Spanish Home Study Course

[Dale]

I plan to be on the Camino in early April and at the present time I do not speak Spanish at all. English is my first language and I speak French as a second language.(Not as well as I used to) I'm looking for a home study program that would teach me some basic Spanish between now and April. Right now I'm leaning toward, "Rosetta Stone's Spanish, Spain", http://www.rosettastone.com/offer/googlepage/esp has anyone used it and did you think it was worth the price. If you have used some other method and thought it was worth while I would like to hear from you too. Unfortunately I live in a rural area and it is not possible to take Spanish Classes here.

 

[Artemis]

Hi Dale,

I got the Rosetta Stone program not to long ago and while I do think it is a great program I wish it had more basic conversation in it. I now know how to say "The woman is running, the man is jumping, the horse is eating a carrot, the man is wearing bluejeans, the women are wearing white shirts, "etc. and that is great if I come across those situations and feel the need to coment on them. But I still feel totally unprepared for basic conversation with someone. I know that my vocabulary has definitely improved and I keep thinking that at some point a light will go off in my head and it will all fall into place. Someone on this forum told me about Coffee Break Spanish. It is free and you do the lessons online. You might try that before investing in Rosetta Stone. http://www.radiolingua.com/cbs/guide-subscribe.html
I also went to Barnes and Noble and bought some flash cards and also a set of CD's that are really good. They say the Spanish word and tell you something silly to visualize for ten seconds associated with it. It really seems to work.

Artemis

 

[Dale]

Thanks Artemis I just had a look at the website and the introduction to the course. The price sure is right (FREE) although I see you could subscribe to a premium version for $16.00 per month. Thank you for the suggestion I think I will give it a try before I invest in an expensive program. I don't expect to become fluent but I would like to at least be able to converse on a basic level.

 

[Artemis]

You are more than welcome. Hope it works for you.

Artemis

 

[fiddletree]

While it is great to learn Spanish, remember that your French will potentially be extremely useful on the camino, as there are an abundance of French (and French Canadian) pilgrims

 

[Trudy]

The BBC in the UK have free on-line courses in several languages including Spanish, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

 

[Dale]

Thanks Trudy I didn't realize there was so much out there that is free now I have two free courses to choose from or perhaps I will use both. :idea:

Thank you very much

Dale