Learn Spanish: Is It Rocket Science? (A Review)
Tale of the tapes
At a yard sale one day I spotted them: 12 cassette tapes stuffed into a forlorn ziplock bag, bearing a label on which someone had written "$1."
Spanish language learning tapes! I recognized the title on the cassettes immediately -- this was one of the top audio Spanish courses a few years back (actually, the course is still around, but now it's on CDs--and selling for $300).
For a buck, what could I lose? I plunked down the dollar and drove home to give a listen.
I can't say the tapes were bad. Someone had certainly managed to cram a lot of words and sentences onto those 12 little cassettes. But after playing several of them, I realized that they couldn't teach me any more Spanish language than I already knew.
If I were a complete beginner, I could easily pick up some basic Spanish vocabulary and a few stock phrases from the tapes--but then, I could learn as much or more from a $6 Spanish phrase book. The main benefit of the tapes would be hearing the words and phrases pronounced.
To learn Spanish, skip the recycled stuff
I've been working to learn Spanish for years, starting with books and progressing to audio and video tapes, then computer software.
Technology has opened a world of possibilities for those wanting to learn Spanish. Despite the flash and the bells and whistles, though, when you get down to it, most high-tech approaches to learning a foreign language just recycle the same material you can find between the covers of hundreds of books.
I've looked at a lot of Spanish learning programs, some pretty decent, a few downright atrocious--many costing hundreds of dollars, up to a thousand bucks or more for the "advanced level" ones.
I just about concluded that the only way anyone could ever truly learn Spanish was by living in a Spanish speaking country for a few years.
But I've just found something new that has completely blown me away--as well as all my prejudices about what it is possible from a learn-Spanish-on-your-own program.
It's called Rocket Spanish, and they're not kidding when they say it can "rocket your language learning ability through the roof."
At last, one that delivers
Everything all those other courses and systems promise, Rocket Spanish delivers, in my opinion. And I'm a hard person to convince. Rocket Spanish impresses the h___ out of me. (Sorry for the strong language, but, well, I am impressed.)
OK, what is Rocket Spanish? It's a lot of things, really one heck of a huge suite of Spanish learning tools that you can download and start using immediately. You can also ask the Rocket Spanish company to send you physical CDs and printed books in a big nice-looking package, going the download route costs less, so that's what I recommend.
The core of Rocket Spanish is an interactive audio course designed to get you speaking conversational Spanish quickly. Accompanying the audio program are four e-books crammed with grammar lessons, useful words and phrases, and vocabulary and exercises.
If, so far, that just sounds like the "same old, same old," it's not. I find the interactive audio exercises to be really fun. It's almost like you're sitting around with new-found friends who bring you along into their world--into their way of speaking, thinking, and enjoying themselves--so gently yet quickly that you'll amaze yourself with how much Spanish you're learning.
Between listening to each audio segment you can study corresponding chapters in the conversation and beginners' books that come with the course.
Listen, read ... and play!
The audio and books are just the beginning, though. There's also something called MegaSpanish, which consists of the "MegaVocab" and "MegaAudio" software for playing games to accelerate your ability to learn Spanish.
Both MegaVocab and MegaAudio are challenging and engaging (and my 10-year-old daughter enjoys them as much as I do). The best part, for me, is that you can modify the vocabulary of the games to use the words that you need to learn.
As I noted above, what matters to me in a program to help me learn Spanish is the content, not flashy graphics or pretty picutres. If the content is weak or limited, or if it just boxes you in with a small set of canned words and phrases, then it doesn't do much good.
Rocket Spanish really shines content-wise. It's not only comprehensive, it's flexible enough to take you just about as far as you want to go with your mastery of Spanish. However, I do want to give a nod to the production values of the Rocket Spanish package. It is definitely high quality in every way. (You can view more screen shots like the one below on their web site.)
My inner skeptic speaks ...
There's one thing about Rocket Spanish that I question: The claim that it give you Spanish fluency in just three months. Now I'm sure that would be true for that minority of people who seem to be born with a natural gift for language (I knew a guy once who spoke half a dozen languages fluently, and who could pick up a new one well enough to converse with native speakers in about a month).
I think that if you diligently apply yourself to learn the entire Rocket Spanish course--and if you then go out and find people to practice conversing with--you could be speaking pretty fluent Spanish in much less than a year's time--maybe six months for the average learner, a little longer for some.
I am confident in saying that this course will take you farther toward fluency, faster, than anything else currently on the market.
Based on my own experience in trying to learn Spanish, you're right to be skeptical of any program that promises fluency in such a short time. While the "three months" claim of Rocket Spanish may be an exaggeration, it's probably not much of one.
