Aprender español
Steven and I are always trying to come up with new hobbies to do together, and one of our ideas was to learn a foreign language. There are actually a lot of languages we are interested in learning, but we selected Spanish because:
- it’s so widely spoken where we live
- it’s the main language of many countries we want to visit (even though there are many dialects)
- I have a bit of a background in it (4 years in high school, one semester in college)
- it seems like it might be an easier start than Arabic
I am excited to try to learn a foreign language with Steven! And Steven’s brother was nice enough to get us the Rosetta Stone set for Christmas (Latin America version).
Has anyone else tried using the Rosetta Stone to learn a foreign language? What did you think of it?
Which language did you study in school? Did you retain any of it?
Since I posted a picture of Data, I must post another from last night:
Data was going crazy trying to get in this hole in the wall that Steven cut in our bedroom. Data jumped up on to the edge of the drywall and was going to jump down in to the wall. How the hell would I have gotten him out of there if he did that? Luckily, I grabbed him before he jumped in to the wall, and held him to let him peer in to the hole. But jeez, he would not stop trying to get in to the wall. Data is… persistent, to say the least.
It’s only three days after Christmas and Data is already back on the Naughty List. Data, don’t think that Santa doesn’t keep track year round!
Themocracy
I’ve never tried Rosetta stone but I’ve heard good things about it. Joey wants to learn Italian and I considered getting him RS for that.
I took Spanish in high school for 2 (or 3?) years. Then I took a semester of beginners Spanish in college (to refresh my memory and earn easy credits).
What is the hole in your bedroom wall for?! I don’t know how you’d get poor Data out of the wall!!
Delilah has been behaving a bit more lately but she’s persistent (hard-headed) too.
The Spanish I took in college ended up being hard! I had a Spanish minor in mind, but the instructor wanted use to use the second person plural, which I had not used.
The hole is for an articulating TV mount. Apparently it was on our joint Xmas wish list? LOL, jk. I knew about it 🙂
I studied French in high school and a bit in college. Wish I would have kept with it. Spanish is a language I think everyone in the United States should learn starting at a very early age, being that it is the first language of the largest growing population in the US. So many other countries in the world speak English (plus many other languages) but I don’t think that gives us an excuse to not encourage schools to require kids to become fluent in other languages.
::stepping off my soapbox::
While we were replacing the floors in our kitchen a few years ago, we had a large floor vent uncovered. I caught Jack (our cat) by the tail just as he was disappearing into our ventilation system. Curiosity is definitely going to kill our cat someday.
I am happy you brought that up. As I was writing this post I was thinking about that – how pathetic it is that we do not teach our children more than one languague anyway. When I worked in Rome by coworkers could speak so many languages and I barely knew Italian. Lame.
I’d love to learn Spanish. I took two years in high school. In college I took 2 years of Latin.
I studied Spanish for 2 years in middle school, a year in high school, and for two semesters in college. And? I can barely speak a correct sentence if I tried. My nephew is bilingual and luckily, I can pick up a lot of what he’s saying because I know the easy words.
I took French in 5-8th grade, then for 4 years in high school. When I went to France and tried to actually apply what I had learned, they frowned and scoffed at me. “Just say it in English.” is what more than one person told me. Then again, I’ve heard from several different people that the French are jerks towards Americans. Maybe others have had other experiences?
I’ve NEVER taken Spanish in my life. The only words I know, I learned from ordering off the Taco Bell menu. Pathetic, I know. That is a really great idea to learn another foreign language. I should put that on my life long list of things to do! Thanks for the inspiration!
What a bummer! I did not have the best experience in France, but I went with a brat and do not speak any French. I bet some people like it there 🙂
JEALOUS! I always wanted to try that! Let me know how it works for you guys!
I took 3 years of Spanish in HS and was exempt from foreign language requirement during college b/c of my major. Matt took 2 years of Spanish in HS and 2 in college.
We had grand intentions to use Rosetta Stone to re-learn/brush up on our Spanish before we went to Argentina this fall but it didn’t happen. Luckily, after some quick study of our phrase books, being immersed in the language for a few days, and watching subtitled American TV back in our room before bed (seriously…SO HELPFUL!), I was remedially coversational by the end of our trip. I could understand WAY more than I could speak (I overthink the conjugations) and that was the case even when I was taking formal classes.
So fun! Good luck!
Some missionaries I know in Africa tried Rosetta Stone for French and said it was great for learning words, but didn’t help them learn context and sentence structure very well.
Me…I too 2 or 3 years of Spanish in high school and all I really know is “No Hablo Espanol”, Cerbeza, Vino, and Bano.
Ugh! I hope the Spanish version is not like that. But knowing some vocab will help 🙂 I guess since I took a few years I will maybe know if we are actually learning anything 🙂
Love that you got Rosetta Stone. My husband also wanted to learn Spanish, mostly for work … but, now that he’s no longer doing bedside service, he has less need for it.
I took French in high school and have retained a lot of it. I took Italian in college and remember none of it. If I could pick a foreign language to learn now, it’d definitely be Spanish for a lot of the reasons you listed!
Sounds like Data needs a year-round Elf on the Shelf!
Ha ha! Data does need that Elf!
Have you used your French at all?
I have heard great things about Rosetta Stone! I took French in HS and college (and studied french-speaking African cultures and literature). I might do fine if I was immersed in a French-speaking culture, but I could not go to a French restaurant for a night and ask for a “croque monsieur”! Hah.
Have fun! (And, I agree with Nilsa – Data needs an Elf on the Shelf!) 🙂
Learning Spanish together seems like a fun idea. I took some French classes online a few years ago and enjoyed it.
You’re the first person I know to try Rosetta Stone. You’ll definitely have to let us know how it works!
I took French in junior high, high school, and college. You’d think I’d remember more of it. I can sort of read it but I’ve forgotten a lot of my vocabulary.
I took Spanish in high school. I love Rosetta Stone! I’ve done the Spanish and French and am starting the Italian version this year.
Oh, Data! On the naughty list already! Bad kitty! 😉
Yay! Happy to hear from someone who likes the Rosetta Stone. Do you think two people could use it together (at the same time)?
OK – why did Steven cut a hole in your wall?
My sister is using Rosetta stone to learn Dutch and I think she is pretty happy with it.
I took French in high school and majored in it in college…then I ended up here in Flanders and I hardly use it anymore unless I go to Brussels. But my Dutch is pretty darn good now (it should be, after 22 years)!
The hole is for an articulating TV mount that we received for Christmas. That is so cool that your sis is learning Dutch!
What a cool gift! And why did Steven cut a hole in the wall?
The hole is for an articulating TV mount that we received for Christmas. And apparently, our current TV might not work with the mount… so we might “have to” buy a new TV. You can talk to Steven about that one! 😛
I can’t wait to hear how it works because I have always been curious and wanted to try it. You’ll have to tell me if it is worth trying or not.
Data cracks me up!
That is so awesome! I can’t wait to hear how Rosetta Stone works for y’all!! We have talked about learning spanish too.. and trying Rosetta Stone!!
Data is too funny!!! Poor guy, he just wants to explore and mom won’t let him!!!
=^..^=
i took french for many years – majored in it in college! i keep trying to convince my coworkers they need my help selling a deal they’re working in paris right now… 🙂
I took German for seven years and was somewhat conversational at some point in my life, but not anymore! I’m definitely interested to hear how Rosetta Stone works for you!
Looking for you to post some feedback on this! I was ready to take the plunge (specifically for Latin America Spanish) and with some last minute googling before purchasing, I ended up even more confused. As a result I made no purchase 🙁