The US Government uses all of Rosetta Stones products to train their employees. And I know a few adults that leaned Japanees very easily. I jsut really think I am a bad learner. And I would love to give you the materials, but they are in storage in the states. I only have what was downloaded on my MAC. And I have been getting the free stuff from Rocket Spanish. I think I may bite the bullet and buy there stuff. I like the way they communicate. As of yesterday, it was only $70 USD
I have Pimsleur tapes for French and Italian that I study and I like their method. Whatever you try, it will not work for one or two hours a day M-F if you don't practice what you are learning every day. I took some evening classes at TCU before I moved here. I learned numbers and forgot most of the rest. Kind of a Catch 22 I know but getting a job will help (but only if you speak Spanish on the job!) and speaking Spanish will help get a job.
Jim, you are right in everything. That is why Rosetta Stone is a waste. The program, which I have done about 10 hrs worth is about Man/Men, Woman/Women, Boys/Girls eating, drinking, walking, running, swimming...yada yada. There are no basics, and I have yet to really face the need to talk about the the above people, doing the above activities. Worthless $400 I wasted...imho.
You didn't go deep enough into the program. You have to bite the bullet and get through the "Man/Men, Woman/Women, Boys/Girls eating, drinking, walking, running, swimming" stuff before you can handle the rest. Finishing Level 1 can be a chore but once you're into Level 2 it becomes fun and you do learn. Their track record is impressive, hence the crippling price structure. Not only that, but each time they bring out a new edition, it's not backwards compatible, but if you get on the phone with them and complain they will give you fairly impressive discounts. I got my Version 3 at better than 50% off when I gave them the serial number of my Version 2 disks. I needed Version 3 for the language I was studying because they came out with a Level 3 set, whereas Version 2 ended at Level 2.
OK Mixz...I will hold out...I feel like I need to just jump on over. It's very discouraging and boring.
I fully understand what you said about the hourly rate for a tutor working out to be more than for classes. But also realize that one of the benefits of having a tutor is that they work individually with you on what you need help with and you would go crazy with four hours a day of tutoring. Any class or tutor can help you understand the basics of grammar but neither is a replacement for actually using the language. I've had a grand total of three months of actual classroom instruction in Spanish and am fully fluent now. The advantage I had was constantly being in situations in Mexico in which I had no English speakers around to fall back on and get help from. This is of course harder to do in a place like Cancun, so you'll have to manufacture those situations yourself....by doing things like NOT taking your boyfriend or other bilingual friends with you to help with daily activities. If your level of Spanish is pretty basic now, I wouldn't recommend doing something like, say, discussing how to get an FM3 with Immigration without help, but definitely do things like go to Cablemas to pay your cable bill or Aguakan to pay for water. If I were in Cancun not working and wanting to learn Spanish, this is what I'd do: maybe one hour three times a week with a tutor and then a couple of hours a day volunteering at an organization with no English speakers at all. Keep a notebook with you to write down the questions that pop up for you and to have people help you write down the words and phrases you don't understand. Then at night, spend some quality time with your dictionary (I used to fall asleep with mine in bed with me) and a basic grammar book looking for answers to your questions and looking up the words you wrote down. Basically, the only way to truly learn a language is to spend long periods of time interacting in only that language so your brain can get used to only processing that language. You should be exhausted by the end of the day and begging to have someone speak to you in English. After a while, you'll get less tired and find yourself all of a sudden understanding most of what people say where before you maybe understood every tenth word. Honestly, I think it's kind of silly to spend money on computer software to learn a language when you live in the country in which that language is spoken.
How about for a guy living in the US that wants to learn, but has no access to any tutor or classes? (The local Community ed. had classes and I had taken the first class and started the second when the teacher got sick and never returned.) I have been looking at getting the RS software, but after reading this thread wondering if its worth the money.
