Spanish: Short Stories for Beginners

By: Claudia Orea, Daniel Alvares

Narrated by: Lucia Bodas, Abel Franco

Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

Learn Spanish and improve your Spanish reading and listening skills with these short stories. You have at your fingertips the Spanish audio recordings and its accompanying PDF. You can follow along with the written text or have an audible and hands-free learning experience with the English translation for the more difficult words. 

• Gain a greater vocabulary that you can use immediately, every day. You will add 1,500+ Spanish words and expressions to your repertoire through the encounter of descriptive sentences and casual conversations woven throughout the stories. 
• Sharpen your comprehension of the spoken word by listening to the audio via two native Spanish speakers (male and female voices). 
• Learn how to pronounce Spanish words properly by comparing the written word to the audio recording. 

Beginners can easily memorize vocabulary words with the audio Spanish flash cards. You receive audio in three formats: 

• A slow version of the stories in a male voice which helps beginners improve their pronunciation. 
• A normal speed of those stories in a female voice for intermediate and advanced learners. Train your ears to understand what is being said. 
• Learn the vocabulary with enough time to repeat the words with their English translation with the audio flashcards! 

These stories are perfect for beginners as well as for those who want to brush up on their Spanish language skills. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2017 My Daily Spanish (P)2017 My Daily Spanish

Wonderful Way to Learn a Second Language!

This audiobook is very beginner friendly and as someone who is relatively new to the Spanish language, it is incredibly helpful. In high school, I took four years of Spanish but was never comfortable enough to engage in conversation. In this book, the realistic nature of each story helps me to learn phrases that I would commonly use on a daily basis, and feel comfortable using. The voices are clear and understandable, and I look forward to using this more as a roadmap to learning a second language.

26 of 26 people found this review helpful

Good book for refreshing your Spanish

This is a good audiobook for people who know some Spanish and want to brush up and practice on the go. I studied Spanish in school but haven't used it in a few years, and this is a good refresher for me. The narrator speaks slowly and clearly, at a pace that makes it easy to understand and follow along but not too slow as to not sound conversational. What I like the most is the variety of stories. They aren't targeted at children - they're more about daily life. Overall a good way to practice your Spanish in a new way.

19 of 19 people found this review helpful

I enjoyed this short story

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I adored this audiobook; I would definitely recommend it to my friends and peers looking to learn the basics of Spanish.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I enjoyed the male speaker as I find the manner of what he says in a slow, sure fashion with the correct enunciation and pronunciation of the words & phrases. It’s as if he is trying to spell out the words as he speak them

What does Lucia Bodas and Abel Franco bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

the first female speaker presented herself well as she speaks the language in a way it is done in a natural setting – very conversational, fluent and you can feel the emotions as it is spoken

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Improve Your Reading and Listening Skills in Spanish

18 of 18 people found this review helpful

A Practical Introduction to the Spanish Language

I studied Spanish in a classroom setting for most of my life, starting in elementary school. However, while my classes allowed me to become fluent in reading and writing Spanish, I still struggle with understanding the language as it's being spoken. This audiobook provides an incredibly diverse lineup of short stories that are filled with practical phrases for everyday conversation, narrated by native Spanish speakers. This one book alone has been more useful for me in improving my verbal understanding of the Spanish language than years of structured classes.

IMPORTANT POINTS:

- Each story is narrated twice by two different speakers; this allows the listener to become comfortable with different voices
- The vocabulary presented is applicable to everyday life
- The story is narrated at a speed that's easy to understand and follow
- The spoken glossary at the end is well-structured and provides the infinitive forms of verbs that are conjugated in the story

OVERALL:

I'd rate this book at 4.5/5 stars. I would highly recommend this book for anyone trying to re-learn Spanish or boost their verbal comprehension skills. It's a great and practical tool for beginner-to-intermediate level Spanish speakers!

15 of 15 people found this review helpful

Speaking Spanish seems much easier!

A book that helped me speak Spanish in conversation much much easier. I took Spanish a very long time ago, and I was pretty good at it. I just seemed very rusty back then, and still was before listening to this book. after listening to this book I had a conversation in Spanish with a friend who speaks Spanish, and it seemed much easier to communicate.

