Camino al español was conceived originally as a language course that would take students with no previous knowledge to approximately the level required for university entrance in the UK. We also saw it as suitable for ‘fast track’ learning, for example, for university students or their equivalents who needed to establish the linguistic basis for advanced study of the language. In terms of the levels proposed in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), we felt confident that students who completed the course could achieve levels B1/B2. The carefully structured units provide opportunities to master the Spanish language by developing listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, and to gain an awareness of the varieties of Spanish across the world.

In a succinct and highly readable text, Alan E. Steinweis presents a synthesis of classic and recent research on the origins, development, and downfall of Nazi Germany. Rooted in nationalism and racism, and commanded by a charismatic leader, the Nazi movement created a populist and authoritarian alternative to a democratic republic plagued by unemployment and political fragmentation. A one-party dictatorship was achieved quickly after Hitler became chancellor in January 1933. In the years before World War II, the Nazi regime achieved popularity by restoring Germany to great-power status and by presiding over an economic recovery fueled by rearmament. Simultaneously the regime set in place an apparatus of coercion to marginalize Jews and other groups deemed objectionable by Nazi ideology, as well as to quell domestic opposition to the declared goals of the German “People’s Community.” Nazi ideology formed the basis for Germany’s goals and actions in World War II, which aimed at German hegemony and a racial transformation of Europe. Despite considerable internal dissent and some active resistance, the Nazi regime mobilized German society behind the war effort. In the end, Nazism was defeated from the outside by a superior military alliance.

This unit presents the use of direct object pronouns, in combination with the affirmative familiar imperative and with personal ’a’. Students learn to express preferences when giving or following instructions and when eating out or ordering food. They are also introduced to expressions with the verb tener to indicate states of body and mind. Alternative structures to the passive are described and practised. Finally, Spanish expressions of duration and continuity in time are contrasted with their English equivalents.

Chapter 8 surveys German-dominated Europe between September 1939 and June 1941. A Nazi empire was the source of millions of foreign laborers for the German economy. Germany’s occupation of Poland was especially severe, involving the annexation of territory, forced ethnic resettlement, and the systematic liquidation of much of that country’s leadership class. Occupation policy in Poland also included the ghettoization of the country’s Jewish population, which was also subjected to forced labor. These actions mirrored measures taken against German Jews, many of whom were made to live in “Jew Houses,” and perform labor for German municipalities and business enterprises. During this same period, the German government organized the mass murder of Germans institutionalized for mental disabilities. The program, known as T4, was staffed by medical personnel who arranged for the transfer of patients from clinics and hospitals to killing centers, which employed poison gas. About 70,000 patients were murdered under the auspices of T4, which ceased operation in the face of mounting protest in German society. The killing of disabled patients continued in other forms through the end of the war, while many of the T4 personnel were transferred to Poland to organize the mass murder of Jews through poison gas.

Listening activities are identifiable within the units by the listening icon to be found next to the exercise in question. There are two sections in each unit that contain the majority of the Listening exercises: the Presentación y prácticas and the Comprensión auditiva.

The advice here is to help you to establish good habits regarding Spanish pronunciation, word stress and intonation from the beginning. More advice and further guidance on producing vowels and consonants are to be found under Pronunciation in Part Three: Reference Tools and Study Aids. The recordings are to be found after those for the units.

The following pages list models for regular verbs (A) and radical-changing verbs (B), as well as the majority of irregular and non-standard verb forms (C) to be found in Camino al español. The Spanish/English and English/Spanish vocabulary lists to be found near the back of the book identify radical-changing and irregular or non-standard verbs.

This unit expands material on leisure and routine activities by adding vocabulary associated with the months of the year, important dates in the Hispanic calendar, as well as the seasons of the year in relation to weather and celebrations. It also explores the differences between English and Spanish with regard to the comparison of adjectives. Students can thus use the relevant vocabulary to make reservations, to talk about the weather, and for holiday planning.

Chapter 6 examines a spectrum of policies and practices employed by the Nazi regime to impose ideological conformity on Germans and to marginalize those regarded as racially alien, hereditarily damaged, or hostile to the People’s Community. At the core of the apparatus of coercion was the Secret State Police (Gestapo) and a network of concentration camps, both of which operated to a significant extent outside the traditional system of justice. While only a minority of Germans spent time in concentration camps, the mainstream of society was subjected to daily rituals of conformity, such as contributing to the Winter Relief campaigns, decorating one’s home with Nazi flags, and performing the Hitler salute. Organized resistance to the regime remained diffuse and ineffective in peacetime. Based on ideas from the international eugenics movement and on practices developed in the United States, the regime implemented a systematic program of eugenic sterilization. The regime translated its antisemitic ideology into action by legally defining the Jews as a race separate from the Germans, banning Jews from a variety of professions, and pursuing a process of “Aryanization” in which Jews were pressured to sell their property. Roma and Sinti (“Gypsies”) also became subject to racialization and persecution.

This unit introduces the imperfect and pluperfect subjunctives. Students now have the full range of tenses, moods and voices at their disposal. They can build on their earlier knowledge of how to use the subjunctive with regard to the present and the future, and now apply it to past situations too. They can negotiate conditional sentences and create their own ‘what if’ scenarios, describing what they would have done had such and such happened. A checklist reminds students how to work out whether to use the subjunctive or the indicative in a given context. The topic of false friends, and the traps presented by Spanish and English cognate words that are seemingly similar but with different meanings, which can lead to great confusion, is explored thoroughly.

This unit introduces students to the first of the past tenses (imperfect), with the forms of the regular and three irregular verbs and guidance as to the use of the tense. The latter will enable students to describe people and places in the past, talk about they used to do and compare the past and the present. This usage is supported by relevant time phrases and the verb acostumbrar (a), which can be used to describe habitual actions in the past where the imperfect would be appropriate. An introductory explanation and exercises on the very common Spanish impersonal se construction helps students to form passive and impersonal sentences. More on this is to be found in Unit 19.

This unit introduces the conditional and the conditional perfect tenses, the forms of which are built on those of the future tense. These tenses allow students to describe hypothetical places and put themselves in hypothetical situations, saying what they would have done. The presentation of the passive voice, and how to avoid it in Spanish, provides extra tools to help students when expressing themselves. A linkage between a recipe, a humorous poem and historical racial issues in Spain provides interest and serious cultural comment. The complications posed by phrasal verbs and the differences between the use of prepositions with verbs in Spanish and English are highlighted.