# I want to learn Spanish... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 5, 2006, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483 "2006-09-05T06:12:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LVgeogeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b19c9b/32.png) [@LVgeogeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVgeogeek)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/1 "2006-09-05T06:12:18Z")
I want to learn Spanish, well more than insults, telling day laborers “no work” and mexican food menus 🙂 I asked some people I know and they seem to say the Rosetta Stone program is really good. Well, I looked into the Rosetta Stone programs, and whoo boy… it is really expensive!! I looked on ebay, still freakin expensive. Is there another program that is good and “easy” to learn with that isn’t as expensive as Rosetta Stone? Or should I just fork over the money to buy the Rosetta Stone courses? What do you recommend or what has worked for you? Note: I dont have time to take classes at a school or go to a private tutor. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/2 "2006-09-05T07:03:25Z")
My first impulse was Instituto Cervantes, but in the US they’re only in Alburquerque, Chicago and NYC. There’s online courses, though, so I’m linking [their New York page](http://nyork.cervantes.es/) It’s sponsored by the Spanish government and the Academies of the Spanish Language. In case that worries you, they teach “Spanish”, not a given dialect (it’s sponsored by all the academies, not by the local government of Castille). ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/3 "2006-09-05T07:37:14Z")
Living in Mexico for 6 months (I had not studied Spanish previously) and needing it to survive day-to-day did wonders for me, and hardly cost anything. ---
**Author:** ![Kesamet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@Kesamet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kesamet)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/4 "2006-09-05T07:39:32Z")
I found the language course by Michel Thomas to be excellent. I really could converse in Spanish after a couple of weeks. Can be found at Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/5 "2006-09-05T11:27:43Z")
Your tax dollars at work: > **[How to Learn Languages with the FSI](https://papersowl.com/blog/learn-languages-with-fsi)** > > FSI language chart provides 4,169 audio files and 161 ebooks across dozens of languages, including Japanese, Russian, Chinese, German, etc. You can access dozens of courses in some of the most prevalent languages worldwide. Don’t know how good they are, but worth a shot. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/6 "2006-09-05T15:03:57Z")
You’re in Las Vegas? Start by commiting to a half-hour of Spanish-language television a day. Same show if you can manage it. You won’t understand much (if anything) at first, but it will help your ear attune to the rhythms of the language. Watch the commercials too. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/7 "2006-09-05T15:05:52Z")
[QUOTE=LVgeogeek] Note: I dont have time to take classes at a school or go to a private tutor. [/QUOTE] You have time to work with a computer program, but not 2 hours a week for a class? We’ve been taking classes from a local home-grown language school that takes up exactly two hours class time per week after work. Homework creates another hour of work. I’m sure you could find people locally that are doing the same thing. The advantage is that you get to hear the spoken language instead of guessing at accent and pronunciation, and you can ask questions. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/8 "2006-09-05T15:06:26Z")
But just watching the shows doesn’t help much without the ability to ask questions, specially when you don’t have the foggiest idea what is anybody talking about. Anyway, for viewing materials, check any movies you own in DVD. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/9 "2006-09-05T15:39:02Z")
[QUOTE=LVgeogeek] I asked some people I know and they seem to say the Rosetta Stone program is really good. Well, I looked into the Rosetta Stone programs, and whoo boy… it is really expensive!! I looked on ebay, still freakin expensive. Is there another program that is good and “easy” to learn with that isn’t as expensive as Rosetta Stone? Or should I just fork over the money to buy the Rosetta Stone courses? What do you recommend or what has worked for you? [/QUOTE] The Rosetta Stone program might be good if (a) you already have a rudimentary knowledge of the language, (b) it’s a fairly English like language, and (c) you have a native (or knowledgeable) speaker around to ask questions of. I tried it in Italian online - and it was ok. Because I can kind of half stumble through some Spanish, I was able to figure out the words through the cognates. When I heard the sounds, they were close enough to what I knew that I could make a reasonable guess as to what they were saying. I could sound out the printed words when I wasn’t sure. That would mostly work for Spanish. (For me at least) I got the Russian version, and it kind of sucks. There’s no dictionary included. There’s no pronunciation guide included. There’s no way of telling what they’re indicating (is that noise the car or the fact that it’s moving or the fact that’s its red or the person inside it? Who knows.). The speakers don’t enunciate (because that’s not what native speakers do). It’s a cyrillic alphabet, so it’s taken a while to figure out how to sound out the words - and I’m pretty sure I’m wrong on a number of them. But still, I can easily get 100% on the lessons because it’s very easy to push through without actually knowing anything other than how to get 100% on the lessons. I’d think more than twice before shelling out the cash. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/10 "2006-09-05T17:30:37Z")
I learned Spanish through music- Ricky Martin, specifically :). Now, you might not want to go to those lengths, but perhaps you could find some music that you like and keep it in your CD player for a while. It worked for me because I was 14 and found music I really liked- and then I became curious as to what he was saying, got a dictionary, and away I went. After that, I took one summer class of Spanish in highschool, which helped with verbs and such. So, I’d imagine that you could replicate what I got in my 6 week Spanish course with a good book. Just go down to Border’s and look around-- there are always a TON of Spanish-learning books. Find one you like and there you go. Also pick up a dictionary :). ---
**Author:** ![LVgeogeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b19c9b/32.png) [@LVgeogeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVgeogeek)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/11 "2006-09-05T17:40:00Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] snip…You have time to work with a computer program, but not 2 hours a week for a class?..snip [/QUOTE] My work schedule is too unpredicatble\* for taking a class. Some days I work 8-5. But others it is overnights, early morning starts (between midnight to 6am). For example, last week I worked from 945 PM to 330 PM the next afternoon :eek: If it is a computer program or learn by audio CD or something like that, I can work with it when I have time. I never thought of checking out the spanish tv channels to help learn. I should start that too. \*This aspect of my job is most annoying. I have a hard time sheduling everything from a DR’s appointment to taking a vacation. ☹ thanks for the suggestions so far. I will start checking them out. Any other suggestions?? ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/12 "2006-09-05T17:43:41Z")
Two words: Sesame Street ---
**Author:** ![BlueKangaroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@BlueKangaroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueKangaroo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-spanish/371483/13 "2006-09-05T18:19:30Z")
You might try a wanted ad on your local freecycle, craigslist or similar. I’ve also been wanting to learn Spanish, and someone posted an offer for a text book and a computer program. It’s not Rosetta Stone, but it’s a start and it is free. Also, [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=374616&highlight=diablo) is funny, and contains a link to free Spanish online courses.