Best Way to Learn Spanish for the Newbie

That's the question Jeannie asked me about learning Spanish. Well, at the time I didn't know the answer, but I was pretty sure there was a better way. And I was determined to find it. Jeannie was my friend and I wanted to help her. So, I did some research and what I discovered was a true learning experience about the good, the bad and the ugly of the Internet as an educational medium. If you want to learn Spanish in the quickest, easiest most cost-effective way possible...then pay attention to the following.

Jeannie made a mistake that 64% of language students make when they want to learn a new language: they take the first thing that comes along. She didn't do any research, she didn't ask for opinions, she just bought a book that caught her eye without investigating it first. And it failed her. But rather than giving up on Spanish, she turned to me for help. So...I began digging.

There are places on the Internet that are so boring nobody seems to visit them, but they're treasure troves of information. These little-known sites are loaded with facts, figures, graphs and other data about various products sold on the Internet. They tell you things like sales volumes and refund rates. So I scoured these sites for info on Spanish courses. But I didn't stop there. Then I went to the forums.

Forums are where you get to hear real unbiased remarks about products, including salty comments like the one above. And that one was directed toward a certain Spanish course. Well, that made me pay attention so, I kindly posed a few questions about the courses available from the Internet. Boy...I got a response. I found that many of the courses that purport to teach you Spanish suffer from problems like these: too expensive, outdated Spanish that no one speaks anymore, too complicated, too boring, no audio files (you can't hear the words being spoken), not comprehensive enough and no guarantee.

But all was not lost. Among all those lumps of coal were a few gems. Five courses stood out. They offered good value for the money and people could really learn a quality amount of Spanish from them. But I thought I could narrow it down even more and I did. I came up with a final figure of two. I don't like to be overly definitive; I like to give people a choice. So I presented Jeannie with two courses, either of which could teach her Spanish reasonably well.

They are moderately priced, teach modern Spanish, they come with audio files so you can hear the words being spoken, allow you to progress at your own pace, take you from beginner to advanced Spanish and come with a satisfaction guarantee.

And these courses are (drum roll, please):

Rocket Spanish is like it sounds; a fast way to learn Spanish. It contains over 12 hours of interactive lessons, a conversation course book, audio-supported grammar books for the beginner and advanced student, over 500 pages of text, over 400 exercises and learning games you can play on your computer. Whew! Sounds intimidating, but it's not. It just all helps the learning process go quickly and smoothly.

You can take a look at Rocket Spanish here.

Learning Spanish Like Crazy took two years to develop. The main section consists of 30 lessons, each 30 minutes long for about 15 hours of lessons; bonus section A contains four more hours of lessons (five if you take digital download); bonus section B has 2 colloquial Spanish or Spanish slang lessons, 43 minutes, by digital download only. Plus there are transcripts for much of it. Yeah...they do want you to go with the digital download route, but they'll burn a CD for you if you really want them to. Now, the thing I find neat about this course is that you really will learn slang or "street" expressions. No, don't expect swear words!

Discover more information about Learning Spanish Like Crazy here.

Will either of these courses give you a complete mastery of Spanish? No, but they will give you a very good grounding in the language. You'll be able to say many important phrases in Spanish and ask some important questions. If you ever find yourself surrounded by Spanish speakers you won't be lost. If you do intend to take Spanish lessons from a teacher this will give you a very good head start. And depending on your ability to learn a new language, you may even become fluent.

By now you might be wondering which course Jeannie chose. Well, I don't want to bias your opinion, so all I'll say is she certainly did make a choice...and she was very happy with her decision.