Games are good for learning things that might be considered slightly boring or tedious. Generally learning grammar conjugations is a pretty tedious affair so there is a game called megaverb that can help.

It consists of answering 25 questions on verb conjugation. You can choose to answer questions on present, past, future or all three tenses. The question gives you the infinitive version of the verb, the meaning in English and the person that you must conjugate (first person singular, third person plural etc.)

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You type in the answer and the games tells you if it is correct or otherwise. You have a few attempts to get it right.

This will teach you verb conjugation and some writing skills to a limited extent. The key to learning verb conjugation is to see recognize regular and irregular verbs. Most verbs will fit into a group of regular verbs which are identified by the way they end. Memorizing the way the ending works for the general group can allow you to conjugate hundreds of verbs successfully.

Irregular verbs just have to be memorized as a one off because they are generally pretty unique in their endings.

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Megavocab is the game to improve your vocabulary skills. It is similar to the way Rosetta Stone works. It shows you a picture and 4 words in Spanish (can show the English word as an option too). You have to guess which word corresponds to the image.

This method of learning vocabulary is a good approach. It is fairly painless way to learn (dare I say fun) but the words are only basic level words (conversational).

Again, Megavocab will ask you 25 questions and mark your answers. There are plenty of categories of words to choose from which will keep you going.

Some of the pictures don’t really communicate what the word should be at times which can be a bit frustrating. In this instance it makes sense to turn the show english word option on to clear up any confusion.

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Megaaudio works on the same principle as Megavocab, except that the word is spoken. You have to match the word to one of 4 or 6 pictures in the question. 20 to 25 questions are asked and you are given a mark. Again there are plenty of categories to practice. Most are just single words but in the later sections there are short sentences.

This game will help your listening comprehension and even your accent if you repeat the words aloud after you hear them.

I find the games are a good warm up exercise if you are planning to do a bit of Spanish. They can get you into the mood so to speak and are easy to use.

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To this extent, I think the Michel Thomas course is ideal for someone that wants to learn Spanish quickly (say they are on a vacation in Spain or on a Business trip in Mexico). Copy the CD’s to an ipod or mp3 player and off you go.

The format of the Michel Thomas Spanish course is Michel Thomas conducting a series of lessons (10 actually) with two students. Michel Thomas will discuss the topic of each lesson. He will ask questions and one or both of the students will answer the question. You are encouraged to pause the lesson just before the students answer and speak your own answer out loud. Then un-pause the lesson and see if you get the answer correct.

I like the way Michel teaches; he seems to give you confidence and simplifies the language. For example, he tells you that only a small portion of words are actually used on a day to day basis. So if you understand these words and some of the basics of how the language works, you can pretty much communicate with Spanish speaking people.

After you have done all the lessons you will have the confidence to speak to people. You won’t have a huge vocabulary but you should be able to make yourself understood.

Rocket Spanish has a bigger aim. It teaches you reading, writing, speaking and comprehension. It is a more traditional course and uses audio, quizzes, test, games and visual cues to impart Spanish knowledge.

In brief, Rocket Spanish has an audio course, a grammar and vocabulary written/audio course, educational games that teach vocabulary, verb conjugation and listening comprehension. It also has a plenty of tests at the end of each lesson that helps to reinforce your learning.

Michel Spanish Review

Plus points -

Fast way to learn Spanish/easy to use

Fairly cheap

Negative points -

Limited to speaking skills and a fairly small set of vocabulary

Michel Thomas does not have the best Spanish accent so not good for pronunciation.

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Rocket Spanish Review

Plus points -

Get a lot of content for the price – teaches reading, writing, listening, speaking

Uses a variety of teaching methods

Complete course

Negative points -

Not a quick learn product. Sure you can go through the audio course really quickly but if you want to use all the grammar lessons it will probably take a few months to go through.

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The first thing to say is that Rosetta stone is predominantly a software program. It is one of the better learn Spanish software programs in fact but if you don’t have time to sit at a computer or prefer to learn  in another way then it might not be for you. They do have an audio companion guide now – (CD’s you can load on your ipod and play whenever you feel like it).

Rocket Spanish also requires you to spend a fair amount of time at a computer. For instance the three games (which are similar in style to Rosetta Stone) have to be played from a PC or Mac computer.

If you want to use the feedback features of Rocket Spanish then you also need to be logged onto their website.

Rosetta Stone uses their unique ‘Dynamic Immersion’ technique to teach you Spanish. Basically this involves no conscious thinking on your part. You are immersed in the Spanish speaking world and pick up words through practice and repetition.

It does this by saying a word or sentence (or showing a word or sentence) and showing you 4 pictures. One corresponds to the word or sentence. You have to guess which one. You go through a series of questions – 20-25 per lesson/module. If you get a high mark on the lesson you can go to the next lesson.

This is the same method that you used to learn your native tongue – seeing a picture and relating a word or sentence to it. You don’t have to consciously learn what the word means. It simply sticks with enough repetition of the picture/word combination. This can even be done with complicated sentences. And is how we learn a language as a child.

Rosetta Stone also has a program that can analyze your pronunciation and a headset comes supplied nowadays.

Rocket Spanish is more traditional in that it is predominantly an audio course with additional reading material that teaches the grammar of the language and introduces vocabulary. There is a Rosetta Stone style series on games that use the same picture/word association teaching that is used with Rosetta Stone but it is not as comprehensive.

It also has plenty of multiple choice testing that is good to give a student feedback on how he/she is doing.

Rocket Spanish is more responsive to students as it has a forum and the program seems to have changed in style over the past few years, indicating that they are listening to their students about how to improve the program.

Rocket Spanish can be downloaded from the internet for $99. Rosetta Stone Spanish level 1 can be purchased for around $200 (depending on where you buy it online). However, you need to get the other 2 levels to complete the set so it is considerably more expensive than Rocket Spanish.

Rosetta Stone Review

Plus points –

Easy teaching style, no need to memorize or write things down – learn language like a baby does.

Can improve pronunciation

Negative points -

Expensive, if you decide to get all the levels

Require plenty of repetition and practice if you want to remember what you learn. Better still, use what you learn immediately by talking to a Spanish speaking person and it should stick.

Check out Rosetta Stone Spanish here

Rocket Spanish Review

Plus points –

Get a little bit of everything – comprehensive audio course, three Rosetta Stone style games and a decent grammar/vocabulary written guide with audio components.

Good price point – cheaper than most learn Spanish courses

Responsive to students needs and questions – fairly active forum where you can ask questions. Send out follow up lessons via email address.

Negative points -

No pronunciation teaching, you have to repeat the words after they are spoken in the audio so no real feedback.

Check out Rocket Spanish here

Basically, each written lesson ties in with an audio sub lesson. So in this case, it ties in with the “Birthday” audio lesson.  The verbs Tener and Venir were used in this audio conversation. The grammar points out what the verbs mean and how they are conjugated. There is individual audio files of Mauricio conjugating these verbs in the first person singular through to the third person plural (standard verb conjugation).

The lesson points out that these verbs are examples of irregular -ER and -IR ending verbs. There are hundreds of -ER and -IR ending verbs that have a standard ending for all the verbs. This makes it easier to remember if you are learning verbs for the first time.
However in this case, the verb ending deviate from the standard endings. These are two verbs that you just have to remember are different.

After the initial introductions have been made, the lesson goes on to use the various conjugations of these verbs in sentences. There is a written and audio component (and even a picture in some cases) of each sentence. Some questions are asked at the end of the lesson too.

There are three tabs that can be clicked on that take you away from the written text. These are entitled Culture, Quiz and Notes.

Culture introduces some element of Spanish or South American culture.