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

Pleasantly Surprised !

I have been speaking Spanish since I was a toddler and I was pleasantly surprised with this audiobook because I actually learned more phrases listening to it! Spanish is my first language and I honestly thought I knew all the words in the dictionary, boy was I wrong! I also appreciate the fact that there are different narrators for the short stories. What appealed to me the most was the fact that some stories were under ten minutes so I was able to listen to a couple on my way home from the store but there were also some that lasted a bit longer which were perfect to listen to while cooking dinner. Overall I would highly recommend this audiobook to anyone trying to brush up on their Spanish skills or if you just want something to pass the time with. Honestly all the short stories are very interesting!

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

Best one I've ever tried!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The narrators spoke slowly and sounded natural instead of mechanic like other audiobooks I have tried in the past. Another thing that I loved about this book was that all of the short stories made sense and were simple enough for me to understand as a beginner.  It was also easy for me to keep track and read along to the text (another perk that was very useful).

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is starting to learn and  wants to become fluent (and sound natural) instead of just parroting back words from flashcards.

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

Great book for beginners or re-learners!

Growing up I lived next door to a family from Puerto Rico who were like a second family to me, and as a result I was always over at their place. Naturally they mostly spoke in Spanish, and naturally I picked up on quite a bit of it. However over the years, I have been using Spanish less and less and as a result, my Spanish has grown quite rusty. This book was perfect for shaking the rust off. The best way for me to learn languages is to immerse myself in them.

The book features numerous speakers and all of them speak different but excellent Spanish. One of the hardest walls to overcome when becoming fluent in Spanish is deciphering a person's heavy accent. At times it is very difficult to understand what they are saying. With this book, I had no such problem. Everyone enunciated their words perfectly. The first male speaker in particular spoke very deliberately and clearly.

The only minor gripe I had with the book is with the vocabulary section. For the most part the girl's English was fine, however her pronunciation for some words was wrong and several of them were a bit hard to understand. For native English speakers, this isn't too big a deal; 95% of the mistakes are easily recognizable and you'll be able to put together what's she trying to say, However for non-native English speakers who are simultaneously learning English and Spanish, they may get the wrong impression from this section and start mispronouncing a few words in English themselves. Just something to work on.

All in all, this is a great book for anyone who wants to ease themselves into the Spanish language learning process. Listen to it while you're walking in the park or driving to work in the morning. Quick, simple and effective.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Wonderful way to get a second language

This is a wonderful way to learn a second language, I took Spanish in high school so this was a great review on the Spanish language. I would purchase the second installment of Spanish so I can have a conversation with someone.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Perfecto!

Awesome! Learning a language is never easy and training your ear to understand the sounds of the language is imperative to being able to have a conversation. This audio was the perfect way for me to listen to a native speaker talk and work out all the nuances of Spanish in my head. After listening to this several times, it became easier and easier not only to understand the book but also in real life conversations! It was also a great way to expand my vocabulary and learn some more conversational language instead of just academic robot talk. Thanks for the awesome book!

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Very good

I really enjoyed this audio book. I studied Spanish at school and have visited Spain many times on holiday and this is a really good and natural way to brush up on your spoken Spanish and general understanding of the language. I particularly like the fact you can slow the pace of the reading giving you more time to listen to and understand the words. Also the free PDF of the text really helps to follow the story and understand the more unusual words and phrases thus increasing your vocabulary.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Good audiobook for listening practice

I really liked stories. Nice, short and quite easy, ideal for the beginners or people who maybe know a little bit more, but are just not very familiar with listening. I had this problem for a long time.

The thing is, that when the stories were great - I don't think there is anything that you can improve there - I just hate chapters with vocabulary. Really, they were just terrible to go through. I could understand if they were at the beginning of the audiobook, but, there are not! And it's was just listening for hours, trying to not to fall asleep and finding maybe one or two new words in the chapter.
Also, I understand that there's a difference between English 'handsome' and Spanish 'guapo/guapa' (just an example) but I don't see a point for doing 'guapo - handsome - guapo', 'guapa - handsome - guapa'. I know it's for the beginners, but even beginners should know that you change endings depending on gender and if they don't know that, I have no idea how they understand the whole thing either way.

