rosetta stone program vs tell me more program

Question

Hola,
I am new here. I want to learn basic Spanish as fast as possible. My question is; Which program is faster and easier for a beginner to learn Puerto Rican Spanish? I am not a fast learner and speak only english. Please advise.
Mucho gracias
hau

Answer 1

HI Hau, have you seen our learn section?

http://www.spanishdict.com/learn/

Answer 2

The population of Puerto Rico is about 1% of Spanish speaking world (according to Wikipedia). Surely, with all the descendants of Puertorrican families, this figure goes up a bit, but not enough to justify designing a course based on such a minority within the whole picture.

Puertorrican people are strongly influenced by English speakers (from USA), African and native American, so their speech is not just peculiar, but also unique. Learn standard Spanish, and with the aid of your English you'll be able to communicate in most Spanish speaking countries, although you'll have to learn their slang and their regional terms.

Answer 3

Heidita, No I have not checked out the learning section, but I will now. Gracias

lazarus1907, I agree, but I would feel better if I could also communicate in puerto Rican Spanish. Gracias

I was in hopes that a non spanish speaking person had seen and compared the two programs. Gracias to all who can help me decide.
Mucho gracias
hau

Answer 4

I understand your concern, but think of this: if you gave me a book published in Puerto Rico, and you removed the page where it says "Printed in Puerto Rico", it is very likely that I couldn't figure out whether it was printed in Spain or abroad. I have several books printed in Mexico and other Latin-American countries, and you can't tell that they are not from Spain; same spelling, same vocabulary, same everything. Colloquial Spanish varies a lot from country to country, but formal written Spanish is practically the same everywhere, so communication should never be a problem, no matter what variety of Spanish you speak.

Answer 5

Hello My friend. I am from Guatemala Central America, living in Maryland where there are Spanish Speaking people from all over South America, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic and I don/t have any problems comunicating to them in Spanish.

Answer 6

lazarus1907, Gracias. I guess my original question is still, Which learning program [Rosetta Stone or Tell Me More] would be faster for an english speaking slow learner to learn beginning spanish?

Gus, Gracias.

Mucho gracias all.
hau

Answer 7

Hi Hau, I thought I had given you the link before:

[url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A329534]http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A329534[/url]

Here you can find all kind of resources on the forum. The learn section is easy and fast...even being a slow learner.

The Spanish taught there will be understood anywhere.

• Hello Heidita: the correct link is http://www.spanishdict.com/learn/ - Rolest Jan 30, 2010

Answer 8

Whatever else you do (and you can find a lot of help learning Spanish in the Internet, I am sure you have already discovered) be sure to go to www.learner.org and watch "Destinos" which begins in Seville and before ending in Mexico, spends quite a few episodes in Puerto Rico. The characters even discuss some of the differences in their respective vocabularies.

I, too, am just learning Spanish, not speaking or understanding all that much yet, and so I could hear no differences in any of the accents at all!!! But I have learned other languages for which it was also true that in the beginning I could hear no regional differences - accents which sound strong to me now.

In any case, "Destinos" is an intelligent program and it did not bore me even though I hardly understood anything in the beginning.

By the way, lazarus1907 offered me a valuable piece of advice regarding pronunciation in the beginning. If you learn "castellano" you will perhaps find spelling easier due to the strong differences in letters such as the "z" or "c" following "i´s" and "e´s" (Ps, I could hear those particular differences right from the git-go.)

And incidentally, a good site to learn pronunciation is http://www.studyspanish.com/pronunciation/

Answer 9

hola janice

su nombre igual con me amiga,de donde eres,soy aqui en austalia,voy a ver su website.

juan

Answer 10

Janice,
Mucho gracias, I will check out those sites. I use Spanishdict as my main resource to learn Spanish with the many sites here and help provided 24-7 by all the nice people. Gracias
hau

Answer 11

If you go on Amazon .com, you can look up the two & check reviews from those that have bought them.

Answer 12

Janice said:

href="http://www.studyspanish.com/pronunciation/]http://www.studyspanish.com/pronunciation/

Very good link!

It could easily be the best site I've ever seen to learn correct pronunciation. It is a pity that one of the native speakers (from Spain) sometimes over-exaggerates the stop sounds trying to sound clearer with the microphone, because she pronounces some of them as strong plosive, like in English (but harder). When she says "cama" sounds like "KKKKama", and "zapato" sounds like "zaPPPPPato". When she speaks faster, she sounds more natural.

