I've decided

[Gramps]

At the age of 67, I've decided to learn Spanish.

Opinions please..

Is Rosetta Stone good or bad?

[Frostbit]

At the age of 67, I've decided to learn Spanish.

Opinions please..

Is Rosetta Stone good or bad?

Immersion is the only way to go. Head to Ecuador with us in 2016

[Gramps]

Immersion is the only way to go. Head to Ecuador with us in 2016

What is the present year?

[Adam]

I've heard a lot of raves about Rosetta Stone, though I've certainly never used it myself, nor do I personally know anyone who has (that I know of, anyway).

I would think that even if Rosetta Stone works well, you would probably be well-served to sign on to audit a Spanish class at your local community college or some such, even if just as an "enhancement" to Rosetta Stone. Given the demand for Spanish-speakers out there, surely there are reasonably inexpensive taught courses out there that you could take.

My Spanish is very limited, particularly these days, but I found it a considerably easier language to pick up than, say, German which, of the little bit that I picked up, came solely from immersion and no "formal" instruction other than getting pointers from things like Berlitz phrase books.

[Frostbit]

What is the present year?

two years before Ecuador

[Gramps]

Immersion is the only way to go. Head to Ecuador with us in 2016

So, let me get this straight.

I have to be baptized in Ecquador?

[Gingersnap]

What do you want to do with Spanish? Do you want to read Spanish? Read literature? Read scientific papers? Do you want to order off the menu at your local Mexican restaurant? Watch Mexican soap operas? Shoot the shit with the local third generation gang members? Do you want to apply for a government job requiring a Spanish test? Ride to Columbia by bicycle? Sell drugs in your local Spanish-speaking neighborhood?

Tell us why you want to learn and how you imagine you will use it.

Rosetta Stone is fine for tourist-type conversation, limited chat with locals, and very limited business uses. Think of it as the Spanish equivalent of the 500 English words for business that was popular 10 years ago.

If you want to read and comprehend, you need a program with more grammar. If you want to chat with the locals (wherever they are), you need a more specific audio program. Formally trained Spanish speakers in this country still get the European version which has some significant conversational departures. I once had a boyfriend who took intensive Spanish and was considered fluent but he changed his own assessment of his level after living in Mexico for 6 months. They just laughed at him and spoke English.

[Adam]

What do you want to do with Spanish? Do you want to read Spanish? Read literature? Read scientific papers? Do you want to order off the menu at your local Mexican restaurant? Watch Mexican soap operas? Shoot the shit with the local third generation gang members? Do you want to apply for a government job requiring a Spanish test? Ride to Columbia by bicycle? Sell drugs in your local Spanish-speaking neighborhood?

Tell us why you want to learn and how you imagine you will use it.

Rosetta Stone is fine for tourist-type conversation, limited chat with locals, and very limited business uses. Think of it as the Spanish equivalent of the 500 English words for business that was popular 10 years ago.

If you want to read and comprehend, you need a program with more grammar. If you want to chat with the locals (wherever they are), you need a more specific audio program. Formally trained Spanish speakers in this country still get the European version which has some significant conversational departures. I once had a boyfriend who took intensive Spanish and was considered fluent but he changed his own assessment of his level after living in Mexico for 6 months. They just laughed at him and spoke English.

Indeed, there is a vast difference between the Spanish that is taught in most of America and what people speak. I was taught Castillian, and even one of our teachers admitted that she was teaching us the Spanish equivalent of Middle English: it was great for reading a Spanish version of Chaucer, but worthless in the real world, but for the fact that Castillian was (and I guess still is) considered the "official" Spanish language of contracts and such. What I learned was ludicrously stilted and was language that no one (well, OK: something like 1% of the population in Spain) speak today. NO ONE actually uses "yablamanos" in conversation, though it is the proper declination for certain contractual details in Spain. Same with such stilted phrases as "¿Cómo está usted?" which is the functional equivalent of me asking you "How are thee upon this morrow?" It's technically correct, but no one actually talks like that.

But if you're into contract law, you'd better get used to it.

The rest of us will say "que pasa" instead.


Of course, the ultimate answer in today's world is to hire an illegal to teach you Spanish. FWIW. You didn't hear it from me.

[Lanie]

First of all, I'd like to say good for you.

I'm sure Rosetta Stone is good and expensive. Whenever I go on youtube for lessons, I always get ads from http://www.babbel.com/.

You can register for free. If you like you, then you can buy it.

[Gingersnap]

LOL! I think it's the same with any living language. The school version is old fashioned or out of touch and the audio version is too simplistic.

My SIL is a fanatic French speaker/teacher and has lived in France. She gets the language equivalent of 'bitch slapped' whenever she goes to France after a 10 year interval. The colloquial conversational French moves on. She says it's like talking movie English from 1975 to native English speakers in 1995 - doable but not natural.

I have the same problem. I speak, read, write Swedish. I've lived there. I correspond with my Swedish cousins and friends but I constantly slip behind the vernacular. I have to watch Swedish TV and then Skype with my relatives to stay vaguely normal and even then, I'm not going to be "natural" because I don't live there anymore.

On the other hand, am I good enough to live and work there? Sure. Can I go to Iceland and read the Sagas for myself with zero help? Not so much, despite having relentlessly studied Old Low Norse.

[scott]

At the age of 67, I've decided to learn Spanish.

Opinions please..

Is Rosetta Stone good or bad?

Berlitz is better. Then watch old reruns of shows you know on Telemundo.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

HRH is pretty impressed with Pimsleur so far, but be sure to go to their own website and not the knockoff "pimsleurapproach" website. The real thing is more expensive but it's the real thing. And geared to learning to speak, not conjugate verbs. Available in mp3 so you can learn while you do other things, the ways children do.

I disagree with the recommendation to take a Spanish class at your local college. It will be excruciatingly slow for anyone with an ounce of ability and the motivation to actually learn to converse. Spanish 1 is always loaded with people who need 2 semesters of a language to graduate and heard that Spanish is the easiest.

ETA: since you have a teaching background, once you get a rudimentary vocabulary, volunteer to teach recent immigrants in your local adult school. By teaching them, you'll pick up a lot of their language.