Serendipity rules! I got an email from one of my email subscribers, saying:

Rosana, a program that I am using, that I don’t see reviewed, is Learning Spanish Like Crazy.  I listen to it while driving, reviewing the dialogs.  I also print out the dialogs to make sure that I am understanding it correctly.  But all that “wasted” time driving is now put to use.  And if one listens to it enough, well even my dog is beginning to learn a little!

So I wrote him back and asked him if I could quote him and use his name and location. He said yes, and added that the dog’s name is Jack. He is Dale Wilson of Topeka, KS, and he uses a variety of programs to learn his Spanish. He cautioned me:

Sí, you may quote me, just don’t claim that I’m some sort of expert, because I’m learning.

I was pleased he used the accent over the i on  Sí!

Anyway, I am busy creating a new website which I will announce soon,  so I’m rushed for time… if you are at all curious about Learning Spanish Like Crazy, which was created by a New York lawyer who now lives in Medellín, Colombia, then go take a look!

And if, like Dale, you have had experience with this program, do post a comment about your experiences.

I’m deep into work on another website (on a topic unrelated to this one) so am going to be a little lazy today and refer you to a long post I wrote back in January , LoMásTV: Learn Spanish via an Internet Video Magazine.

This is an inexpensive monthly magazine, and you can listen to some videos for free without joining. Have fun!

(If you want something totally free for learning Spanish, scroll down this page till you see the list of categories on the right. One of them has the word free in it. Click that for a list of the posts I’ve written on free stuff.)

Now if you are an introvert, this may not exactly thrill you. But there still may be something in it for you.

When I was twelve, I starred in a play that was put on at a summer camp I went to. I was exhilarated and empowered by the experience, even though I didn’t continue my dramatic career after that. Or did I, unknowingly?

Now  I think back to six or seven years ago, when we started traveling some in Mexico and gradually decided to try living here. I felt that exact same sense of exhilaration and empowerment when I succeeded in having a friendly chat with a Mexican… here’s an example from my website, Mexico with Heart, when we standing in a long line at the border to process our documents and enter Mexico.

As we talked with Mexicans, we were beginning the process of listening, listening, listening to Spanish, letting the musical sounds just be a flow at times, while at other times, many of the words would stand out.

Several of the people we chatted with were Mexicans who lived in the U.S. and were on their way to visit family. One woman spoke Spanish quite slowly for me, and then as she saw that I understood, she picked up a lot of speed. We were in line behind the last people in the American caravan. A woman from that group, directly in front of us, farted. My new friend lowered her voice and said something to me about it not smelling like apples. I wondered if that was an expression in Mexico for that occasion or if it was her own phrase.

Not the most elegant example, I admit.

But if you are struggling with learning to speak Spanish, try thinking of it as performance and see if that helps.

I also think that I have probably underestimated the value of Spanish language classes previously. They do provide that performance opportunity, as well as the chance to make friends with others who share your interest in Spanish.

The play’s the thing!

I asked him how come he spoke such good English so fast, and he explained that he already spoke Spanish, French, German, and two African languages. I do think he has a gift, but still it got me wondering about people who speak multiple languages. Readers, I would love your comments at the end of this article!

My own language background is that I used to know enough French to pick up a newspaper or a novel and read it easily. I had three years in high school and more in college, and I spent one college year in France. BUT I never spoke it as easily as I do Spanish now. Why? Because the French people were not friendly when I made errors,  but the Spanish and the Mexicans have always been warm and encouraging.

I have found that my French has helped me learn Spanish words and points of grammar, but there have been times in my life when I managed to completely jumble the two languages. Once at an international conference back in the day when I knew way less Spanish than I do now, I chatted with a woman from Argentina who didn’t know much English. We started out in Spanish but I kept using words in French. Turned out she knew French so we switched to that… but I kept mixing Spanish in! Somehow the Spanish part of my brain was turned on more than the French part!

Nowadays, I don’t use my French much. But last week we happened to catch a French movie with English subtitles on television, and I was pleasantly surpised at how much of the French I could follow. I even commented to my husband several times at nuances in French that the subtitles didn’t bother with.

Readers, I’m curious. Do you know other languages and if so, how has it helped or hindering your learning Spanish? (Even if you come upon this webpage some time in the future, I’d still enjoy your comments! But webmasters looking for a quick and easy link, be warned that you have to add to the conversation in a substantial way!)

