Book excerpt: A Comparative Vocabulary Study Guide: Spanish to English to Portuguese to Chinese is a four language vocabulary guide highlighting over 5,000 selected Spanish words that have either the same spelling and meaning as their English and Portuguese language counterparts or contain easily recognizable English and Portuguese meanings with a comparison to their Chinese language equivalents. Spanish is the language base for this guide. All Spanish words are given the general or specific meanings of Spanish currently spoken in Argentina. Spanish is the language to which the English definitions and the Portuguese equivalents are compared. The Chinese is matched to English definitions. This guide is designed after the "vocabulary first" method of language instruction as advocated by the author. It teaches a basic vocabulary by word association.