Spanish [antikvár]

PREFACE Spanish, whether for cultural or commercial reasons, is well worth studying. It is spoken not only in Spain, but throughout Latin America, with the exception of Brazil, and even there, where the oiiicial language is Portuguese, you could make yourself understood. That is, of course, if you can also make yourself understood to a Spaniard. It is the purpose of this book to enable you to do so. When you have worked through it, you should be in a position to read any Spanish novel or newspaper, to speak enough of the language to be able to converse and to write it comprehensibly, though your rendering will not be faultless. This book follows in the main the model of Teach Yourself French, published in the same series. There are several reasons for this. In the first place, I hope that some who studied that volume may be encouraged to tackle this one, and, knowing the ways of the first, they will find it the more easy to embark upon its companion. Secondly, what proved successful in one case, may reasonably be considered likely to prove acceptable in another, so that people coming fresh to this book should be able to make as good use of it as those who studied Teach Yourself French. At first sight it would seem that, by following the methods of another volume, I lay myself open to a charge of plagiarism. This accusation leaves my withers (whatever they may be) unwrung. For, as I was responsible for modernising Sir John Adams' admirable Teach Yourself French, I see no reason why I should not be allowed to borrow from myself. After all, as the lunatic very luminously observed: " If I can't bang my head against my own mantelpiece, whose mantelpiece can I bang it against ? "