You can find it at http://www.spanishdict.com/

I got an email from someone there, who said:

SpanishDict is a Spanish education website that, in addition to its popular Spanish-English dictionary and translation, offers lots of other Spanish learning materials for free. Currently, we bring over 3 million people to our site every month, and with so many people trying to learn Spanish in our country, we hope to bring millions more.

Welcome back, SpanishDict! I see from browsing their blog that they offer fast translations to mobile phones and much more.

Here is a screenshot of their homepage. You can translate words or phrases, learn lessons with videos, do flashcards, and learn the word of the day. Clicking on the image takes you there.

I’ve written about using flash cards for learning Spanish before, but most of that has been about using inexpensive or free programs that you can use on your computer. (Scroll down and click on Flash Cards in the sidebar to see those articles.)

Today I want to make a case for using physical flash cards… as well as, or instead of, the computer kind.

Why? Because I consider all  flash cards to be an important tool in remembering what you have studied or heard someplace. Physical ones have some benefits I will mention shortly.

The way our memories work, if we review a new word or phrase at increasing intervals,  we have a far better chance of its entering our long-term memories than if we don’t review it. Now that I have more gray hair than brown, I really notice the benefits of reviewing, but this concept is true at all ages.

Language scholars have varying ideas about how often you should review, and some of these ideas are worked into the computer programs. In a nutshell, here is a simple scheme that you can use:

Suppose I learn a new word on Wednesday morning,  when I am out at the Ajijic tianguis (street market). If  I scribble the word in my little notebook, that’s already going to help me remember it. If I get home and later that day, I put the word into my flash cards, that’s another repetition. In these two cases, the act of writing the word also helps me remember it.

(It also happens that I don’t get around to putting the word into flash cards till after some time has passed and some more words have made it into the notebook. Such is life.)

Then it would be good for me to review it on Thursday. If I have it pretty firmly by then, I would take it out of my LEARNING category and put it in my REVIEWING category, which I would be going through once or twice a week. When I felt like I really had it, the word would go into the KNOW category, which gets reviewed about once a month.

So Why Physical Cards?

This summer, while I was on vacation and didn’t have my computer on much, I noticed how many odd moments there were when I could have picked up some cards and done a few of them. Now that we’ve been home in Mexico for about a month, my computer is on all day — but I am noticing that my wrist does get sore from all the mouse-clicking. So I am trying to moderate my computer time according to how the wrist feels. That’s what got me back to the cards.

As the picture shows, I use an old checkbook box which I filled with index cards cut to size. I made three cards taller and put on them Learning, Reviewing, and Know. So I grab a handful of cards and sort them into the three categories, then put them back in place.  Remember to use both sides of the card, the English and the Spanish.

Umm… hadn’t done this in over year. Blush to realize how many of the words in the Know category I had forgotten entirely. But then I haven’t needed the word for raccoon! But if raccoons come up in conversation sometime soon, I bet el mapache will roll easily off my tongue!

Several years ago, when we were living in the US, at a yard sale I got a commercially made box of 1,000 cards. I worked some with them but I do find that the act of making the card ensures it’s a word or phrase I really want to learn.

Readers, your thoughts are particularly welcome on this topic!

It happens that some of the various websites that promote Rocket Spanish online are pretty minimal. They are just built to get you to click through to Rocket Spanish, because then they will make a commission if you buy it. (I make a commission too, if you click through from here. As I explain on the About Us page of this site, as a former librarian I am pretty tough minded in evaluating programs. I do not think my opinions are for sale for a few bucks. The way I see it, the income from my websites enables me to write what I want to.)

So you may run across some websites that don’t really back up what they say. Then, as a reaction to that, I have seen several times on language forums where other people throw the baby out with the bath water: as a reaction to the promotional type of sites, some people jump to negative conclusions about Rocket Spanish itself.

But I have also seen forum comments where someone says they used it and liked it AND they are not selling it.

My own impression of Rocket Spanish, based on listening to some but not all of the lessons and examining the PDF files closely, is quite positive. I think a lot of work went into creating the structure and content of the course and into designing the presentation to be interesting.

The fact is, most people who set out on their own to learn another language tend to drop the project after a while. I’ve mentioned this before. So in my mind, a program that is designed to make learning Spanish more enjoyable, and that builds appropriate repetition, is a good program. And that’s why Rocket Spanish is one of my favorite programs.