Sample before you buy
Here's something really cool: You can sign up for a series of six free mini-lessons from Rocket Spanish to get a taste of the program. Then you can decide, without obligation or pressure, whether to get the whole Rocket Spanish program. I wish more language learning companies would let you sample their wares first.
Oh, I should say something about the author of Rocket Spanish, Mauricio Evlampieff. He's a young guy, a native Spanish speaker (from Chile) who's passionate about his culture, language and heritage and enjoys sharing his love of Spanish with others.
Maricio's enthusiasm really comes across in the program. He sounds like someone you'd enjoy chatting away an aftternoon with--using your newly learned Spanish, of course--over a cup or two of fine Guatemalan or Colombian coffee.
Mauricio's editor is Amy Waterman, who gained her fluency in Spanish while living and working in Ecuador. It was she who formulated the unique concepts behind the interactive audio component of Rocket Spanish.
As you can read elsewhere on the Learn Spanish blog, I went to Guatemala last year to learn Spanish in one of the Spanish schools there. My wife and daughter also studied Spanish with me. I only wish I had had this program before we went. It would have given us all a leg up, as it were, and permitted us to begin our immersion experience of Spanish at a much more advanced level.
Let the whole family learn Spanish
Which brings me to one of the nice things of this program. If you want to learn Spanish with your family, you can all use the same copy of Rocket Spanish (at the Spanish school we attended in Guatemala, we of course had to pay tuition for three people). You could listen to the audio lessons together, or take turns playing the games.
(Some of the best testimonials on the Rocket Spanish site are from youngsters, by the way.)
I could go on and on about this program, but I'll stop. If you're looking for something that can really help you to learn Spanish at home, you should check this one out. Sign up for the 6 free mini lessons to see how you like it.
Also, I note that they are currently offering the downloadable version of Rocket Spanish for half its usual price--act quickly if you want the best deal.
At a yard sale one day I spotted them: 12 cassette tapes stuffed into a forlorn ziplock bag, bearing a label on which someone had written "$1."
Spanish language learning tapes! I recognized the title on the cassettes immediately -- this was one of the top audio Spanish courses a few years back (actually, the course is still around, but now it's on CDs--and selling for $300).
For a buck, what could I lose? I plunked down the dollar and drove home to give a listen.
I can't say the tapes were bad. Someone had certainly managed to cram a lot of words and sentences onto those 12 little cassettes. But after playing several of them, I realized that they couldn't teach me any more Spanish language than I already knew.
If I were a complete beginner, I could easily pick up some basic Spanish vocabulary and a few stock phrases from the tapes--but then, I could learn as much or more from a $6 Spanish phrase book. The main benefit of the tapes would be hearing the words and phrases pronounced.
To learn Spanish, skip the recycled stuff
I've been working to learn Spanish for years, starting with books and progressing to audio and video tapes, then computer software.
Technology has opened a world of possibilities for those wanting to learn Spanish. Despite the flash and the bells and whistles, though, when you get down to it, most high-tech approaches to learning a foreign language just recycle the same material you can find between the covers of hundreds of books.
I've looked at a lot of Spanish learning programs, some pretty decent, a few downright atrocious--many costing hundreds of dollars, up to a thousand bucks or more for the "advanced level" ones.
I just about concluded that the only way anyone could ever truly learn Spanish was by living in a Spanish speaking country for a few years.
But I've just found something new that has completely blown me away--as well as all my prejudices about what it is possible from a learn-Spanish-on-your-own program.
It's called Rocket Spanish, and they're not kidding when they say it can "rocket your language learning ability through the roof."
At last, one that delivers
Everything all those other courses and systems promise, Rocket Spanish delivers, in my opinion. And I'm a hard person to convince. Rocket Spanish impresses the h___ out of me. (Sorry for the strong language, but, well, I am impressed.)
OK, what is Rocket Spanish? It's a lot of things, really one heck of a huge suite of Spanish learning tools that you can download and start using immediately. You can also ask the Rocket Spanish company to send you physical CDs and printed books in a big nice-looking package, going the download route costs less, so that's what I recommend.
The core of Rocket Spanish is an interactive audio course designed to get you speaking conversational Spanish quickly. Accompanying the audio program are four e-books crammed with grammar lessons, useful words and phrases, and vocabulary and exercises.
If, so far, that just sounds like the "same old, same old," it's not. I find the interactive audio exercises to be really fun. It's almost like you're sitting around with new-found friends who bring you along into their world--into their way of speaking, thinking, and enjoying themselves--so gently yet quickly that you'll amaze yourself with how much Spanish you're learning.
