Más Fácil – acclaimed Spanish Grammar reference – now available to general public for first time
A book called Más Fácil (which in Spanish means easier) is an ingeniously constructed Spanish grammar reference and, in a recent move, Más Fácil‘s dynamic author team reacquired the book’s distribution rights from Prentice-Hall (Simon & Schuster) and is now making Más Fácil broadly available to the public – at a “student-centered price” of $9.95.
This broad access is what the authors intended all along. As Estelita Calderón-Young, Más Fácil co-author, notes, “From the very beginning 30 years ago, our overriding interest has been to help as many Spanish learners as possible, and we are now able to expand that number dramatically … Everything about our association with Prentice-Hall has been great, but now we’re ready to take Más Fácil to a new level.”
Más Fácil – described by one critic as “an ideal review of Spanish grammar, with good explanations and no fluff” – launched in 1992 as a prestigious Prentice-Hall publication, and it has accelerated the success of many Spanish students over the years. But, as Calderón-Young points out, because Más Fácil was classified as a textbook, “its market reach was limited to the academic community … and at a pretty steep price.”
With the authors now in control of print & distribution rights, the finely tuned paperback edition of Más Fácil is currently available from Amazon and other booksellers at a deeply discounted price. In addition, the new publisher, Wordsmith Associates, has an eBook edition under development, scheduled for release early in 2022, and is also holding preliminary discussions with potential app developers.
The Book – What’s So Special???
The key to Más Fácil’s true distinction in a crowded competitive market is its intuitive organizational structure, comprehensive in scope, as it provides everything a Spanish language student looks for in a grammar reference:
- It is complete, concise, compact, and convenient, providing a wealth of information on all facets of everyday Spanish grammar.
- It relies on a conversational, non-technical tone and provides many extremely useful examples in commonplace situations.
- It provides several useful add-ons, including a “Glossary of English Grammar Terms” for those English-speaking students who are a little rusty on the grammar of their own native language.
- AND … riding on top of all of these features … it provides QUICK accessibility to needed information.
To speed access to needed information, Más Fácil is a tightly organized, well-indexed, highly cross-referenced treasure trove of valuable Spanish grammar concepts, rules, and examples.
Rod Mebane, Más Fácil’s other co-author, reflects on the demands of a new language and suggests, “Think about it – when you’re learning a language, there is a lot of ‘looking up’ … over and over and over … because there’s so much to learn and everything is new. For example, when I studied Spanish, I had a textbook, a workbook, a dictionary/phrase book, a book of verbs, and classroom handouts and notes – and I spread them all out in front of me when I studied. In a nutshell, what Estelita and I did was to consolidate all of these key components into one, easily searchable resource.” Looking back on the pre-Internet time when Más Fácil was created, Mebane observes, “In essence, we designed a hyperlinked blueprint for accessing Spanish grammar before hyperlinks even existed.”
The Author Team – The “Secret Sauce”
The many innovative aspects of Más Fácil stem from a successful collaboration between a professor and her student that combined complementary perspectives, backgrounds, and skill-sets in an intense development effort.
Estelita Calderón-Young – THE TEACHER – At the time of Más Fácil’s original publication, Estelita was on the early arc of a steep and successful career trajectory when she served as a young faculty member at Collin College, near Dallas. A native Spanish speaker raised in El Paso and who completed her advanced studies at Youngtown State, Estelita absolutely excelled at teaching. She repeatedly earned outstanding teacher awards and, through her instruction, she honed a variety of techniques for integrating grammar concepts that worked especially well with adult learners. Today, Estelita continues to live in the Dallas area and is highly regarded as a thought leader, especially in areas of educational technology.
Rodney M. Mebane – THE STUDENT – Rod was a student of Estelita at Collin College. His “day” job at the time was serving as Treasurer of Southern Methodist University in Dallas but, after living in Texas for five+ years (as a transplant from the Northeast), he decided that he should learn to communicate better with the 40% or so of Texans for whom Spanish was their first language. So, Rod enrolled in a night class to study Spanish, and he applied an extremely disciplined approach to learning the material. Many of his organizational principles flowed directly into the design of Más Fácil. Rod now lives in the Chicago area, where he manages Wordsmith Associates – an independent publisher.
Need More Information?
Visit: https://wordsmith.associates – Email: publisher@wordsmith.associates
Más Fácil: A Quick Grammar Reference for the Student of Spanish, 2nd Edition (Revised)
Estelita Calderón-Young and Rodney M. Mebane
©2021 / ISBN 978-0-9908547-4-6 / Wordsmith Associates (Geneva, Illinois)
Paperback / 6″x 9″x 0.5″ / 210 pages / $9.95 USD
Available from Amazon & Other Booksellers