Of course, you will make up your own mind as to what is best for you. See my comparison chart for learning Spanish or just take a look at the Rocket Spanish website itself.

One woman we met spoke Spanish because she was born in the US of Mexican parents. Her husband is from northern Mexico, and we spoke Spanish with him too. Once, when we happened to run into them in a store, they introduced us to another friend of theirs, a man who is from Jalisco, the state we live in here in Mexico. We were quite a jolly bunch, chorusing “Viva Jalisco!”

There were any number of other people we chatted with in Spanish. Sometimes I would overhear people speaking Spanish and would strike up a conversation, or at other times, we chatted with people we had known before we came to live in Mexico. I was interested to notice two things:

1. A lot of the people who were born in the US , or went there very young, tend to have an American accent in speaking Spanish.
2. They also tended to have a little more trouble following my Spanish, even though I certainly have a (thick) American accent. I imagine that this is because they have virtually no experience in listening to foreigners speaking Spanish… after all, in the US, English is the first language! Also, I think their vocabularies may be smaller than that of the average Mexican.

I was amused when we chatted with one woman we had knownbefore we moved down here; she had given Kelly some lessons in conversational Spanish.  This summer, she spoke slowly and carefully at first, and then when I indicated I was following everything she said, she shifted into high gear as only a Latina can! I still followed the gist but did miss a few words.

Anyway, it was fun, and now that we are back in Mexico, we are speaking a lot more Spanish again. Actually, in the US, Kelly and I continued the habit we have of using a lot of everyday Spanish words in interacting with each other.  Once in the grocery store this summer, I called out to Kelly down the aisle in Spanish, “Mi querido, quieres chocolate hoy?” I did get a couple of funny looks from other shoppers. Oh well.

We flew from Denver to Phoenix, then Phoenix to Guadalajara. On the second flight, we had a chance to start chatting in Spanish, as most of the passengers were Mexican and we had a delay leaving Phoenix.  And in the taxi from the airport to our home in Mexico, our Spanish got a great workout with the  friendly driver.

Here is one with basic greetings:

And here is the link to all his videos on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/languagenow

Watch out for the Portuguese on that page. When I was there, I had to scroll down a little to see all the Spanish videos.

Professor Jason actually is a professor – he teaches Spanish at Penn State University.

What Are They?

Pimsleur Spanish is an audio course, long available on cassettes and now on CDs. It is based on the Pimsleur Method, where you learn by listening and by speaking – not just repeating what’s on the CD  but also by having to create new sentences out of the vocabulary you’ve learned. You end up with a relatively small vocabulary but it is the most important words in the language to know for conversation. You tend to end up with good pronunciation as well.

Rosetta Stone Spanish is a multi-media program that you use on a computer. It is completely in Spanish – there is NO English. In fact, Rosetta Stone sells the same program to an English speaker that it sells to, say, a German speaker if both are learning Spanish. The method relies heavily on images to teach vocabulary, and it does use voice recognition software if you have a microphone, to help drill you on proper pronunciation.

Oldies but Goodies?

How have these two programs stood the test of time?

Pimsleur Spanish has stood up well. Dr. Paul Pimsleur’s "graduated interval recall" is widely used now, specially in flashcard programs. This is the idea that in order for a word or phrase to enter our long-term memory, we need to hear it again and again… and with longer intervals between the reviews over time.

One criticism of Pimsleur Spanish is that some of the expressions you learn are more old-fashioned and formal than Spanish as it is now spoken in Latin America.

Rosetta Stone Spanish teaches you the language much as a child would learn it, totally in Spanish. In the years since it first came out, research has shown that once we pass puberty, we learn foreign languages most effectively if we use our native tongue to analyze and understand. (One example of a program that does this very well is Fluenz Spanish, which you may not have heard of, as it is quite new.)

Despite that, people who are visual learners do tend to like Rosetta Stone.

Finding Out More

Both courses are rather expensive, but they provide you with many hours of learning. I am guessing that you might be able to find the Pimsleur Spanish on cassettes (since nobody wants those much any more) for a much lower price.

See my reviews of each for more information about them and for links to various places you can buy them:

Pimsleur Spanish review

Rosetta Stone Spanish Review