<p>D is a American M Arch Grad student about to study in Argentina but needs/wants to learn Spanish (only prior language german)- She will be taking classes in English there that will have some spanish language crossover. She is going to live with a host family. Rosetta Stone ?- is it good for written, grammar, conversation? or any other program book or online that would be good? She has about 3 months with a job during the summer to work on it.</p>
<p>Any experience with Rosetta Stone for Spanish?</p>
<p>I like the Pimsleur CDs, which can usually be acquired used for much less than new ones. </p>
<p>Since she has the summer, I’d also suggest that she consider a multifaceted approach: Rosetta Stone (or one of the on-line courses), Pimsleur, finding a buddy who can work with her in Spanish several hours a week, watching some spanish language TV in the evening. The major issue I have with Rosetta stone (and many of the language courses) is that they teach the elements in isolation, which is not how they are vocalized in speech.</p>
<p>I love Rosetta Stone for Spanish. My younger son was doing very badly in Spanish - actually failed last marking period - so I bought RS and made him do it about an hour a day. He got 97 and 100 on his last two tests, after about maybe 15 hours just re-learning the basics on RS.</p>
<p>I’ve been doing it also. I started from the beginning which may have been a mistake, but it’s still been great for me. Can’t wait to get to the second CD.</p>
<p>And my friend who recommended it said that when he went to visit friends in Spain last year he hardly understood anything; this year the same trip was much better.</p>
<p>Just remember that they speak a different Spanish in Argentina- Castellano. It is Spanish with sort of an Italian influence. Some words and pronounciation will be different. Try to find instruction in Latin American Spanish. She will be able to get around Buenos Aires pretty well with no Spanish and will pick up a lot living with people. Can she take a conversational class at the local CC before she goes?</p>
<p>D is probably this summer going to be quite time committed to the “day” job and unable to plan anything else like a scheduled class. I am sending her this thread info. But she is quite the self starter and would take well to online study- the Latin American Spanish is an important point.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Pimsleur is entirely conversation-focused. They are very good, but I would shy away from it for a grad student.</p></li>
<li><p>Argentina does have its own little style of Spanish, but I wouldn’t worry about that. Standard Spanish is perfectly well understood, and anyone with decent standard Spanish will pick up the main Argentinian quirks in a couple of weeks. There is some vocabulary difference, but again not worth worrying about – probably less than British - American, and Brits do fine here. If the worst problem someone has is being laughed at because she does the equivalent of calling a truck a “lorry”, or sneakers “trainers” . . . well, that’s not a big problem.</p></li>
</ol>