Learn Spanish Easily At Home

The Rocket Spanish program is another option that is a bit more flexible. This program was created by Mauricio Evlampieff of Chile. Mauricio discovered that many high school and college level Spanish classes, as well as independent study courses, were limited by the type of outdated "textbook" Spanish they taught. This Spanish was most definitely not the colloquial Spanish spoken among native speakers of the language.

The course that Mauricio designed features a number of different modules for speaking, writing, and reading Spanish, and includes some language learning games as well. The program can be conveniently downloaded from the Internet for instant access, or if you prefer, you can pay a shipping charge to have CDs sent directly to your home. If getting the best deal is your primary goal, the downloadable version is the best choice since it costs only about one third of the price of the hard copy CD version.

Learning Spanish Like Crazy, which was developed by Patrick Johnson, is another wonderful basic Spanish language program. As a non-native Spanish speaker, Patrick discovered that the Spanish he learned through language programs did not provide him with the necessary knowledge to speak the kind of Spanish he was hearing in a real life setting in Latin America.

After spending time in South America and becoming fluent in the Spanish language, Patrick made it his project to correct what was lacking in the available Spanish language learning programs. Learning Spanish Like Crazy, like Rocket Spanish, focuses primarily on conversational Spanish and can also be downloaded instantaneously from the Internet. It can also be purchased and shipped to you as a CD set.

As someone who is budget conscious, I recommend downloading either Learning Spanish Like Crazy or Rocket Spanish. If you would like to have a hard copy for yourself, you can simply use your own CD burner and make your own copies for far less money once you have downloaded the program to your computer. Also, if you have an MP3 player or iPod, you will be able to upload audio files to these devices so that you'll have access to your Spanish language lessons at any time.

Throughout the years I've had the opportunity to try upwards of a dozen or more different Spanish language learning programs, but the three that are detailed in this article are hands down the best when it comes to learning Spanish easily at home through self study. If you want to learn the language as quickly as possible, my recommendation is to use Rosetta Stone in conjunction with Learning Spanish Like Crazy or Rocket Spanish. These programs provide complementary instruction to maximize the effectiveness of your self study. You can use Rosetta Stone at home on your computer, and take the other programs with you to listen to audio modules while you are walking, jogging, or commuting to work each day.

Audio Spanish lessons offer the adaptability of learning Spanish or keeping up your existing Spanish abilities while performing many of your daily routines. You can learn the Spanish language while at the same time doing a number of other tasks.

I've used Spanish audio tapes or MP3 files while performing wood working, yard work, jogging, walking, driving my car, and commuting on the train. With the growth in popularity of MP3 players, you can take your audio Spanish lessons with you wherever you go if you select a Spanish audio program that makes their audio files open to you in the MP3 format.

Audio Spanish lessons let you multi task, therefore leveraging your time. Learn Spanish while ironing, cooking, doing the wash, cleaning, gardening, commuting, or taking a daily walk for exercise.

However, you need to know that all programs offering audio Spanish lessons are not equal. I have experienced audio lessons that simply read listings of Spanish words or phrases out of any conversational context. These are the less expensive programs that promise a lot, but do not truly deliver and make language learning appear so tricky. They are rote memorization drill type programs that are obsolete in today's market. There are a lot of better programs available.

Two high quality programs that have hit the market over the past couple of years are Rocket Spanish and Learning Spanish Like Crazy. Each program can be downloaded from the Internet for immediate use or available on CDs sent at once to your door. Both programs also put the spotlight on conversational Spanish as it is basically spoken today in Latin America versus the more classical academic approach that is often quite different from what you'll experience using Spanish in the real world.

In addition to the audio modules which can be used separately, Rocket Spanish also includes some interactive language learning games, for example the MegaVocab, MegaAudio, and MegaVerbs software learning games that make Spanish language learning fun.

Both Rocket Spanish and Learning Spanish Like Crazy involve you instantly in conversational Spanish. There are no long vocabulary lists to learn but instead you get to use the language in context instantly. You learn the vocabulary and verb tenses as you go.

The Rosetta Stone series of language learning programs supply a wonderful PC based interactive learning experience and can help build up a solid fondation over a period. However, if you need to be ready to begin using your new language and get to a conversational level quickly, you'll be disappointed. Nonetheless, if you combine Rosetta Stone with one of the more conversationally focused programs observed above, then you'll have the best of two worlds and learning Spanish should come fast.

With the success of these three programs, many of the older long established language learning programs are redesigning their systems to be more interactive and user friendly. However, a note of warning is in order. I have purchased several cheaper foreign language learning programs only to be disappointed. They either suffered from the list or phrase memorization problem or they were PC based programs that were making an attempt to imitate Rosetta Stone's highly successful program. They failed totally. They were either extraordinarily clunky, even silly in a number of cases, or contained countless blunders. The experience was very upsetting.

The audio Spanish lessons offered by the Pimsleur Spanish language programs are also superb if enhanced with Spanish language games and Spanish language reading lessons. Without regard for the claims made in their advertisements, Pimsleur doesn't teach you the simplest way to read Spanish while the three programs I mentioned above include reading Spanish as a part of their programs.