It’s not often I use this blog to promote our activities over at NotesinSpanish.com, but I’m so excited about the project we’ve just finished that that’s exactly what I’m going to do now!
Marina and I have just spent weeks working on what we’ve called our ‘Real Spanish Phrase Book and Audio Guide’. It includes over 100 of the phrases and expressions that real Spanish people use every day on the streets of Spain, explained in nearly an hour and a half of audio, with accompanying phrase book.
I’ve always been obsessed with picking up these sorts of phrases, things like ‘¡Dejame en paz!’, meaning ‘B+@+er Off and leave me in peace!’, ‘Esta chica esta zumbada’, that girl’s totally crazy, and one of my favourites, ‘La madre que te parió’, literally ‘the mother that bore you’, a quite exquisite expression to use when you are really really pissed off!
We’ve also put together a great bonus to go with the pack, ‘How to Sound Really Spanish in 10 Words or Less!’, again based on audio that basically does what it says on the tin: it includes the 10 words or phrases that will have Spanish people doffing their cap to you in respect in seconds!
Check it all out over at Notes in Spanish, by following this link:
The Real Spanish Phrase Book and Audio Guide
Here ends the shameless plug of something we are genuinely really really proud of. Have a great weekend!
Katie
28 Mar 08 at 11:33 am
congrats, you two! looks great, and the audio clip sounds wonderful. i’m sure it’ll be a great resource for many spanish students. nice job!
Erik Rasmussen
28 Mar 08 at 11:40 am
Good work. Probably a wise decision to leave off the implied “Me cago en…” prefix of the “la madre” phrase. I hope you explain it in the book, though, so that people understand the full meaning of what their spouting.
Pepino
28 Mar 08 at 11:59 am
Fabulous book, and even better with the audio. Love it.
Anna
28 Mar 08 at 8:30 pm
Absolutely love it. My Spanish is fairly good but i am totally lost when i get together with young people and they’ve had a glass or two in a bar and then start “shouting ” at each other. Will definately keep this book in my handbag. Thanks!
Edith
30 Mar 08 at 12:25 pm
Hi Ben and Marina,
You have every reason to be proud of the results! You guys keep churning out first-rate learning tools which are much more fun to work with than many school textbooks and audio resources. * THUMBS UP *
C
30 Mar 08 at 12:56 pm
Sounds great, and I rushed over there to buy it, but 29 Euros (nearly $45 american) is more expensive than my current phrasebook, grammer book and dictionary combined.
Ben
30 Mar 08 at 4:17 pm
Hi C, I totally appreciate that this might seem a lot of money for something that on the surface looks like nothing more than a phrase book, but it is in fact a lot more than that! We are convinced that the careful selection process we have been through with the phrases, and the explanations we offer for each one, makes this a really highly focused and extremely useful product.
Most importantly though, we think the 1 hour and 20 minutes of audio is probably worth that price alone – in it we offer extra examples of the phrases and expressions, cultural notes, detailed context and more. Not to mention the extra bonus report and audio that comes with the main pack.
Finally, as we say on the site, we offer a 3 month 100% refund guarantee with the pack, so if people really still think they have not got their money’s worth after they have been through all the materials, we will happily refund the price completely.
Ben
frank
30 Mar 08 at 6:44 pm
I don’t think that it is a cheap product either, but you cannot be fairer than offer a complete money back guarantee. I’m not opposed to spending money, indeed until last year I contributed to Puerta del Sol which costs about £80 I think, but for that you get 6 DVD’s (must be at least 7 hours of audio) and 6 books, averaging between 70-80 pages each, and IMHO, the content is first class, and bang up to date.. As for up to date phrases and terminology, I find reading Spanish only forums is good, and any doubts, I ask my Spanish Skype pals.
However, your feedback has been good so far, so hopefully the product will sell well for you.
Irish eyes
31 Mar 08 at 4:34 pm
I am surprised to hear people saying they think this is expensive but maybe that’s because books are generally so expensive here in Ireland.
Having bought it, I have to say I’ve spent more on things that have been far less useful (Berlitz, you know who I’m talking about!)
For me, the audio is the thing that sets the ‘book’ apart. You get lots of sample sentences, (brilliant, real language, not like those ‘pure’ examples from the dictionary that I find so hard to decipher and turn into something I can use!)
A lot of it isn’t in the dictionary.
And you also get told what sort of person would be most likely to say these pharases, e.g. your mum or the 13 year old next door. Invaluable! In my experience there’s nothing more likely to provoke sniggers than a teenager who sounds like their granddad, or a grandfather who’s going around talking like a 15 year old.
You also get warned if indiscriminate usage might give offence.
Best of all, it’s entertaining and fun to listen to. I found myself chuckling a lot as I listened to the audio.
So ok, I agree it’s not the cheapest phrasebook on the market, but I still think it’s good value.
Luciana Sarra
1 Apr 08 at 12:19 am
The book is great, and the audio makes it complete. Even my Spanish (and Mexican) friends like it
I highly recommend it!
Pepino
1 Apr 08 at 8:54 am
Irish Eyes is spot on in saying that many other audio resources are desperately dry and dull to listen to. I’ve recently bought an audio resource to learn some Catalan phrases, and it puts me to sleep! It’s now gathering dust.
The dollar is so weak at the moment compared to the Euro, that that doesn’t help make the book more affordable to American buyers, but it’s still a great product worth the cash if you intend mixing with Spanish people. I already know some of the phrases in the book, plus a few of my own that I’ve picked up along the way, and I love the reaction that I often get when I slip them in at exactly the right moment. For such simple phrases, it’s well worth learning them, plus it gives you the urge to learn more of your own.
luke
4 Apr 08 at 1:06 pm
This book is now great ammunition in my arsenal of Spanish phrases. The audio and text fit together in an easy and clear way. And Ben and Marina’s unaffected, natural manner make it easy to enjoy and to come back to for revision. Highly recommended!!
Pavel K.
9 Apr 09 at 12:34 am
I wonder if you guys are going to publish something like that for other languages like Portuguese and Italian! That could be a great idea!