Re: Spanish Lesson Program?
On Wed, Sep 20, 2006 at 11:56:21PM EDT, Chris Humphries wrote:
[..]
> | >
> | I want to learn to speak and converse in Spanish. I would happily pay
> | for one of the commercial programs which include in addition to lessons
> | an ability to analyze sound tracks and correct pronunciation. I just
> | don't want to have to continually switch back and forth between Debian
> | and that other operating system.
> |
>
> Rosetta Stone is pretty much it for those requirements, and yes it is a
> Windows program... and it isn't cheap. It is very good though, well worth
> the price. As much as I would like there to be something like it for Linux
> or UNIX, there just isn't anything at the moment.
Also my experience.
> It ran in wine though, just very very slowly.
Win 98' here .. and it wasn't that fast either.
> Wish you luck,
> Chris
[OT] for the OP:
Consider using good old tapes - or better .. CD's -- they provide
somewhat better sound quality .. if it's there to begin with .. not just
a matter of comfort .. it helps you catch the subleties of the target
language's pronunciation .. Even more importantly, they let you access a
given lesson/drill instantaneously .. priceless ..
For speakers of English, Barron's "Mastering Spanish" -- level 1 and level
2 .. is excellent ..
Daily practice over a period of about 1-2 years -- depending on your age
and natural ability .. should take you to a decent level of fluency in
basic Spanish.
Each level will set you off some USD 80.00 apiece from Barnes & Noble ..
or Amazon .. (new) .. but that's peanuts compared with the hundreds of
hours that you must be prepared to invest if you are to get anywhere ..
The good thing about tapes/CD's (plus walkman/discman) is their
portability. Keep in mind that the deciding factor when learning a
foreign language especially as an adult is persistence/regularity ..
drills .. drills .. practice .. practice .. every single day ..
Depending on your lifestyle .. and unless you have a small laptop that
you can easily carry around -- plus mouse .. cables.. dongles .. &
whatnot .. :-) .. you may find it a lot easier to make good use of your
lunch break with the more traditional learning approach/medium.
A PDA-based or even IPod-based method could give us the best of both
worlds -- sound .. portability .. graphic representation of correct
accentuation/stress and intonation .. but I don't see anybody investing
the resources necessary to adapt comprehensive tutorials such as the one
I mention above to use the additional capabilities of these devices.
Just my two cents .. but definetely based on experience.
Thanks
cga
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