best spanish course?

hotcookie101

I would like to learn spanish before my trip to Mexico in 6months. Ideally I would like something I can do interactively on my computer, including maybe testing my pronunciation, but also listen to on my iphone when out and about. I have tried Rosetta Stone in the past, but to be honest, found it a little basic (having learnt languages in school I think I want to be able to do whole sentences but Rosetta stone just seems to be words, no grammer or verbs iykwim?) but that may be because I was on the basic levels, but I cannot afford £300 for a complete course

I saw this on amazon-does anyone have any experiences of it? It is quite old, and I am happy for a general spanish, not mexican.

Oh and I use a macbook, not windows.

Oh and I have no idea if this was the best board for this, so BG please move if you think it would be better somewhere else?

Voyager2002

Firstly, there is really not that much difference between Spanish in Spain and in Latin America (except that in America they don't lisp, nor do they do so in Southern Spain and the Canaries).

Secondly, I strongly advise you to visit your local public library (or the main library serving the town where you live). Most libraries have a vast selection of materials for learning Spanish: try them out and perhaps buy one that you find really helps you. Remember that audio supplied on CD can very easily be imported into iTunes: there are also ways of digitising material on audio cassette, although that is less convenient.

Have a look at the Open University's Foundation stage Spanish course, which is excellent, but might be a little advanced for you at the moment. Otherwise, I have recent positive experiences with courses using the Pimsleur and Michel Thomas methods, although these are purely spoken rather than using written material and so might not be what you need.

rubia1409_2

Have a look on something like Gumtree and see if you can find a tutor in your area. Often foreign students will do some tutoring to earn a bit of extra money.

budgetflyer

http://www.spanish-is-easy.com/Marcus-Santamaria.html by Marcus Santamaria are a brilliant set of courses.

You can download to try b4 u buy too

Bob_the_Saver

http://www.euroresidentes.com/euroresiuk/golf/golf-courses-spain.htm

hartcjhart

another vot for Michel Thomas,also try here

http://www.notesinspanish.com/

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/learn-spanish-with-the-independent-1831558.html

this one is apparently 'latin american spanish'

http://www.byki.com/fls/FLS.html

and a load more here

http://www.costaalmeria.com/forums/learning-spanish.html

madtrekker

You said that you had an iPhone - go to iTunes and look up "coffee break Spanish" podcast. It's very good, and it's free. It's won quite a few awards I think too. It's been going a few years so there are quite a few episodes now but each one is only 10 or 15 minutes long.

McAzrael

Michel Thomas is brilliant once you get used to his bizarre accent. He's moved around a bit.

He teaches grammar first, vocab second - the reverse to most CDs.

poor_johno

Get hold of Pimsleur Spanish Level one.

Takes 30 mins a day; I do it on my commute. I guarantee you’ll be speaking Spanish by the time you go.


It is Latin American Spanish but I have used what I have learnt in Spain and its been fine

angelahorn

The kids and I have been using https://www.duolingo.com for some extra
French practice recently, and we're all getting along very well with
it. It's free, and you can do French, German or Spanish at present.
There are lessons that you work through - you listen to sound clips
and type them out in the language, or translate from English to
French. You can test out of any level if you think you're good
enough. I think it would be good practice for exams because it's a
stickler for getting everything right and it's all automatically
checked there and then. I wish it had been around when I was doing
GCSE French years ago. There is a 'skill tree' where you can see
yourself advancing through levels and gaining points, and you can
compete with others, follow other people, etc.. I like this - it's
like a game and I was surprised to find myself regressing to about 10
years old and wanting to earn points quickly by doing more French! I
am using the 'follow' function to keep track of how much work my kids
are doing on it.
Another feature is that Duolingo is trying to crowd-source a human
translation of web pages, so you can participate in this project even
from the early stages of language learning and translate simple
sentences from real web pages, then your answer is compared to other
people's in an effort to find a consensus.

There are reviews here:
http://www.fluentin3months.com/duolingo/

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428330/startup-has-language-learners-translating-the-web/

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402570,00.asp

gfplux

I would also reccomend free podcasts on iTunes.
Just put in a search.
Do note that there is some differences in the Spanish spoken in Europe and that in Mexico.
My daughter speaks Spanish to quite a high standard but has met girls from Mexico in London who she has great difficulty understanding.