Laugh 'n' Learn Spanish: Featuring the #1 Comic Strip for Better or for Worse

by Brenda Wegmann and Lynn Johnston

Book Overview

Pictures and humor help readers build their Spanish language skills

To its millions of fans, the Pattersons are just like their own families, facing universal issues among daily concerns. Containing a selection of 100 syndicated Spanish-language versions of the strip that is widely read in Latin America, Laugh 'n' Learn Spanish provides an entertaining and effective way to expand and polish conversational skills in Spanish.

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 007141519X
• ISBN13: 9780071415194
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.0" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

It's an entertaining read and the book is filled with lots of practical words and idioms and of course the illustrations provide lots of context. It's not just a bunch of cartoons with English translations. A lot of thought and care went into this book. There is plenty of description and explanation and the the cartoons themselves are arranged in order of simplest to most complex. A great book for anyone looking for a fun supplement to their Spanish learning. Highly recommended.

Great for intermediate learners!

As a teacher, I recommend this book as a review to my Spanish 2 and 3 students -it's a novel approach, which goes a LONG way in motivating the junior high age and up. It's staying power is a little lacking - it doesn't have the BEST methodology as far as what order we should learn in, but as a review, it's fantastic. Very thorough explanations, good vocabulary lists, and even a few exercises! Great for anyone over twelve, as long as they had a teacher or tutor to help them along, I would think. Update (Feb 19, 2008) - I'm now teaching an advanced conversation course for 9 to 13 year olds with this text as the main resource. Each child read through the comics, makes flashcards and studies the words, and then we change the comics to say something different. To practice more practical nouns, the students label the items shown in the backgrounds. I like the review pages, and I often assign reading the explanations as an "extra" for my older children. They are not ready for full fledged grammar yet, but this is a great intro, and will cause them to just zoom through it when they get to State Accredited High School Spanish. All in all, I'm still very pleased, I really enjoy that the authors took the time to give several different uses of words - as in "this phrase is more common in Mexico... this one is more common in Spain." Very helpful, as it cuts down on my students' confusion when they're studying on their own. Sra. Gose Author of Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 1 & Spanish Fun Activity Calendar

The Best Work of its Type

I bought two copies, one for me and the other my my teacher. When we are fed up with the copreterito tense we turn to this for relief. What a Godsend! It is funny and easy to use. We cover the cartoon on the right and read the discussion of key word and grammar on the left. Then we wade into the cartoon. It is remarkable how often the day's cartoon reinforces the day's lesson. The only problem is we are running out of book much too soon. They need to publish a follow-up. I would buy a whole set of these.

Yo aprendi

Que divertida! What a fun way to learn Spanish! Tying the phrases with the drawings really helps to remember the language. The explanations are helpful, with lots of examples. Starts off easy and works up to the subjunctive. For Better or for Worse is a great comic strip, my favorite so it was a great way for me to practice and laugh and learn.

excellent

Most self-study workbooks I buy are tedious but this one is fun and surprisingly informative. The right side of the page has the cartoon in spanish and the left side has the analysis of the sentences used in the cartoon. The analysis actually does more than just interpret words but gives helpful grammar pointers. The cartoons are divided into beginning, moderate and advanced levels.