I have wanted to learn Spanish for quite a number of years now. I first started learning Spanish a number of years ago and have picked up enough vocabulary to understand simple sentences here and there but not enough to carry on any real conversation.

My job for the last 15 years has brought me into contact with a large number of people who spoke Spanish and either little or no English. As my ‘job description’ has changed over the years, and others who are bilingual deal with clients directly, I have not felt the urgency of learning Spanish but the desire has remained.

I have had had probably 6 semesters of Spanish. Problem is they are all first semester Spanish.

As other priorities move up in importance, the urge will probably fade again, but I hope not. I have collected a number of Spanish language resources over the years, some good, some not so good. I also am searching for even better ways to learn and improve my Spanish.

Back in November when I was getting started again on my Spanish, I looked on my shelves to see what I had. Over the years I have used a number of Spanish text books. The reasons for the different text books were various, sometimes because it looked better than what I had been using. Sometimes because I hoped it would move me farther than the last. Many times it was just wishful thinking.

The first book I believe I bought was the Foreign Service Institute Spanish Basic Course. It came with a box of cassettes that go through each lesson thoroughly. This course was first printed in 1957. The course was designed specifically to train U.S. government agency staff involved in foreign affairs and who need to learn to speak Spanish. Although the text and cassette tapes are not designed for individual self-study, they are sold and used this way extensively. I don’t remember how much I paid for the book and tapes, but I hope it was not anywhere near the $200 I see it advertised online.

Barron’s has published this course as Mastering Spanish, Level 1 with Audio CDs. The publisher’s blurb says the new edition “has been updated with new references, and up-to-date vocabulary and idioms.”

The second book on my shelf is Spanish is Fun, Book A. This I purchased for a community education class I had hoped would help me. This book now appears to be out of print. From the writing in the book it looks like I only got to lesson 4. If I remember, I dropped out of the class because it was so basic and most of the people in the class whose only exposure to Spanish was at Taco Bell. I have considered taking another community ed class but am not sure my Spanish is good enough for the intermediate class, yet don’t want to start with a class at ground zero (or negative 3) again.

The next book I bought, Spanish Now!, I hoped to use to teach two of my teenagers Spanish as I learned along with them. Again, it looks like we made it to lesson 4! Neither of them had any interest and we had a hard time finding a set time we could do the lessons. One of the reasons I chose this book was because there were audio tapes available for the text and there was a teachers guide that would help in figuring out who had the correct answer.

The fourth text book I have used is Practical Spanish Grammar by Marcial Prado. I made it to Chapter 7 the first time before getting distracted and have picked it up again and hope to make it to the end. Afterwards I plan on using the author’s sequel Advanced Spanish Grammar which is written entirely in Spanish and has good reviews as an intermediate Spanish grammar.

Note: This article was originally written on 11/19/2006 and posted here on 04/10/2007. Since putting this article together I have, of course, purchased some new books but only to supplement Practical Spanish Grammar, not replace it. Of course you cannot learn Spanish just by reading some books but those will be the topic of another post.