Between listening to each audio segment you can study corresponding chapters in the conversation and beginners' books that come with the course.
Listen, read ... and play!
The audio and books are just the beginning, though. There's also something called MegaSpanish, which consists of the "MegaVocab" and "MegaAudio" software for playing games to accelerate your ability to learn Spanish.
Both MegaVocab and MegaAudio are challenging and engaging (and my 10-year-old daughter enjoys them as much as I do). The best part, for me, is that you can modify the vocabulary of the games to use the words that you need to learn.
As I noted above, what matters to me in a program to help me learn Spanish is the content, not flashy graphics or pretty picutres. If the content is weak or limited, or if it just boxes you in with a small set of canned words and phrases, then it doesn't do much good.
Rocket Spanish really shines content-wise. It's not only comprehensive, it's flexible enough to take you just about as far as you want to go with your mastery of Spanish. However, I do want to give a nod to the production values of the Rocket Spanish package. It is definitely high quality in every way. (You can view more screen shots like the one below on their web site.)
My inner skeptic speaks ...
There's one thing about Rocket Spanish that I question: The claim that it give you Spanish fluency in just three months. Now I'm sure that would be true for that minority of people who seem to be born with a natural gift for language (I knew a guy once who spoke half a dozen languages fluently, and who could pick up a new one well enough to converse with native speakers in about a month).
I think that if you diligently apply yourself to learn the entire Rocket Spanish course--and if you then go out and find people to practice conversing with--you could be speaking pretty fluent Spanish in much less than a year's time--maybe six months for the average learner, a little longer for some.
I am confident in saying that this course will take you farther toward fluency, faster, than anything else currently on the market.
Based on my own experience in trying to learn Spanish, you're right to be skeptical of any program that promises fluency in such a short time. While the "three months" claim of Rocket Spanish may be an exaggeration, it's probably not much of one.
Sample before you buy
Here's something really cool: You can sign up for a series of six free mini-lessons from Rocket Spanish to get a taste of the program. Then you can decide, without obligation or pressure, whether to get the whole Rocket Spanish program. I wish more language learning companies would let you sample their wares first.
Oh, I should say something about the author of Rocket Spanish, Mauricio Evlampieff. He's a young guy, a native Spanish speaker (from Chile) who's passionate about his culture, language and heritage and enjoys sharing his love of Spanish with others.
Maricio's enthusiasm really comes across in the program. He sounds like someone you'd enjoy chatting away an aftternoon with--using your newly learned Spanish, of course--over a cup or two of fine Guatemalan or Colombian coffee.
Mauricio's editor is Amy Waterman, who gained her fluency in Spanish while living and working in Ecuador. It was she who formulated the unique concepts behind the interactive audio component of Rocket Spanish.
As you can read elsewhere on the Learn Spanish blog, I went to Guatemala last year to learn Spanish in one of the Spanish schools there. My wife and daughter also studied Spanish with me. I only wish I had had this program before we went. It would have given us all a leg up, as it were, and permitted us to begin our immersion experience of Spanish at a much more advanced level.
Let the whole family learn Spanish
Which brings me to one of the nice things of this program. If you want to learn Spanish with your family, you can all use the same copy of Rocket Spanish (at the Spanish school we attended in Guatemala, we of course had to pay tuition for three people). You could listen to the audio lessons together, or take turns playing the games.
(Some of the best testimonials on the Rocket Spanish site are from youngsters, by the way.)
I could go on and on about this program, but I'll stop. If you're looking for something that can really help you to learn Spanish at home, you should check this one out. Sign up for the 6 free mini lessons to see how you like it.
Also, I note that they are currently offering the downloadable version of Rocket Spanish for half its usual price--act quickly if you want the best deal.
posted by Unknown at 2:31 PM
4 Comments:
Hey!
Am I missing something here? This is an advert, no? Common Steve, lets see some more ‘reviews’!!
You can also learn spanish by using Rocket Spanish. I hope this helps!
"Rocket Spanish" is a ripoff. The guy behind this phony review and all the other phony reviews on the internet is a sleaze bag. Don't buy this junk. The creator of this overpriced crap spends his days setting up websites where he writes fake reviews in praise of his rip off program. What a weasel.
What is amusing about the Rocket Spanish website is the pictures accompanying the testimonials. A teacher wearing a mortar board and graduation gown? What century is that from? An old lady posing with an amusement park mascot? Do they expect us to believe she sent that picture in with her testimonial?
I was hoping this was for real. But a $300 program for $99 on line? $50 for shipping and handling? Puhleeze.
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