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Alpha Teach Yourself in 24 Hours
Alpha Teach Yourself Spanish in 24 Hours
An updated guide to learning the most popular foreign language in the United States. Revised and expanded, this new edition from the Alpha Teach Yourself series offers an innovative approach to picking up the grammar, syntax, and speech patterns used in everyday Spanish. This essential guide features new sections on shopping, cooking, technology, travel, medical and business communication as well as important dialect differences of vocabulary.
• A structured, tutorial approach—24 one-hour lessons
• Includes new quizzes and answer keys
• With the immigrant boom, U.S. proximity to several Spanish-speaking countries, and popular travel destinations, more Americans than ever are learning the language.
• A structured, tutorial approach—24 one-hour lessons
• Includes new quizzes and answer keys
• With the immigrant boom, U.S. proximity to several Spanish-speaking countries, and popular travel destinations, more Americans than ever are learning the language.
480 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
4 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Clark Zlotchew
21 books39 followersClark M. Zlotchew
He has had 17 books published:
Zlotchew and his wife Marilyn live in rural Chautauqua County, N.Y. State.
He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve at age 17 as Apprentice Seaman, and received an Honorable Discharge as Chief Petty Officer at age 36. His experiences at sea and in ports of call have strongly influenced his fiction.
Zlotchew has traveled widely on five continents, speaks Spanish fluently, French somewhat rustily, gets along in Portuguese and Italian, speaks some Japanese and Russian (and learning more), limited amounts of Arabic, Hebrew, German, and who knows what else if the situation should arise.
He has had a highly diverse set of careers, ranging from sales/production liaison for the export Dept. of a large liquor manufacturer in New York to coordinating an educational program for Spanish-speaking seasonal workers.
He is now SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Spanish and Latin-American literatures. He earned the Ph.D. in Romance Languages & Literatures from SUNY Binghamton.
BOOKS (17):
FICTION:
Military/action novel, TALON FORCE: DIRE STRAITS, under pseudonym Cliff Garnett, 2001.
Espionage/thriller novel, THE CAUCASIAN MENACE, 2010.
Collection of short stories, ONCE UPON A DECADE: TALES OF THE FIFTIES (FINALIST in Next Generation INDIE BOOK AWARDS, Short Story Category, 2011).
ACADEMIC BOOKS: These include translations from Spanish of short stories and poetry by Nobel Laureates, interviews with Borges and 10 other Latin-American writers, literary criticism of Spanish and Latin-American authors and books teaching Spanish at various levels.
SHORT FICTION IN MAGAZINES: Zlotchew's short stories have been published in magazines: his English versions in the U.S. and his Spanish versions in Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay, and one story, in both the English and Spanish versions, has been published on the Internet.
He has had 17 books published:
Zlotchew and his wife Marilyn live in rural Chautauqua County, N.Y. State.
He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve at age 17 as Apprentice Seaman, and received an Honorable Discharge as Chief Petty Officer at age 36. His experiences at sea and in ports of call have strongly influenced his fiction.
Zlotchew has traveled widely on five continents, speaks Spanish fluently, French somewhat rustily, gets along in Portuguese and Italian, speaks some Japanese and Russian (and learning more), limited amounts of Arabic, Hebrew, German, and who knows what else if the situation should arise.
He has had a highly diverse set of careers, ranging from sales/production liaison for the export Dept. of a large liquor manufacturer in New York to coordinating an educational program for Spanish-speaking seasonal workers.
He is now SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Spanish and Latin-American literatures. He earned the Ph.D. in Romance Languages & Literatures from SUNY Binghamton.
BOOKS (17):
FICTION:
Military/action novel, TALON FORCE: DIRE STRAITS, under pseudonym Cliff Garnett, 2001.
Espionage/thriller novel, THE CAUCASIAN MENACE, 2010.
Collection of short stories, ONCE UPON A DECADE: TALES OF THE FIFTIES (FINALIST in Next Generation INDIE BOOK AWARDS, Short Story Category, 2011).
ACADEMIC BOOKS: These include translations from Spanish of short stories and poetry by Nobel Laureates, interviews with Borges and 10 other Latin-American writers, literary criticism of Spanish and Latin-American authors and books teaching Spanish at various levels.
SHORT FICTION IN MAGAZINES: Zlotchew's short stories have been published in magazines: his English versions in the U.S. and his Spanish versions in Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay, and one story, in both the English and Spanish versions, has been published on the Internet.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Want to read
November 26, 2013When we were visiting beautiful Seville last week, Not had a linguistic epiphany. "Spanish is easy!" she said. "It's just English with O's on the ends of all the words!"
Other members of the party hastened to say that surely she meant French? But I suddenly remembered Gabaronez's song from Uncle, which I reproduce below for your amusement. Apologies to Kalliope and my other Spanish friends! I learned this rhyme when I was about seven, and less sophisticated than I am now.
Other members of the party hastened to say that surely she meant French? But I suddenly remembered Gabaronez's song from Uncle, which I reproduce below for your amusement. Apologies to Kalliope and my other Spanish friends! I learned this rhyme when I was about seven, and less sophisticated than I am now.
Gabaronez's SongIt turns out that Don Guzman offers very good breakfasts, except for the porridge, which is sour and lumpy. But, as he explains, "that is how people like it in Andalusia".
Don Guzman, Don Guzman, I call you to the meal!
Don Guzman, Don Guzman, the price is but one real!
There's hot baconario, and bread and butterio,
Besides a cupario of tea;
So get up your couragio, eat up your poragio,
And feast in the estancia with me!
March 27, 2008
Read it in Mexico and currently re-reading for brush-up
November 9, 2023
The BEST and most comprehensive way of learning Spanish by self study. 24 chapters that take 1 hour to ingest. You'll want to review, but it covers you to 0-90% fluency, which is better than most native speakers. I went fluent after studying this book, and NO OTHER DID THAT FOR ME after searching a decade.
July 13, 2008
IMO, this book was not formatted in a way to help you learn in a progressive manner. It seemed to be just a bunch of words & rules haphazardly thrown together, and there was too much going on at any one time -- I often found myself using other spanish books as a reference!
Furthermore, the author is obviously a very inteligent person beause I could not understand half of the words that were written in english -- Maybe its just me, but I do not think that it's appropriate timing to show off your lingustic abilities when you are trying teach someone a new language "in 24 hours".
I personally do not think the average reader will find this book useful. If you want an excellent alternative... find yourself a good spanish/english phrase book & grab the big green book called "Spanish Verb Tenses: Practice Makes Perfect" and you will be on your way to reading/speaking spanish in no time.
Furthermore, the author is obviously a very inteligent person beause I could not understand half of the words that were written in english -- Maybe its just me, but I do not think that it's appropriate timing to show off your lingustic abilities when you are trying teach someone a new language "in 24 hours".
I personally do not think the average reader will find this book useful. If you want an excellent alternative... find yourself a good spanish/english phrase book & grab the big green book called "Spanish Verb Tenses: Practice Makes Perfect" and you will be on your way to reading/speaking spanish in no time.
August 3, 2011
Please see the 18 reviews for this book on Amazon Books.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews