Reddit reviews Easy Spanish Reader Premium, Third Edition: A Three-Part Reader for Beginning Students + 160 Minutes of Streaming Audio (Easy Reader Series)
We found 4 Reddit comments about Easy Spanish Reader Premium, Third Edition: A Three-Part Reader for Beginning Students + 160 Minutes of Streaming Audio (Easy Reader Series). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
McGraw-Hill
I can't believe no one's said this...
listen, I struggled with anxiety, depression, low energy, and low motivation for a very large chunk of my life. I've been told I'm fairly intelligent, I got most of a programming degree, and as long as a class or an assignment didn't trigger my anxiety I did just fine. Got all the way up into vector calc, made some cool water simulations, you know. Other classes I failed outright because I got increasingly more nervous about the subject and eventually stopped going to class. I even had a recurring dream for many years after college that it was a month or two into a semester, and there was a class I'd signed up for and forgotten about, and in the dream I deliberate on what I can do to salvage the situation.
So listen, if there's only two things you get from this post, that you can write on the wall, tattoo on your arm, whatever, it's this:
1 - Objectively, passing Spanish II, with the right tools and the right emotional support, is something you are 100% capable of.
2 - Your real struggle right now, has nothing to do with your intelligence, it has to do with your emotions. The right practical tools will help you limp through, the right emotional tools will help you fly through.
I've been working on myself in a pretty big way for the last three years especially. I saw an herbalist and got some herbal support, I started seeing a counselor, I started working on being a lot more open and transparent with my friends and partner instead of struggling through things alone in my head... I don't know what would be best for you, but you really should consider finding a counselor to help with this, or at least treating acknowledging that this is going to take as much emotional growth as it will linguistic. You will be challenged doing this, it will be painful at times, but none of that will come directly from the Spanish. I haven't personally gone down the mainstream psychological meds route, but there's no shame in that either... it's about exploring, and finding what you need to do to succeed in life. Hell, go to Peru for two weeks and take Aya even, practice your spanish while you're there, whatever. Just don't lose track of the forest for the trees. Seven years on the border of unemployment because of one class you genuinely can pass in a few months worth of work is a mental health crisis, not a struggle with language.
Now, in practical terms... again, I can't believe no one's mentioned this, but would you like to know the secret to passing Spanish II? I'll give you a hint... take the average student coming out of Spanish II (even with an A in class) and test their speaking, listening, reading, and writing abilities. I bet you anything it's going to be pretty shit. You are likely not going to need to actually learn to function in the language, all you're going to need to do is learn how to adequately pass the tests. What textbook series does the class use? What series did Spanish I use, and what will you be expected to know? If you narrow your focus down to what the class is based on, you'll find you have far, far less to learn.
Here's your secret weapon: learn to use anki. It's kind of a pain in the ass to get started since you need to make your own cards, but it's worth it. Closed deletion cards (a short spanish phrase on front, with a ___ missing word, with maybe a one word english hint as to the nature of the missing word, and then on the back, your missing word) are my personal recommendation. Other people might recommend pictures on one side, and a spanish word or phrase on the other, a short english phrase on one side and the answer spanish phrase on the other, or a short audio clip in spanish on one side, and the meaning on the other. Until you have reason to experiment though, stick with close deletion. It's good enough to get you through the class with an A, even if that's the only kind of card you use. The one caveat though: ALWAYS make el or la part of the answer with noun cards. You will be required to know the gender on tests. Close deletion cards are great too, because you get used to seeing words in context. It will make grammar and actual use much easier, vs a 'front: pero, back: dog' type card. The english phrase on front, spanish phrase on the back is a good way of learning grammar by the way, make a few of those cards if you're struggling with a grammatical concept.
Now, go through the book Spanish I in your online series was based on, and make anki cards for things you don't know. Start with 20 cards a day. That'll end up taking you around 30~40 minutes a day to learn new cards and review, though it'll take at least a month before the review cards to stack up until you're actually hitting the full 30ish minutes. Total, you're looking at under 6 hours a week, including time spent making new cards. If you can get through the whole Spanish I book before class starts, you'll be starting with absolutely zero things you're supposed to know that you haven't already gotten at least comfortable with. Now all you need to do, is keep making new cards as you encounter new words and concepts in class, and keep up. If you can finish the Spanish I book and start into the Spanish II book before class starts, so much the better.
The really nice thing about anki, it tells you when you need to review. Even if you have 10,000 cards words in your deck, as long as you keep reviewing everyday (even with 10,000 cards, it's scheduling might have you only reviewing a few dozen in a day, depending on how long ago you learned those cards) you'll never forget what you've learned. In other words, if your fear gets the best of you, or you come down with an unexpected illness, or whatever else, if you use anki like this, you'll be able to come back and try again, and very easily ace the class next time, as long as you keep up with your deck in the meantime.
Now for my own recommendation: once you pass the class, keep going with it. Nothing like a big 'fuck you' to your old stumbling block to get fully comfortable with spanish. My own favorite learning method is with reading. Get a spanish graded reader (possibly in tandem with prepping for your upcoming class, if you finish with your anki for the day) and read through it. I used this one. This isn't for class, so you don't need to remember every new word you see. All you're doing is exposing yourself to the language, getting a 'feel' for how it flows, seeing your new words in context, and just... getting through the pages. The book has words meanings as you go, so just look up what you need and puzzle out the meanings as you go, that might help build your confidence a lot. That particular graded reader is easy enough you can start basically from day one too. If you find you enjoy the process of reading and looking stuff up, then keep going. Get more graded readers. Maybe even get some YA fiction for the kindle (word lookup is very easy and comfortable on the kindle, lets you start reading way before you could with paper books). I taught myself German just by reading a bunch... took around 10,000 pages to start getting comfortable enough that I could understand spoken language without running into new words, but I didn't even need to use flash cards, or review, or do anything other than just read and lookup stuff as I went. It's kind of what I do to relax, as strange as that might sound. If that appeals to you too, here's a picture I'll paint real quick:
It's the end of August. With consistent use of Anki, you very comfortably pass Spanish II, maybe even with an A. The relief is overwhelming, along with a really intense feeling: 'I put myself through hell for seven years to avoid THIS? Why the fuck didn't anyone tell me about anki before? WHY DOESN'T EVERYONE KNOW ABOUT THIS?". You can now get your first job in the industry with zero anxiety about being 'found out'. There's nothing to be found out. You're a competent worker with full accreditation. You can get on with your life. But, you find that reading's kind of enjoyable, so you start working your way through Harry Potter for shits and giggles on the kindle. You keep going. It's not a study thing, no one cares if you fail or succeed, maybe you don't even bother telling anyone. It's just a private thing you do in the evenings for yourself. Months pass, books go on the read pile. You start noticing you're seeing less and less new words. You start noticing you can understand spoken spanish even. At some point, you decide to get a tutor, just for shits and giggles, and find you can actually hold a conversation, as crazy as that sounds. Maybe you'll even want to head to a spanish speaking country for a few weeks, live all in spanish for a bit, just as a fuck you to your old fear.
You don't have to do all that of course, I'm just saying it's more on the table than you think. You're not bad at languages, and while there is an enormous amount to remember, you don't actually have to try and put the pieces together manually. Exposure doing something you enjoy (or at least don't mind much) will eventually do the work for you. You learned English after all, so it's not like it's beyond you. Our culture just fucking sucks at helping people learn languages, but there are other methods that work much better.
Anyway, I hope some of this ranting helped... good luck! I've had my fair share of battles with feeling helpless, incapable, afraid, struggling with procrastination... it's brutal, but I promise it's got far more to do with how you're thinking than it does with any actual weak spot in your brain's ability to do the work. You've got this, 100%. Hit me up too if you'd like an accountability partner or whatever.
Free resources:
Okay what I would do:
August-September: two lessons of Assimil each day, 50 new Glossika sentences, 25-40 flashcards, one SpanishPod101 lesson, Language Transfer on the go
October-November: one hour of iTalki tutoring every day, one GLOSS lesson (or LingQ, it's paid but less effort) worked to exhaustion (~1-2 hours), one SpanishPod101 lesson, 25-40 new flashcards, fill the rest of your day with working with the readers
December: as much iTalki per day as you can afford, Spanish language movies, documentaries, radio, audiobooks, TV, news. Use Spanish subtitles for the hearing impaired so you catch as much as possible, rewatch without subtitles etc. etc., 25-40 flashcards every day.
Take one of these courses:
EdX's Beginning Spanish
Carnegie Mellon's Spanish I
Also, purchase Easy Spanish Reader for reading comprehension practice.
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