Hi there HU,

For those of you traveling Latin America, I thought you might like some down-to-earth feedback, tips, thoughts, or whatever on what it's like learning the Spanish language and exactly what it takes. I’ll be posting on this thread once every other week or so to give updates on my Spanish progress.

Quick background: I’m new to a second language. I’ve tried to learn Spanish before but got bored or it just didn’t stick. I tried Rosetta Stone, Michel Thomas, and now I’m on to Pimsleur (which is fantastic so far!). I’m learning Spanish because I’m heading to SA in 2013. I hope that these 'real-life' progress reports will give a better understanding as to what it takes to learn a new language.


Rosetta Stone:

Started (just for the heck of it) a year ago. At first it was awesome, a whole new approach to learning a second language! After a while it felt like I was really learning something but in reality I wasn’t getting anywhere. I wasn’t able to have the same interaction as you would speaking with a Spanish-speaking person. (I gave up after the year). That aside, I DID however learn a few things like what apples, dogs, cats, and other random objects were. (manzanas, perros, and los gatos).

Michel Thomas:

This guy is a real character! I listened to these recordings for a while but as before, I lost interest. He was great in emphasizing how to emphasize words and I truly did learn one of two things but I got bored -I gave up – although sometimes his recordings pop up when my iPod is on shuffle… <next>.

Pimsleur:

Now let me be clear here first: I DO NOT WORK FOR THESE GUYS, nor do I get any endorsement bonus, but I think you know where I’m going with this... On their website I listened to the first lesson or free and after that I was HOOKED. It starts off with a conversation between a man and a woman (in Spanish). I think to myself: “What the F*&% was that?!”. The narrator proceeds to teach me how to have a conversation without me even knowing it, and then he engages me in a conversation-like format. At the end they play the first Spanish conversation I heard and what-a-ya-know… I understand it - Fully.


So this is my first bi-weekly write-up and I hope you enjoyed it. I was pretty lost and didn't really know which lessons to take, if I should teach myself, or if I should pay for lessons. To help me help you, please post your questions or comments to help out the community.