On the other hand, the pace was good, so if you are not familiar with all that vocabulary you could catch it easily. I know that a lot of people don't have time and this is the best way for them to learn the language, but it just doesn't work for me.

But even with all of my problems with few chapters I still think it's good audiobook overall. Not for everyone, but if you know which way of learning is the best for you will be able to choose by yourself.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Brushing up on my GCSE Spanish.

I studied Spanish at secondary school for about 5 years, but that was 7 years ago. This audio book was great to just brush up on grammatical structure, getting to grips with the sound of the language and the flow of it all. I definitely recommend these to anyone looking to study a new language, or just brush up on an old one.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Audio book is far too fast for beginners

Unlike the others in these sequence of books this particular book is spoken poorly for beginners. Even slowed down to 0.75 you will struggle to understand it if you are anything less than a solid intermediate listener. The speaker takes long pauses between sentences
but not between words. Very disappointing and a waste of money until I’m more advanced

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

A great book to pick up or learn basic Spanish

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed working through this book. I briefly studied Spanish in secondary school, and found this a great way to pick up a lot of the vocabulary again, using a combination of a dictionary for the words I had forgotten and the glossary at the end of the stories meant I was able to understand what was happening the whole time.

I found that being able to both read and hear the stories also really helped (especially as I know I struggle with my pronunciation!). The audio flash cards at the end which goes over the vocabulary also really helped me learn the words through the repetition.

A great buy for someone who has done Spanish even to a basic level and wants to learn further or pick it back up.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great Stories, Even Better Practice!!

Would you consider the audio edition of Spanish: Short Stories for Beginners to be better than the print version?

I found listening to the stories very helpful and entertaining. I really like the stories and listening to them helped me more than just brushing up on simple vocabulary words. Being able to adjust the pace was good too. The voices of the narrators were pleasant to listen to. I enjoyed the entire book. Definitely would recommend for anyone wanting to immerse themselves in the Spanish language. Now can't wait for my next holiday! Viva Espana!

Any additional comments?

Having learned Spanish in school, I found this a very helpful reminder.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

I loved this book!

I loved this book!
These short Spanish stories were amazing! I felt so pulled in listening to this and immersed in the story. The quality was great and it wasn't to fast to follow and easy to learn a 5/5 from me.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Very useful start to learn Spanish

This book helped me to improve my vocabulary by listening and understanding the Spanish voice.. The stories are fun to listen and it's much better than just learning from a translation. I wish I had thought of learning and practising my Spanish this way before, I highly recommend this book and the method of learning. The combination of reading and listening is the perfect to learn any language. The two pace of voices are bonus, one for the beginners and other for improving language skills.
I am looking forward to read other books by the same publisher.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A fantastic audio book for beginners

I have always loved languages since I studied at school and I was skeptical at first to learn languages through an audio book but by the 3rd or 4th chapter on this audio book I was hooked and couldn't believe how easy it was to quickly learn a new language. I hadn't realised how similar English was to Spanish. Someone can learn only by listening to the CD; I found it very easy as every chapter introduces new vocabulary and new topics so I highly recommend it.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Pros and Cons

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Pros-
-Though initially its difficult to pick up the language,over a period,after listening to the audiobook,users will be to catch a few words and start getting comfortable with spanish.
-Availibility of narration speed variation.This helps people as we can follow the stories in our chosen convenient speed.
-Bookmark is available.So we can stop and start from wherever we wish to.

Cons-
-We can forward the story only by 30 seconds.I would have expected to forward for a greater length.User is forced to go through the whole length of the story when most of the story is ot even understandable.
-The chapters index does not have a name for each section.Listener does not get an initial idea of the title of any section from the index.
-English glossary towards the end of the book.Would have been better to have it chapter wise,so that we get an idea chapterwise and improve as we go along.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Would have been good if there was short narration in english to understand what the story is about.It would have been easier to follow the story in spanish thereafter.

What three words best describe Lucia Bodas and Abel Franco ’s voice?

Very clear and crisp

Did Spanish: Short Stories for Beginners inspire you to do anything?

It has helped me achieve more interest towards the spanish language.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful