I'm also just starting to learn Spanish! I had my first lesson yesterday. But I already know Esperanto quite well, so I'm not really learning it at the moment. I do hope that what they say, that knowing Esperanto facilitates learning other languages, will hold true for Spanish.

I had some not-very-nice experiences with Esperanto, as a student. I started learning in the summer between middle school and high school, using a postal course - on paper. I frequently brought Esperanto lessons to school, to work on them during breaks or on the bus. I frequently had an Esperanto dictionary in my backpack. And I often looked at Esperanto websites in the computer lab at lunch.

I didn't spend a lot of time talking about it to my classmates, but people would see these things and of course they would ask, and I'd tell them. And then I'd get teased and people would make jokes about it, "Erin speaks espe-rant-o", and it really was not funny at all, not in the slightest. I also was not interested in sports or the personal lives of movie stars. I attended a high school program for math and science, and the kids were unusually smart and geekier than most. There were a lot of programming geeks but not really any "language geeks". I got sick of the snickering and about the jokes about how "no one speaks Esperanto", about all of my "international boyfriends" (I corresponded with a lot of people in Esperanto, several, but not all! of whom were male), etc.

So now, I still read Esperanto publications in public, I have a lernu mug sitting on my desk at work, etc. I still get the occasional "joke" about it, though not as bad as high school. But I am not very open about it. People frequently use "So where do you come from?" to figure out what language you're speaking. They seldom ask what the language is. If you were to say, for example, "I come from the US and she comes from Kyrgyzstan", they would say "Oh, ok" and presumably assume the language you're speaking is Kyrgyz. I don't bother correcting them, or explaining that the language is Esperanto. I don't really want to get into it; I've had enough of that.

number2:

Diplomatically does it - if you take up the language seriously after you've finished your Spanish studies at school.

Has anyone had any experience, good or bad, with the Rosetta Stone courses? One of their courses is Spanish (Latin American) and it comes in three levels. I've been wondering if it would be worth the expense to give it a try. And they are expensive, although not prohibitively so if they work.

jawq81:Has anyone had any experience, good or bad, with the Rosetta Stone courses? One of their courses is Spanish (Latin American) and it comes in three levels. I've been wondering if it would be worth the expense to give it a try. And they are expensive, although not prohibitively so if they work.

I have heard mixed things about Rosetta Stone. It is based only on the language you are learning, without translations; I have heard that in some cases, it gives the user a mistaken impression of the meaning of the words used. I read that criticism regarding the German version, so I don't know if the Spanish version has the same flaw.

I once had a free demo CD that had several lessons each of every language that Rosetta Stone offered at the time. Unfortunately, I gave it away some time back, so I can't pass it along to you. I did a few sample lessons, which I have some opinions about, though I warn you that I never went through a full course.

I found that because it doesn't use translations, the first words you learn are very concrete, and not necessarily very useful. Dog, cat, automobile. It is good at teaching you to recognize words. It is not so good at teaching you to have a conversation. Because it is based on pictures and words, without explanations, it is not so good at conveying to you the nuances of when to use what forms. When I first started with it, I thought "Wow, I'm really learning!", but I got bored with it quickly. The repetition drills get, well, repetitive, and boring. I know that learning a language has to include repetition, but this particular program didn't really suit my learning style.

However, Rosetta Stone has an online trial; you can use it for free for seven days, or something like that. I am not sure of the terms. But I encourage you to use the trial before deciding whether to buy it. Everyone has a different learning style; I didn't like Rosetta Stone too much and it didn't really suit me, but some people love it. For this kind of thing, it's better to try it yourself and see what you think.

This is the URL for signing up for the trial:
http://www.rosettastone.com/personal/form/flash-de...

As for other options, many of the Foreign Service language courses are now available for free online; you can download the audio from the tapes, and the course texts. The material is a bit dated, and the material is dry, but the basics of the grammar will still be correct.

I would suggest looking at your local library, if you haven't already. Many libraries have audio or video courses that you can check out.

jawq81:Has anyone had any experience, good or bad, with the Rosetta Stone courses? One of their courses is Spanish (Latin American) and it comes in three levels. I've been wondering if it would be worth the expense to give it a try. And they are expensive, although not prohibitively so if they work.

I`ve studied lots of languages at schools. They were very expensive.
You`d never get three levels for under $300.00.

I`ve been thinking about picking up a Pimsleur Course.

The only difference is that I feel more compelled to go to class then to talk to a CD.

But if you`re the type of person who can commit to using a self-study course then you might as well get one.

A hundred years ago (I was 15) I learned a pile of Spanish from some cassettes I talked dad into buying, They worked. When a Cuban showed up in my school, he was absolutely delighted when I tried it out on him, and I was amazed that I was actually speaking intelligibly. That said, we weren`t discussing Kirkegaard or anything, but it was a good start.

I went through all three levels of Pimsleur French and I still can't speak French.

One place where that particular course really falls down, in my opinion, is listening comprehension. It didn't offer much in the way of listening comprehension, and the people on the tapes spoke much more clearly than actual French people speak.

'vejktoro' wrote: I`ve studied lots of languages at schools. They were very expensive.
You`d never get three levels for under $300.00.

Vi pravas. La tri niveloj kostas $549 USD. = You are right. The three levels cost $549 USD.

But before buying a Pimsleur course, be aware that it is also very expensive. Pimsleur's Spanish I sells on amazon.com for $345 USD. They cost much more if you buy from Pimsleur direct. Usually amazon.com has some very helpful Customer Reviews. Don't neglect to read some of these. In addition to the cost, some of the reviewers had problems with the generic form of Spanish taught in the course. And some others complained that the number of words learned in each course was far too small.

Yeeesh!

That is steep.

Nothing compared to a course at some school, but kinda crazy for a book and a few audio tracks.

Second hand or forget it, I guess.

Pimsleur is commonly found in libraries, I would really look there first to see if you like it.

I also felt that Pimsleur taught very few words, and I felt unprepared to deal with most situations, after using it.

Perhaps work on a course in a book, and get a small audio course to help you with pronunciation. That's the one real plus to those tape courses; they get you speaking and they give you practice with pronouncing the words, unlike book courses.