www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I am using the Pimsleur lessons to learn Spanish and I think they are very good. I am looking for a program to increase my vocabulary. Exeltra advertises a product that is supposed to teach you 200 words a day. Here is the link:
http://www.200words-a-day.com/learn-spanish.html

It costs $45 for a CD with lessons that teach you 1000 words. I would like to know if other CRT members have used this course and if they would recommend it.

I got it but I can not get it to run on Windows XP Home

The website advertises that it should run on Windows XP. Since it doesn't, you may want to take them up on their 365 day guarantee.

I'm using Rosetta Stone Explorer. I found it at a dollar sale
earlier this year. It's fun, not as boring as I thought it
might be. I've also got some audio cassettes (Berlitz).
I'd much rather have it on CD though for ease of use.
In fact, I might transfer each lesson as a track on a
CD myself. Both of these are geared towards absolute
beginners such as myself.

I"m doing lots of things to learn spanish: listening to pimsleur cd's; watching spanish tv; listening to the latin pop station on my sirius satellite radio in my car; and something novel: I joined a website called mylanguageexhange.com. I now write to several girls in Costa Rica and Coloumbia and work on my spanish. They write in english and I correct it; the girls correct my spanish. It's a lot of fun; cost is only $24/year. It's run by some dude in Canada. Check out the site if you're interested. BAT.

My spanish is a bit rusty but I think it will come back to me fairly quickly once I hit the ground. Aprendio Espanol de los soldatos del Honduras muchos anos ayer. haha....please don't flame my spelling, most of them couldn't read!

I was wondering, has anyone compiled a list of local phrases useful for pursuing our unique hobby that folks who learned spanish from other areas could peruse before their trip?

If not, perhaps some could be posted here.

Here is a web page with hobby related Spanish phrases.

http://www.mexican-hookers.com/chamuco/spanish.htm

Thanks for the link to hobby related phrases. Having done most of my mongering in Mex, can attest to the usefulness of knowing a few key phrases.

I am wondering if one of the experienced CR based brothers could add any useful slang terms that are in common use in CR and/or any Mexican slang that is not understood by chicas (i.e. are tits called chichis?)

So glad I found this group, feel like a local already with all the great info and insights!

Cap'n Russ

The batmandude is doing all the right stuff to learn spanish. Watch the latin tv, and watch your DVD's with spanish subtitles or watch it in spanish language with english subtitles. I find that helps a lot!