So I’m thinking about taking the plunge into learning Spanish, and I want to see how far I can get doing it by myself. I know I’m going to have to have formal instruction or be in a Spanish environment to really learn, but I’ve heard that software programs these days are providing a better and better alternative to beginner courses.
Rosetta Stone and Tell Me More seem to be the top programs; which one would you guys recommend? Are there any alternatives worth looking into?
Thanks!
Rosetta Stone is the poo–the military awards promotion points to soldiers who finish Arabic modules in it. It’s not only comprehensive but quite intuitive as well. A friend who’s been taking German finally started using Rosetta Stone to augment his classroom lessons and says it resulted in a breakthrough, such that he’s started to be able to think in German just a bit. I’m planning on tackling French pretty soon, and just for S&G’s I did a couple modules of frikkin’ Portuguese (not Brazilian Portuguese, there’s a difference y’know) and found that I had no problem figuring out how to use the software and was starting to tune my ear to it and I don’t think I’ve ever consciously heard Portuguese spoken before. So yeah, Rosetta Stone is very good. Downcheck is that it’s kinda spendy.
You might like to look at livemocha.com, where you can get free language lessons.
Thanks, I don’t know anyone who’s used these programs and it’s nice to hear a solid testimonial that’s not a professional review. I think I’ll give Rosetta Stone a go; the Spanish songs I’ve been working on have made me really eager to get into the language.
Perhaps Arabic will be next…
The quality of Rosetta Stone packages varies from language to language. Some are good, some are not so. I think Spanish is okay. The biggest issue is that they don’t always teach you culturally appropriate things, for instance “how are you” is always one of the first things they teach you, but in a lot of languages it’s not something you just say to a stranger. Or I’ve heard the Japanese program doesn’t really bother going into detail about honorifics, which is pretty terrible. Pimsleur IMO is also really good, though the teaching style is repetitive and doesn’t click with everyone. And it also suffers a bit from cultural issues, quality varies with different languages, etc. Basically, you can’t really rely on one thing to teach you a language. I think singing/listening to Spanish songs is a great way to learn, actually. Find a band you like. Can’t find any English info on them? Oh no! You’ll have to plumb the depths of the Spanish internet. Speaking of the internet, it holds the answer to ALL your questions. Basically, if you free yourself of the notion that you HAVE to do any particular thing in order to learn x language it’s a lot easier.
Check out your local library. You may be able to check out language learning materials. And I can get free access to Rosetta Stone through the local public library’s online services (for Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Russian, Greek and English).
I am currently using Rosetta Stone’s Arabic version to augment a smattering here and there I’m trying to pick up. Not much to report yet, but when a language is really busting your balls IME (myself and others) Rosetta Stone can really help you get through.
A friend of mine is currently learning Spanish through a game he’s got for either PSP or Nintendo DS, and he says it’s pretty good. Much, much cheaper than Rosetta Stone, and you can take things from there. The lucky thing about Spanish is it’s -relatively- similar to English and/or other languages like English, and there’s a huge Spanish-speaking population in this hemisphere which also means there’s a shit ton of resources to learn it on the cheap. That Nintendo DS/PSP game is a fun way to reinforce lessons learned without stressing too much on it, since it turns things into a game. Good luck.
Heh, that’s funny, because I’ve been using the Nintendo DS to help maintain my French. I’ve played through the whole Phoenix Wright series in French, and if you’re familiar with the games, they essentially consist of nothing but text-text-TEXT. It’s a really nice way to actually use the language without the language itself being the goal. When I feel like being a good student, I look up every word and expression I don’t know. When I just feel like playing, I don’t really need to look up anything and can roughly figure things out from context. Definitely makes me feel less guilty playing a video game!
My Spanish is at a very low level right now, but I may try a DS RPG in Spanish when I get a bit further.
Yeah, I definitely agree with you about having a multi-pronged approach to languages. My interest in Spanish should have come from my being an American (where Spanish is the lingua franca in many places), but instead it’s come from my love of Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodriguez. I don’t know the word for “hotel” or “bird” yet, but because his songs have burned certain sentences and phrases in my head, I’ll never forget, say, the word for “sorcery” now (sortilegio). Looking up Silvio information en espanol on the Net will definitely be happening at some point.
As another approach, I think it would help to find a good Spanish TV series to follow; anyone have any recommendations?
Oh yeah! The best part about music is probably that you can listen to a song several times in a row without losing your sanity like you probably would with audio lessons. Bwahaha.
What a great idea! Now I wish I hadn’t lent my DS out!
My French is in an odd place. After 2 years in an all-Francophone environment and teaching classes in French, my language skills are very fluent, but extremely unrefined. I speak like a west African, I only really understand Africans and I can’t write at all. I’m hoping to keep my French skills up and get better at understanding Frenchy-French accents. Mostly I’ve been doing that by listening to news podcasts in French. But I’ve got other language goals here, so it’s not really my big focus.
Any ideas on other games I could be playing in French? Particularly freeware games? I’ll let you guys know if I come up with something good!
It’s not software, but I used the Pimsleur audio CD’s to teach myself rudimentary Bahasa Indonesia, and it got me through a trip to Bali and meeting my girlfriend’s family in Jakarta.
I’ve forgotten most of what I’ve learned since I haven’t used it in a couple months, but I’m sure I’ll have plenty opportunities to use the language in the future.
Cool, I don’t think I’ve met anyone that’s learned French through Africa (besides native Africans of course). My problem right now is I just haven’t been able to speak much French in the last several years, so my reading and comprehension are still pretty good, but it takes me a while to formulate an argument or recount a story. But I do know that if I take no steps to review the language, it’ll go to the dogs.
As for DS games, just get the European version of any RPG or text adventure game. They usually have French, English, Spanish, German, and a couple other languages. You may be able to get your local store to order them. If you haven’t already played them, the Phoenix Wright series is pretty entertaining as a game and probably has as much text as a novella, which is great for our purposes.
By the way, has anyone tried the Tell Me More language program?