The Student Room Group

Learning Spanish!!! (Rosetta Stone?)

I want to teach myself Spanish, Im going away to Spain in the summer with some friends, and am also taking a gap year, so I want to learn some Spanish before then, and then some after.

I was wondering what the best way is. Ive considered buying the complete Rosetta Stone set, but if theres an alternative thats better/as good/nearly as good, then Id rather not splash out on R.S. (Ive heard R.S. is really good.)

Thankyou!
Reply 1
*Subscribed*
Reply 2
I really want to learn a language as well!
Reply 3
http://www.livemocha.com/ is okay. Its free at first so you can kinda have a taster, but after all your points are gone you have to buy more. You can also gain points by helping other users too.
Reply 4
If you want to be able to speak & understand Spanish and get a good grounding, then the Michel Thomas Cds are absolutely fantastic for an understanding of the grammar. (You can get it cheaper than this second hand but here's the amazon link)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spanish-Michel-Thomas-Complete-Course-Set/dp/0340780673

Rosetta Stone is a massive ripoff, unless you can get a mega student discount or something, don't go there.
Go to your local cheapie bookshop/charity shop (eg The Works) and trawl around, you'll almost certainly find some phrasebooks and a decent learner's dictionary or two. There are also loads of youtube videos of basic Spanish vocab and pronunciation, mostly by native spanish speakers.

This is also good if you just use the free stuff, flashcards for vocab etc.
http://www.byki.com/

Also worth joining La Sociedad Espanyola here on tsr and see if you can find other beginners to chat to and more experienced peepz to skype with for speaking practice.

G'luck!
Reply 5
I've got tons of stuff/websites that help I will post them up here soon if I don't post them in less than a week notify me.
Reply 6
There's loads of stuff out there:

Tell me more spanish, pimsleur, rocket spanish, michel thomas (as someone posted above), learning spanish like crazy, etc.

It depends what you're aims are - are you just looking to speak spanish confidently? If so, then the last two programmes are probably the best for you.

Oh and for the love of god please don't use rosetta stone.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 7
Avatar for H94
H94
OP
Thanks for all the advice guys! Looking into all the options provided.

Im looking to eventually become fluent, but Id like to reach a decent novice level by summer (I have plenty of time to spend trying to learn the language).

Is Rosetta Stone only not worth buying because of the price, or is it not effective?

Thanks again!
Reply 8
Is there other rescources if you would like to learn French?
Reply 9
Original post by H94
Thanks for all the advice guys! Looking into all the options provided.

Im looking to eventually become fluent, but Id like to reach a decent novice level by summer (I have plenty of time to spend trying to learn the language).

Is Rosetta Stone only not worth buying because of the price, or is it not effective?

Thanks again!


It's not effective. It's literally just matching up words to pictures. I wouldn't use Rosetta Stone even if it were free.

The fact that it costs around £400 just makes me hate it even more.
Don't listen to the Rosetta Stone snobs on here. Most are just jealous because they cannot afford it. You can buy a subcription pack on the rosetta stone website where you pay £20 a month for the full 5 levels which would usually cost close to £400. You also get all of the extras such as live tutors and online games. If you want to actually learn to speak the language in a natural context like you did English then I would highly recommend it. If you want the equivalent of learning to speak English whilst doing an English language GCSE then listen to all the poor kids above. :smile:
Reply 11
Original post by Anna_Karenina
Don't listen to the Rosetta Stone snobs on here. Most are just jealous because they cannot afford it. You can buy a subcription pack on the rosetta stone website where you pay £20 a month for the full 5 levels which would usually cost close to £400. You also get all of the extras such as live tutors and online games. If you want to actually learn to speak the language in a natural context like you did English then I would highly recommend it. If you want the equivalent of learning to speak English whilst doing an English language GCSE then listen to all the poor kids above. :smile:


Because the only way we could have used this software is having purchased it. Having used it extensively, for multiple languages, I can confirm that it is balls. I say this as someone training in language education. And lol at calling people snobs and then taking the piss out of them for being "poor".

I'm going to bet your language skills are approximately on the same level as your human decency ones...0. (Does your dad work for Rosetta Stone? Because your rage and bitchiness is slightly perplexing.)
Original post by Cicerao
Because the only way we could have used this software is having purchased it. Having used it extensively, for multiple languages, I can confirm that it is balls. I say this as someone training in language education. And lol at calling people snobs and then taking the piss out of them for being "poor".

Well lets call it reverse snobbery then shall we darlin. :wink: Also, despite your "training in language education" I think I will go off my own experience and the fact that rosetta stone was endorsed and utilised by the American and British military establishments to an advanced level for staff officers and senior NCO's.

Let me guess, your own sense of self importance renders that fact redundant? :rolleyes:

Student room users crack me up. :rofl2:
Reply 13
Quoting someone who I think can contribute some experience:

Chr0n
x
Reply 14
Sorry guys, I was traveling round the UK so didn't check TSR.

First of all, Rosetta Stone is OK for the beginning. In my opinion it becomes quite repetitive after a while. There are so many things they could do with a computer software but instead they just show you for pictures and you have to assign a text part to it (either you speak it or you write it or you just select it). I think it's quite expensive, but if you go for it you have a full Spanish language course that will teach you loads if you stick to it (you will learn some useful stuff after the first few units).

I personally found FSI Spanish to be the better course. Unlike RS it is an audio course that comes with an ebook. It is around 40 or 60 years old, so don't mind the audio quality too much. A unit will always be split in a basic dialogue and drills. Basically you would go through the dialogue till you know it by heart (overlearning) and then do the drills till you get them 99% - 100% right (again overlearning is key). This should take you about 5 to 10 hours per unit. It also becomes quite repetitive after a while with doing the dialogues and the drills, but I think I learn quicker this way. Also you can either buy it and get a hard copy of the book and the CDs OR there is a free version available online :smile:.
http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Spanish%20Basic

I find FSI to be a bit harder, so if you want to try both I would first do some of the RS modules - maybe level 1 and 2 - and then continue with FSI. Personally I am using both at the same time and switch between them when I get bored. I find RS to teach you more vocabs whereas FSI teaches you whole phrases (RS does this, but only after some time).

If there are any questions, just quote me :smile:

Quick Reply

Latest