Northern California Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Has anyone used Rosetta Stone?
DH and I have been thinking about purchasing the program since we both really want to learn Spanish. It's a bit pricey though so before we spend the money, I wanted to hear from other people who have used it (whether it's to learn Spanish or another language.)
Did you feel you learned the language well from Rosetta Stone? Was it worth the price? Is there another method you recommend more? Thanks!
Re: Has anyone used Rosetta Stone?
I took three years of Spanish in high school so I have some basics down. I suppose we could watch/listen to some Spanish-language TV and radio to help things along. I didn't know about the library option - I'll have to see if the local ones carry it. Thanks for the tip!
I have the Spanish one. I took 4 years in High School and 2 in college, so I think I already know more than most when using it.
I feel like it's a good tool, but not fantastic. It doesn't teach you basic grammar rules in a structured way, just sort of how some things are said in certain parts. So you kind of pick up the grammar rules, but there is a lot of wondering "well, what if I said..." and no way to figure it out. Does that make sense?
I agree with Stumpy. It's pretty "meh".
Pimsleur, hands down.
Check it out from the library for a test-drive.
But trust me.
My H has been using it for spanish and then working with his co-workers whenever possible and it has been useful. I can't say that he's been really strict about using it all the time though.
ETA: If you can find a conversational class at a college or community center those are great.
It's hard for me to commit to a class because of my work schedule
That's why I thought the CD's would be a better option, something I could do on my own schedule.
Got it. Someday!
We have had both RS and Pimsleur.
The general set up and order of RS drives me nuts and makes no sense. I feel like it is useful for learning vocab more than actually speaking the language.
Pimsleur you can listen to in your car during your commute and it teaches you useful phrases and makes you recall them at intervals so you don't wind up forgetting. I, too, have heard a lot of people say it's one of the best. But I'm also more of a visual learner so Pimsleur is not ideal for me either honestly.
I've heard great things about Fluenz and the demos on their website look promising. Sample session/lesson: http://fluenz.com/languages/spanish/demo/ Instead of the typical immersion method where you have to sort your way through matching foreign phrases to pictures without any English, it teaches you the language while relating the grammar and syntax to English to help you understand what you are saying and why. Their idea is that immersion is great for kids but adults learn better when they can fit new information into what they already know. To me, it sounds like a more successful concept but I haven't tried it yet beyond the demo. It's also MUCH cheaper. The demo does an explanation, a conversation with subtitles and no subtitles, repeating words, a language dictionary to show the meaning quickly, matching phrases to english phrases, picture matching, spelling, and more. IMHO it looks like it teaches you in an order more akin to how you'd learn it in a classroom.
Also, I'd rec. checking out reviews on Amazon. It might help give you some insight into how they work and whether they'd work for you, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
Women don't want to hear what men think,
women want to hear what they think, in a deeper voice