www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Ugh....after half heartedly trying Rosetta Stone for the past eight months, I made a decision to study at least six hours a day for the next 30 and get my ass in gear. I just finished the six hours for today, ugh, ah muy cansado, i need a Hola Papi companion to practice with. But I guess I won't have one until April when I make the big move. I got to get it going, I want to know enough Spanish to get around understand what I'm hearing around me.

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Man I'm living life like a great white shark swimming with minnows! It's all about panocha, great scotch, fine cigars, loud-ass rock music and speed, speed, speed - plus spending as much time as possible in paradise on earth, Costa Rica!

K
If you try to take spanish classes from a chica... good luck
She in most cases wants to learn english so you end as the teacher not the student.. it works both ways ... but some real school works much better
With a mix of some spanish school and Chica slang it it starts to come
There are lots of people In San Jose that offer lessons at good rates

I'll try to find a school where I can help polish my Spanish once I get there. Between immersion, classes and Rosetta Stone, I think I will be fluent in the first few months. Hopefully.

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Man I'm living life like a great white shark swimming with minnows! It's all about panocha, great scotch, fine cigars, loud-ass rock music and speed, speed, speed - plus spending as much time as possible in paradise on earth, Costa Rica!

Urg...third day in a row spending 6 hours ore more with Rosetta Stone...part I hate most is the pronunciation practice. Whattya mean I 'm not saying it right? Sounds exactly the same to me. I guess it's necessary but a pain in the ass. But I'll be damned if I move down there and can't speak Spanish. Not this gringo.

Still, I may have to take a break tomorrow. My head is so filled with Spanish I think it's about to burst. I'll dive back in on Sunday.

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Man I'm living life like a great white shark swimming with minnows! It's all about panocha, great scotch, fine cigars, loud-ass rock music and speed, speed, speed - plus spending as much time as possible in paradise on earth, Costa Rica!

http://www.learn-spanish.com/

Unfortunately, this is true. Even if she speaks excellent Spanish, a chica will let too many things slide and be too soft on her "student". Take classes, or at the very least, keep hitting those CDs.

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Blue Devil

Pura Vida...enjoying life to the fullest...

“Rosetta Stone...part I hate most is the pronunciation practice. Whattya mean I 'm not saying it right? Sounds exactly the same to me.”

Which version do you have? I have V-2 and had the same problem, tried different mic set ups- and still the same problem, according to the scoring screen I was not even close on the one word pronunciation . However on 3-6 word string I be almost prefect the first time, then bad then ok .. drove me crazy. So I called Rosetta Stone and talked to a tech. and was told that in the ( at least v-1-2 ) first versions the speaking program was not very good, but was improved by the v-3, but what improved is???

Almost any time I get one of those answering machines that want me to say what I want and not press buttons I will spend 5 minutes trying, then move on to ”I want ^&%$*& you stupid&^*^%$# ” before I hang up. For some reason my voice has some thing that machines do not like, and with some many variations of speaking out there I find it hard to believe they can design a "affordable " program that could understand every one, so maybe you are not just jibbing wit the machine , so don’t sweat it

However after some one on one lessons the instructor he said I was doing very good with a most if not all of words Rosetta Stone said I was doing really bad. So don’t get discouraged using the speaking part, when you get live teacher you well ahead of where you think you are.

If you can afford get one on one lessons at least at the start and I think you move on a lot faster

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My best friend was the clock on the wall, and he turned out not to be much of a friend in the end

Wow, that's a great resource, thanks. I'll definitely consider taking a few weeks of classes from them. Plus the free cooking, dance and cultural sessions look great too.

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Man I'm living life like a great white shark swimming with minnows! It's all about panocha, great scotch, fine cigars, loud-ass rock music and speed, speed, speed - plus spending as much time as possible in paradise on earth, Costa Rica!

when setting the mic before your lesson, try talking in an accenting voice rather then monotone.
seems to have worked for me, but still a few frustrating times when i know i said it right.

i've taken lessons from this place in chicago and they offer real time online lessons, and i think the offer a free trial lesson.
not cheap, but you can continue with your same instructor as long as you have an internet connection.

www.spanishlc.com

CRLA used to be quite popular with CRTs, being nearby in San Pedro is a big plus for us gulch dwellers. They have options that will work with most any schedule, I went briefly for 3 hrs./day and would walk to the mall for lunch. Highly recommended, buena suerte.

I have v3, so it works pretty well most of the time. But about 10% of the time I think I say it perfectly but it tells me I messed up.....

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Man I'm living life like a great white shark swimming with minnows! It's all about panocha, great scotch, fine cigars, loud-ass rock music and speed, speed, speed - plus spending as much time as possible in paradise on earth, Costa Rica!

Woo-hoo!!! I finished Level One of the Rosetta Stone for Latin American Spanish in a little over 5 days!

Just started level 2, and I'm going to slow down some, as I have three more weeks before I go down for my scouting trip before I move.

One thing I am starting to loathe about Spanish - gender specific nouns......I sure hope when you get them wrong (la, las, el, etc) it doesn't make me sound all that ignorant. I can't see myself ever remembering the gender of every noun.....

Other than that, Spanish seems fairly easy, has very similar grammar structure to English, and having lived in Houston so long, half of the vocabulary in Level One I already knew. It's hard not to pick up a few hundred words of Spanish when there are at least 3-500,000 Spanish speakers in the city.

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Man I'm living life like a great white shark swimming with minnows! It's all about panocha, great scotch, fine cigars, loud-ass rock music and speed, speed, speed - plus spending as much time as possible in paradise on earth, Costa Rica!

I used programs like Rosetta Stone as ancilliaries to my main program of teaching High School Spanish. In conjunction with other activities, or professional motivation, it works.

Some suggestions: keep index cards by catagories, add new Spanish words that you have learned. Get a basic Spanish grammar book. Just work on the beginning grammar. One step at a time. Little by little. Listen to latino music, radio stations, listen particularly to Spanish-speaking radio while you are doing non-language activities: exercising, working on mapping, drawing, etc. This trains your brain to hear the differences.

And find a native Spanish speaker. Arrange to meet for 1/2 intercambio.

Whew! After some marathon sessions the last two week (not the kind I like, in la cama, but en la escuela) I finished level 2 of the Rosetta Stone for Latin American Spanish.

Had to slow down a LOT for Level Two. In one chapter of level two, they throw 3 or 4 verb tenses at you to learn, I struggled heartily with that one. It got more intense and more packed with new grammar and vocabulary as each chapter unfurled.

I noticed that it doesn't seem you learn a lot of vocabulary, so I'm going to supplement this with a good book I bought to learn beginner and intermediate Spanish that boasts it contains over 4500 words to learn. But the big advantage of Rosetta Stone is it is great for teaching you grammar and getting you to "build an ear" for Spanish.

As Whosear suggested (thanks!) I started keeping a notebook nearby and wrote down all new vocabulary and grammatical structures, and made flash cards.

So far I think I'm making good progress. Finished one of four chapters in Level three in the past two days, so I can see the finish line, and I think I'm learning a lot! I'm hoping once I sign up for a language school in San Jose, I can catapult past the beginner level and start out at intermediate level once I start school.

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Man I'm living life like a great white shark swimming with minnows! It's all about panocha, great scotch, fine cigars, loud-ass rock music and speed, speed, speed - plus spending as much time as possible in paradise on earth, Costa Rica!

i bought level 1 of rosetta stone to try out, and for the most part liked it.
i'm looking to purchase the whole latin american spanish set, but it pisses me off that to buy it at the biggest discount, i have to buy level 1 again. this sucks