Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners

Listen for Pleasure at Your Level, Expand Your Vocabulary and Learn Spanish the Fun Way!

De: Olly Richards

Narrado por: Javier Marzan

Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners has been written especially for students from beginner to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, a feeling of progress and, most importantly, enjoyment! Mapped to A2-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference, these eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of achievement and a feeling of progress when listening.

What does this book give you?

• Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making the process fun while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary.
• Controlled language at your level, including the 1,000 most frequent words, to help you progress confidently.
• Authentic spoken dialogues, to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability.
• Pleasure! It's much easier to learn a new language when you're having fun, and research shows that if you're enjoying listening in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration - 'it's too hard!' 'I don't understand!'
• Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free way.

Carefully curated to make learning a new language easy, these stories include key features that will support and consolidate your progress, including:

• A bilingual word list.
• Comprehension questions to aid your understanding.
• Full plot summary.

As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying the stories, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners will make learning Spanish easy and enjoyable.

©2018 Olly Richards (P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Olly's top-notch language-learning insights are right in line with the best of what we know from neuroscience and cognitive psychology about how to learn effectively. I love his work - and you will too!" (Barbara Oakley, PhD, author of New York Times best seller A Mind for Numbers)

Perfect for intermediate Spanish speakers

This book is the best one I have found for intermediate Spanish. Get it.

On Target for Beginner/low Intermediate Level

Narrated at the correct pace. Stories simple and Interesting. At times the stories meandered too much.

Stories are easy to follow and interesting

I think I am somewhere around A2 level, and this was perfect. I could follow the story and understand almost everything, while learning new words along the way.

Great entry level Spanish

I am learning to speak Spanish in order to speak with my husband's family. These stories were spoken clearly, nice cadence (not too fast for a learner) and interesting content with simple vocabulary.

Excellent read for adult beginners

This is an excellent read for adult beginners. I reinforced my learning by buying the book also. By reading first then listening I found that my learning increased multi fold

Exactly what I was looking for

Exactly what I was looking for to improve my listening. So much better than any app I've tried, and such fun stories!

Fun way to practice listening comprehension

I practice reading, writing, vocabulary, and some speaking, and I also practice listening by watching Spanish shows, but this was designed for intermediate Spanish learners, so the reading is clear and not overly complex for an intermediate leaner. I understood most of it, and the bits I didn't understand I was able to figure out just by the context. If there are any more stories by this author, I will get them as well. It was an entertaining way to flex my listening muscles.

love it

this is a very good opportunity to to just listen and pick up what you can, to hear the language in use.

Better than Expected

The book does a good job of staying just above beginner level, using limited vocabulary with frequent repetition. But what made it better was that the plots of the stories were so engaging given the limitations of length and vocabulary. I imagine this kind of material is hard to write and he has done a very good job on all of the stories. The narration is clear and well paced also. I was really happy with this purchase.

Great way to learn Spanish

Listening to this book was a more natural way to learn Spanish than apps or other methods. It deserves close to five stars in all categories.
However, it didn’t include audio chapter summaries and comprehension questions as Richards has included in other language versions of this book (requiring learners to refer to the included PDF for those features).
Also, be aware that this narration and grammar seem to lean towards European grammar and pronunciation.
The verb tense also sometimes changes multiple times in a passage, which seems a little unnatural and can disorient a learner who is not familiar with Spanish verb tenses and conjugations.
The narrator also does not differentiate his character as much as narrators in other Richards audiobooks, requiring the learner to concentrate more closely.
This is still a great language-learning audiobook, and I recommend getting it. If you are new to Spanish and don’t have exposure to the vocabulary from previous education, I recommend buying the e-book or paperback to read along with on a second listening so that you can identify specific words. I also recommend watching Richards’s YouTube videos on storylearning, so that you can make the most of his books.