P.S. The grammar section is not that good, though.

Answer 13

By the way, I never really answered the question you posed!!

I have used "Tell Me More" and I liked it a lot. One caveat with regard to my experience: the version I began with is one I purchased some years ago when I went to work on a couple of projects in Mexico. I thought I would have time to try to learn a little Spanish - I didn´t. Unfortunately, by the time (recently) I could carve out time to use them, these programs, purchased for systems that ran Windows 95, no longer would run with all their bells and whistles on current operating system software platforms. Nonetheless, I went through the first course completely, minus the pronunciation exercises, and liked it a lot. The protagonists in the dialogues were "muy simpatico"! The games were/are fun. I never completed the course, though, having spilled water on the system on which I had it installed:-(

Just after reading your question here in the forum, I took a chance and installed the "Tell me More, Avanzdado" software I had purchased in that long-time-ago other life. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that in full-screen mode, the audio and voice recognition software works and measures my pronunciation, too!! It is a lot of fun even though I understand decidedly less than in that beginner´s course.

But you know what!! --:> even after you have finished one course - a beginning course, you will probably still not yet speak the language fluently, remember all those words or have made the grammar your own. So why not take lots of beginner courses all at once or back to back for reinforcement?

I vote for your trying both "Rosetta Stone" and the current, for-sure-improved "Tell Me More" and keeping the forum informed!!

I can also suggest that you rent Spanish films just to get your ear used to the language. You can buy a little device for your car that can send things you have recorded on an mp3 player out over an otherwise empty FM channel to play over your car´s radio speakers. Most people need to be immersed in a language to learn it really well and so until you get to Puerto Rico, - to learn fast (as you mentioned you want to do) you will have to "pretend" and build you own little only-Spanish-speaking environment. By the way, don´t overlook an old-fashioned systematic grammar book with lots and lots and lots and lots and still more exercises.

I can´t wait to hear how you like "Rosetta Stone!" (great name, isn´t it') and "Tell Me More."

When do you leave for Puerto Rico?

hau johnson said:

Janice, Mucho gracias, I will check out those sites. I use Spanishdict as my main resource to learn Spanish with the many sites here and help provided 24-7 by all the nice people. Gracias hau

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Answer 14

Janice,
Mucho gracias. Here in Miami I am lucky to have a lot of opportunities to hear and speak Spanish.
I am one of the few that do not speak Spanish in my circle. I freedive and belong to a freedive forum consisting of almost all Spanish speakers. Many of my patients speak only Spanish. My learning problems are that I am embarassed to make mistakes and I also seem to have a hard time retaining new things. That is why I wanted to buy Rosetta Stone or Tell Me More.

Yes, Rosetta Stone is a very appropriate name for a language learning program.

Puerto Rico will happen only if I can learn Spanish well enough to get my foot onto the island, job wise. I used a computer translator to type a trial resume and my Spanish friends who read it were not impressed to say the least. Many here helped me to understand why.

All, thank you for your kind words of guidance and encouragement. Please feel free to correct me as needed as I invite constructive criticism to help me learn Spanish.
Mucho gracias
hau

Answer 15

I suggest the telenovelas. Here in South Florida, we have plenty from which to choose.

hau johnson said:

Janice, Mucho gracias. Here in Miami I am lucky to have a lot of opportunities to hear and speak Spanish.

I am one of the few that do not speak Spanish in my circle. I freedive and belong to a freedive forum consisting of almost all Spanish speakers. Many of my patients speak only Spanish. My learning problems are that I am embarassed to make mistakes and I also seem to have a hard time retaining new things. That is why I wanted to buy Rosetta Stone or Tell Me More.

Yes, Rosetta Stone is a very appropriate name for a language learning program.

Puerto Rico will happen only if I can learn Spanish well enough to get my foot onto the island, job wise. I used a computer translator to type a trial resume and my Spanish friends who read it were not impressed to say the least. Many here helped me to understand why.

All, thank you for your kind words of guidance and encouragement. Please feel free to correct me as needed as I invite constructive criticism to help me learn Spanish.

Mucho gracias

hau

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