The quiz is a multiple choice quiz on the lesson.

Notes is a section for you to add your own notes on the lesson.

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The format of the audio involves the English speaking narrator (Amy) telling Mauricio about a birthday party she is planning. He asks her about who it’s for, who will be coming, when it is happening . She ends up by asking him if he would like to come to the party too. He says sure.

This might seem like a pretty short conversation to put into 27 minutes but the conversation is repeated a few times and Amy often explains what everything means. She describes the new verbs, how they are used in the sentence and the infinitive of the verb.

The conversation is slowed down to one sentence at a time and the student listening to the audio, is encouraged to say the words or sentences after each person on the audio has spoken it.

The audio lesson ends with the narrator asking the listener some questions about the lesson and their birthdays. There is a pause, giving the student enough time to speak the answer out loud. Then Mauricio will give the likely answer to the question. This allows the student to interact with the audio and also get answers to the questions that are asked.

By listening to Mauricio speak, you can hear an authentic accent too which will help with your own pronunciation.

This teaching method is stressed in the very first audio lesson of the course. Amy stresses that you have to speak the words and sentences out loud, when you are given the opportunity to do so. It might seem odd at first but this is the best way to engage in the lessons and get used to speaking the words.

Pronunciation is one of the hardest parts of learning a language, only by practicing it can it be perfected. Watching people lips and mouth as they say a word can also help with your pronunciation but you can’t do this with this course.

There are 4 extra tabs that can be clicked on during the audio. These are conversation in Spanish, Conversation in English, Quiz and Notes.

The conversation tabs show you how the audio is written in Spanish and English which may help you follow along with the conversation if needs be.

The quiz tab is a multiple choice quiz on the lesson.

Notes is a section for you to add your own notes on the lesson.

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For instance, in the first lesson of stage 2, entitled Socializing there are :

Audio lessons on :

Birthday party
Dates
Games and Presents
Prizes
Let’s Party

Each audio lesson last for about 20-30 minutes. You will hear and see new words in each lesson.

Learn more about how an audio lesson works….

Reading lessons on :

Introduction to Irregular Verbs: TENER and VENIR
Stem Changing Verbs in the Present
Irregular Verbs in the “Yo” Form
To Say and To Give: Using DECIR and DAR
When Something is Happening

As this is in stage 2 the reading lessons are quite complex and deal with grammar and verb conjugation. They also introduce new vocabulary that you will use or hear in the audio lessons.

Learn more about how an grammar lesson works….

Summary

So this particular lesson consists of 10 sub-lessons. (4 audio and 6 written). This is fairly typical of all the lessons on the course. Depending on your skill level one lesson could take anything from 30 minutes to a couple of hours.

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The forum can also be used when you have finished the course. You can ask questions that are advanced and not covered on the course. To be honest, the grammar sections in the course are pretty good but you are bound to come across some things that make you go hmm. These question can be answered by the moderators or other students.

The final benefit of using the forum is that you will meet fellow students. This can help you in your learning as you may be able to relate to their problems and vice versa.

Contributing on the forum, either helping others or receiving help, will help you to keep going with your learning. The more you communicate with other people striving towards the same goals as you, the more people you will be accountable to. This may seem like a negative or intimidating prospect, but in fact it is a great motivator and will help you get more value out of the Rocket Spanish course.

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Michel Thomas Spanish is a fast track way to learn Spanish. In fact, I would say this is the best course if you are planning a business trip or vacation in a Spanish speaking country and want to get the basics of the language quickly. Michel Thomas has a teaching style that simplifies the language and gives you confidence to speak to Spanish speaking people. Granted, the things you will say are pretty basic, like simple questions and requests but it will probably be sufficient if you are spending a couple of weeks on vacation or such like.

The source consists of ten CD’s that last about 20 – 30 minutes each. The format of the lessons is Michel Thomas and two students. Michel is taking a lesson and sets up the topic, explains some of the concepts and asks questions. The students answer the questions and ask questions if they don’t understand something. You are encouraged to stop the CD whenever a question is asked and speak the answer out loud. Then start the CD and listen to the answer.

One student is better than the other. I’m not sure if this is staged so that people at all levels of understanding feel involved in the teaching…or maybe it is genuine.

Michel is a good teacher. He explains that it is his responsibility to teach rather than the students responsibility to learn. To this extent he suggests that you don’t write anything down, don’t try to memorize things and don’t try to consciously learn. Sounds weird, but to a certain degree it works.

He also simplifies the language for you. For instance, he explains how many of the common words in Spanish are the same in English (or similar anyway) so that you already know hundreds of Spanish words. He also explains that on a day to day basis most people only use a few unique words.

His lessons concentrate on these words and on the type of sentences you would use in everyday speech or simple questions that you may ask a person. As I said, his teaching and his explanation of the language instills a fair amount of confidence in you that you can speak the language.

The lessons cover quite a bit of vocabulary and go over present, past and future tenses. You probably have to listen to the last lessons a few times to get the most benefit out of them. I recommend this course if you need a quick solution to speaking Spanish. Take it on the plane as you leave for Mexico and you’ll be surprised how quickly you pick things up.

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Rosetta Stone refer to their teaching method as dynamic immersion. Most people agree that immersing yourself in a language is the best way to learn. Saturate yourself in the language and over time it will stick.

Humans are wired to speak and connect objects, people and things with some kind of sound.

The Rosetta Stone Spanish program level 1 is a software program. It is compatible with PC and Mac computers. It is listed as the beginner level and will get you to a basic conversational level. On the surface it would seem to be a very simple piece of software.

You are asked a question and shown 4 pictures. One of the pictures is the best answer to the question you have just been asked. Click the picture and you get a tick. This moves you onto the next question/picture set. If you get the answer wrong, you get a cross and have to make another guess.

Rosetta stone teaches reading, writing, comprehension and even speaking. Based of the skill that you are learning the question will be just text, expect you to write text as an answer, just be sound or you repeat a sentence to get your pronunciation tested.

In terms of speaking, you are supplied with a microphone and headset. There is a voice recognition component to the program which overlays your spoken words with that of a native Spanish speaker. If it is close enough to the native Spanish speaker then you get a tick and move to the next question.

The entire course (apart from the voice recognition software) is a series of questions and pictures. In some cases there are 4 pictures and at other times there are 6 pictures. The quality of the pictures is excellent and the meaning of the pictures is not confusing. In other words, the selection of pictures is very well thought which is essential for this teaching method to work. See how Rosetta Stone works.

The teaching method is called dynamic immersion and the principle behind it is similar to how you learned your native or mother tongue. As a baby or child, you learn your new language by building a  connection with an object and a word.

For instance, you are given a banana by your mother. She says banana. This is registered in your brain. Over time, your mother and other people around you add  extra words to banana – yellow banana, eat banana, etc. As you grow, you meet new objects, people and things and they are given a name or a word.

Over the first year of  a baby’s life, he/she is taking in words and forming connections between these words and objects. After about a year, the baby starts to voice these words. First he/she might try simple words or words that are particularly dear to him. So ma, mummy, dad, daddy may be the first words he/she says.

From this point the baby will try to speak more and more words until he/she is speaking. At this stage you could say that he/she speaks a language. Of course it will take years to master the intricacies of the language but he/she is on the road to learning and speaking a language that will take him/her through life.

Rosetta Stone uses this approach to learning a language. It is a painless process that doesn’t rely on the student to write things down or memorize things. The point of the teaching is for it to become intuitively learned. You just know what the word or sentence means because you have made a connection in your head with some object, person, thing or even sensation. It just works, but it does take time.

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Rocket Spanish is a learn Spanish course created by Mauricio Evlampieff. It is one of the best value courses available at the moment. It has been a popular choice for people keen to learn Spanish for around 5 years. This article will give you an in depth Rocket Spanish review and explain why it is good value for money.

You access the course via the Rocket Spanish learning lounge. The learning lounge is basically the website where you can download parts of the course or start taking lessons online. There is also a forum where you can chat with other students or Spanish language experts, including the creator Mauricio.

You can choose to download parts of the course or do all the learning online. The main benefit of downloading the course is that you are free to use it whenever you want without needing to log onto the internet. You can download the audio lessons and the games.

Once you have downloaded the audio files they can be loaded to an mp3 player and played where and whenever the inspiration grabs you to learn Spanish. The games can be played on your computer and are compatible with PC and Mac computers.

The main benefit of taking the course online is that there is more feedback provided to the student which can serve to encourage and motivate the student.

If I was to sum up these two ways to use the course, I’d say the first method gives you more freedom and responsibility. The second method requires you to log in, which could be considered a limitation, but the teaching method is more structured and there is less responsibility on the student to motivate themselves. The online course does that for you.

Details of the Rocket Spanish course

There are three options when you enter the learning lounge. You can go to the course itself, a practice option or the community option.

The community option is the forum. This is moderately active. I noticed that one of the moderators was Mauricio (the creator) and that people ask questions regarding grammar and other issues that people have when learning Spanish. Mauricio or another moderator seem to respond to the questions promptly.

See more on the Rocket Spanish forum here.

The practice option selects 40 random questions about Spanish that you have to answer. The questions are all multiple choice questions. These questions range from fill in the blanks in this sentence to listening to mp3 audios and then answering questions based on what you have just heard. You can submit the test for marking and get a score back in a few seconds.

See more on the Rocket Spanish practice here.

In effect, this practice option helps you to practice comprehension (listening and reading), vocabulary and grammar skills. The random nature keeps it fairly fresh but you will get repeat questions if you use it a lot.

What is in the Rocket Spanish course

If you click the actual course option, you can select stage 1 and stage 2 of the course. The idea is to work you way through the course, starting at stage 1 through to stage 2. Stage 1 is Spanish basics. Stage 2 goes a bit deeper and adds more contextual and cultural aspects to your understanding of the language.

Stage 1 is broken down into individual lessons. For instance, the first lesson in stage 1 is entitled “meeting, greeting, food and drink”. It consists of 7 audio sub-lessons and 7 corresponding written sections that also have audio components to them. Each audio lasts for around 20-30 minutes.

See how does an individual Rocket Spanish lesson work….

In Stage 1 there are 4 main lessons and a certification test at the end. The certification test is a 100 question quiz based on all the lessons you have just taken. Again, it takes a multiple choice format. You need to get 80% of the questions correct to pass to the next stage.

Stage 2 works on the same principles as stage 1, however there are 5 main lessons that break down into smaller sub-lessons. Stage 2 also has a final certification test which you need to pass if you want to  complete the whole course.

Stage 2 also has a download section where you can download the 3 educational games. These games include mega-audio, mega-verb and mega-vocab. Again, these games are a fun way to learn some Spanish. They test your listening and comprehension abilities. Your ability to conjugate verbs. And basic vocabulary recognition.

See more about Rocket Spanish games here.

Rocket Spanish is a good value course if you consider it’s price next to a few other self study courses. It covers a conversational range of Spanish. If you use the course properly, you should have a decent conversational understanding of Spanish. I understand conversational to mean conversing in day to day activities and social occasions. Nothing too heavy.

I’d suggest you won’t be able to have in depth conversations as your vocabulary and cultural understandings will need to be improved. The best way to do this is to talk to Spanish speaking people as often as possible and get a more cultural awareness of Spanish and South American culture. Getting this awareness will come as you talk to more people. Watching Spanish television, films and listening to music will also help. It does take time but it is worth the effort in the long run.

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