish for 10 years, and whilst I am at a fairly advanced level, I'm rubbish at studying and because of being a part-time student am unable to devote as much time as I would like to my languages, so this book sounds perfect for me!

I started reading this book almost as soon as I got a copy, and I found it so engaging and easy to get into the flow of. Each chapter is of a reasonable length and doesn't try to cram in too much. I like how the book emphasises the importance of not having to learn everything you read off by heart and instead it uses repetition to help you remember words and phrases.

Unlocking Spanish is yet another fantastic addition to the Collins language collection, and it's one that I will be thoroughly recommending to people wanting to improve on their language learning. It's such a unique take on learning a language that really explains why you're doing a certain exercise and focuses more on how we naturally learn a language rather than expecting you to remember everything you learn.