by Rosana on December 24, 2009
in Videos
If you have ever trained a dog, even to the most basic level, you know some things that can help you with your own process of learning Spanish. Here are four:
[1] Repetition is essential. If you want your dog to come when called, for example, you will need to practice over and over and over. If you want Spanish verbs to slip off your tongue naturally, you will need to practice over and over and over.
In both cases, review is a necessary part of the repetition. If you don’t call your dog for a year, what are the chances that he will come immediately when you do? If you haven’t used your Spanish verbs in a long time and you go to a Spanish-speaking country for a trip, they are unlikely to be right at the tip of your tongue. [click to continue…]
When I wrote about Learning Spanish Like Crazy recently, I didn’t realize it is also for sale at Amazon. That link takes you to what I said then. Here’s what is up at Amazon.
By the way, I am not much of a fan of the FSI remastered programs that are mentioned here as bonuses. They are half a century out of date and not nearly as interesting as things done more recently. (By, the way, I know the text below isn’t playing nice with the margins of the page. It’s on my short list of things to figure out.)
Overall Rating:
Total Customer Reviews: (36)
Learning Spanish Like Crazy was developed to teach conversational Latin American Spanish. The course was developed after the Founder of the course realized that the Spanish that Latin American actually speak was different from the Spanish that he had learned from other self-study Spanish courses. Unlike many other Spanish courses, Learning Spanish
[Read More...]
I’ve been reflecting lately on how effective any of these learn-Spanish programs and websites are for average users. I’ll get to why I have been considering this a bit further down the page.
From what I observe, people tend to lead rather hectic lives. This includes so-called “retired” people. It is easy to be scattered. And this makes it less likely that people will do their Spanish lessons as much as they thought they would.
I admit that I have always been an incorrigible optimist about how much I could do in a given amount of time, and as a result I am always juggling too much. Because I’ve been like this at least since high school, I’ve had a lifelong interest in time management. I have taught private classes and workshops for corporations on the subject. I use lists and prioritizing every day — even on my days off! (My husband thinks I am nuts, but that is another matter!)
So if you were to ask me about the average user of Rocket Spanish, Fluenz Spanish, Rosetta Stone, other programs, or the various websites I’ve reviewed. How much do I think they learn? I would say, I doubt they learn much. [click to continue…]
Fluenz Spanish has recently updated its course. Version F2 has some updates, and now they also offer Spanish Part 3 along with 1 and 2. (If you only want Parts 1 and 2, you can get them without 3.)
Here it is at Amazon, where the prices are better than anywhere else I have seen.
I’m using a new piece of software that enables me to pull Amazon product posts into my blog…. one thing I like about it is that I can include some of the user reviews this way. Scroll down and see what they say. Fluenz Spanish continues to be my very favorite program for multi-media learning. But now you can see easily that I’m not alone in this opinion!
[click to continue…]
I’ve been working hard recently on a new site, and it just went up a few minutes ago. Actually, I have lots more to do on it but the Chinese part is done.
It’s been well over a year since Learn Spanish Rapidly went online, and I’ve been really gratified by how much people seem to enjoy it and learn useful things from it. They also buy things from it in sufficient quantity that I feel my time isn’t wasted. (I’m not retired.)
So I got the idea to do another site that would cover some of the other languages that there is software or audio programs available for. Thus was born (corny, I know, but I don’t want to count how many pages I wrote today… my brain is fried) my new site:
I started with Chinese and that is all I have done so far. Why did I start with Chinese? [click to continue…]
There’s a downloadable program called Learning Spanish Like Crazy. I haven’t used it but I knew it was pretty popular and was planning to write about it this week. It teaches Latin American Spanish.
Serendipity rules! I got an email from one of my email subscribers, saying:
Rosana, a program that I am using, that I don’t see reviewed, is Learning Spanish Like Crazy. I listen to it while driving, reviewing the dialogs. I also print out the dialogs to make sure that I am understanding it correctly. But all that “wasted” time driving is now put to use. And if one listens to it enough, well even my dog is beginning to learn a little! [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
learning spanish like crazy
Online video is a quick and easy way to work learning Spanish into your schedule. It’s always there, so long as your internet connection is!
I’m deep into work on another website (on a topic unrelated to this one) so am going to be a little lazy today and refer you to a long post I wrote back in January , LoMásTV: Learn Spanish via an Internet Video Magazine.
This is an inexpensive monthly magazine, and you can listen to some videos for free without joining. Have fun!
(If you want something totally free for learning Spanish, scroll down this page till you see the list of categories on the right. One of them has the word free in it. Click that for a list of the posts I’ve written on free stuff.)
Speaking Spanish, even when you can read and write a fair amount of it, can be a challenge. I was just thinking about this and it occurred to me that for some of us, it would be helpful to think that when we are practicing our Spanish with other people, we are doing a kind of performance.
Now if you are an introvert, this may not exactly thrill you. But there still may be something in it for you.
When I was twelve, I starred in a play that was put on at a summer camp I went to. I was exhilarated and empowered by the experience, even though I didn’t continue my dramatic career after that. Or did I, unknowingly? [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
speaking spanish
On the plane from Guadalajara to the US this past summer, I chatted in English with a Mexican priest who said he had only started learning English about a year before. I could hardly believe it — his English was really good.
I asked him how come he spoke such good English so fast, and he explained that he already spoke Spanish, French, German, and two African languages. I do think he has a gift, but still it got me wondering about people who speak multiple languages. Readers, I would love your comments at the end of this article!
My own language background is that [click to continue…]
