First let me start by saying this book is incredible.
For most of us, learning Spanish is a daunting, monumental, and sometimes hopeless task. It’s hard too. If you have ever felt that way Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish might just what you need. The cover of the book calls itself “a creative and proven approach” to learning Spanish. That is no lie. It departs from the traditional style of learning a language- rote memorization, conjugation trees, vocabulary, and the like.
Madrigal takes the ‘teach a man to fish’ approach. In place of memorizing large lists of words, this book teaches you how to make the word. Instead of being given sentences to remember, it gives you the tools you need to form your own.
Madrigal’s book is definitely a creative right-brained approach to learning Spanish. It is obvious how different this approach is right away when she starts to teach you how to speak in the past tense first! Usually a student doesn’t begin to learn past tense until their third semseter in school. All the exercises in the book are highly effective, so be sure you don’t skip any of them.
If you are like me, the traditional way of learning Spanish just wasn’t enough to equip me with what I needed to converse and feel confident in a new language. The lesson plan just didn’t seem intuitive. Madrigal’s book, though it is over 50 years old, was just what I needed. Despite its age, it’s still one of the highest rated books to learn Spanish, used by some of the top language institutes in the world to teach Spanish. But don’t take my word for it… read the reviews on Amazon- 80 reviews and it still has 5 stars.
Ok ok, I’m done raving about this book. It is an amazing book, but it is only a book. If you are serious about learning the language a few more tools would be greatly helpful. A good book on verb conjugation like 501 Spanish Verbs and a good Spanish to English Dictionary is helpful.
I would also recommend something to help with pronunciation like Rosetta Stone, or Conversational Spanish with Pimsleur. Finally, there is no replacement for hard work. Immerse yourself in the language and practice practice practice. Learning Spanish is within your reach!
