rosetta stone program vs tell me more program
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
24 Answers
I Purchased the Rosetta Stone - Spanish Version - without knowing how i'd do. I was very happy when i found out how easy it is to grasp, how you learn as young children learn. This is a great product and I am confident that Rosetta will help me achieve my goal of learning this language and a few others.I found it on the site: http://www.perfectrosettastone.info/
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.
I took your advice, Motley and went to have a look at the reviews on Amazon. As stated earlier, I am using a very old copy of "Tell Me More" which I like and, not having invested in it and without new funds for any of these more advanced programs, I will stick with it, my books and old tapes (and people...you all, for example.).
However, having read the reviews and - note - only on the strength of those reviews, if I were to choose now, I would opt for yet a different program : http://www.fluenz.com/
Maybe your advice would have just mixed me up more, but more likely I would have been grateful. Fluenz looks to be just the ticket for learners like me. And perhaps Hau will want to check it out.
ps, remember, though, I have not seen either it or Rosetta Stone.
motley said:
If you go on Amazon .com, you can look up the two & check reviews from those that have bought them.
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Hola Hau
I have rosetta stone and it is very good. I also have pimsleur spanish and that is just as good too. I find that usind the both systems means that I understand different elements of Spanish, although I do find that pimsleur spanish is better for remembering everything that I have heard. Rosetta stone is great for learning how to write and read spanish. Good luck on your journey - I too am a beginner and am trying to learn as fast as I can.
As well as the rosetta stone and pimsleur, I have an evening lesson at my local college, and I have started listening to online spanish radio, just to get an idea of how they put everything together (even if I can only recognise the odd word). I have only just started to contact people online to have conversations, but mainly I have to use babel fish to translate - again only recognising a few of the words, but already my spanish is improving, I guess my brain gets bored of looking everything up so it starts to remember some of the vocabularly.
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Are any of the telenovelas that you have in the Miami area really good so that one can watch them for more than five minutes without getting disturbed. I don´t have a TV either, because (it used to be) that I found too little that I liked and too little that was not filled with ads anyway. (It has been so long that I have not had a television that maybe things have changed.) But I purchased my last TV a long time ago in Italy in order to watch and learn Italian and....well, it did not work out. The shows could not hold my attention. Movies were great though!
But perhaps there are some captivating telenovelas now on commercial TV, too, and I would appreciate watching them as a beginner, too. Suggestions?
By the way, this background may explain why I made an especial point of remarking that "Destinos" from the Annenberg Foundation, designed by a Spanish professor it seems, is an intelligent series and easy to watch. It is not your usual soap opera and is all about very nice people.
motley said:
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 graciashau
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All,
What a wonderful site and forum. Not only am I learning Español but you also fixed my TV! Mucho gracias all.
motley, por favor the link. I applied for the coupon. Gracias
OK, have to sleep now to work 7p-7a esta noche.
hau
Here is some info on the govt coupon
Yes you can use any tv.
As far as the new digital tv broadcast which is scheduled to come in:
If you have cable or dish network, any tv will work with no action on your part.
Also for any tv that is not digital enabled: This includes all old tv's: If you have an old tv antenna, rabbit ears, are hooked up to a system that does not have cable or dish network, or nothing to receive signals, you will need a box to hook up to your tv.
Do not go buy a box for your tv.
Right now if you contact the right numbers,or people. The government is giving these boxes away for free. I do not know how many or how long the program will last, but there are advertisements for that give away program. I would check with a Radio Shack, or any of the big electronics stores to find out, about the program one of them will surely tell you. They should tell you. You do not have to buy one at this point if you act soon.
hau johnson said:
motley,Good idea, but I do not have a TV. Lo siento. Isn't there something about only digital TV working after a certain date? If I do buy a TV it will have to be digital correct'Mucho gracias for the telenovelas idea.hau
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motley,
Good idea, but I do not have a TV. Lo siento. Isn't there something about only digital TV working after a certain date? If I do buy a TV it will have to be digital correct?
Mucho gracias for the telenovelas idea.
hau
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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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
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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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.
If you go on Amazon .com, you can look up the two & check reviews from those that have bought them.
