Lessons or tutor for Rocket Spanish users?

Hello, new here. 22 days in to Rocket Spanish. Seems like I made a good choice but I have some troubles. Not remembering material I have gone over and freezing and not being able to recall material I have been over. I suspect this is common and just needs more work on the lessons and repetition.

Wondering if anyone knows where I can find classes or tutor that works with people studying Rocket Spanish? I think I also need to find some way to find a place or places to practice Spanish where I live.

I am taking a trip to Cuenca, Ecuador in a few weeks. If I don't hear from anyone here about classes or tutor I'll try Italki or Preply. Would like to get some lessons in before my trip in the hopes it helps me to speak un poco.

There are some flash card programs you can use if you don't find the flash cards in the program all that helpful.

Anki is a very popular (and free unless you want the iPhone app, which has a one time charge) and IMO very effective. It remembers how well you knew an answer and that determines how often you see it. I might see it again in 15 minutes (especially with new things I didn't even recognize) or it might be 3.3 months. Lately I have even been suspending some cards as I knew them perfectly (pretty sure I am not going to forget azul, perro or zapato, etc). You can search on Anki and there are some decks that might be especially helpful for Rocket Spanish. 

So I do the Rocket Spanish I want to do that day and then sometime later that day (may be right away, may be while I am on the elliptical or whatever) I do the Anki deck. In the begining it took me 10 minutes, but now I am suspending some as it is taking me 30-40 minutes to do the 9 modules (I am in module 1 of Level 2) I now have loaded into my copy of Anki.  

How I study Rocket Spanish is I go through the lessons as presented. I use every opportunity to speak in the program (including in the Write it! section) and I keep doing all the reinforcement tools (even the flash cards) until I have no hesitation with them (they get “easy” when I can answer quickly and correctly - then you never see it again unless you reset).  I sometimes don't move forward to the next lesson in the module until I am pretty confident, but sometimes I get bored with that and move on to the next lesson but keep reviewing the old lessons until it is at least all green (and in the perfect world, all marked easy). When I get done with a module, I used to reset every Know It! lesson and review it, but with using Anki as an adjunct, I found I didn't need to do that. 

Love Alme's advice - especially don't push too hard. You want this to be fun (unless you need it for work or something) and something you do for some time (until you get to the level you want and can maintain it).

Good luck!

Thanks for the tips and encourangement Alme and Scott_C. Letting the suggestions sink in. 

Edit: I am going to be in Cuenca, Ecuador for a scouting trip first 2 weeks of May.

My advice:

Ben, studying a language is not really compatible with “learning to say some things” and right now you really just want to learn to say some things before your trip. Forget the lessons for now. Decide on any number of things that you'd like to be able to say and use a translator to figure how to say them. Listen to the translator's pronunciation and use your Rocket Spanish recorder to record and playback (hopefully you're using a desktop version and can listen to yourself). You can also use the Rocket Search function using the translator's output as input - you might get lucky.

Keep it simple and don't try to get fancy.

1. 1) Hello, good bye, please and thank you and any other politeness according to local custom. A simple, “Hello Sir”, can have a big impact.
2. 2) “May I have that please.” along with your index finger with get you just about anything anywhere. Bakery, deli, menu item  …  .
3. 3) "I'm sorry I speak very little Spanish."
4. 4) “Where is …  .” (anything you might be looking for, and just pray they can answer you in English).
5. 5) Wanna go next level? Keep it simple. “May I sit on the patio?” “I'm an …..  . Please don't hate me.” “Goodbye. See you later.”

Work on your pronunciation. It makes a huge difference! Unintelligible is really annoying. And, no, it is not enough to try.  ‘Just trying’, especially confidently, sounds more like mocking. A polite greeting followed by a couple of sentences to introduce yourself/your needs (depending on the situation), if properly pronounced, even with your accent, will really turn the tide in your favor. And try not to cry when someone asks you if you'd like the directions in Spanish or English.

Practice your chosen Spanish on anyone who will listen all the time. They don't need to understand. You're just trying to get over the stage fright. You don't want it to feel like you're talking to an audience at the Apollo. It will.

Bon courage et bon voyage.

Robert

Hi Ben

I use Coffee Break languages. I have subscribed to some of the languages, but the podcasts are all free. So if you go to Coffee Break Languages and click on podcasts. They start you right from the beginning, typically 20 minutes. No speaking, but I like their lessons. Very practical at best.

Not sure if that helps

Maxie

RobertC106 yes the focus right now is definitly to learn some travel Spanish and get used to using translator.

“Lo siento, hablo muy poco español.” Ect. Plus the polite phrase are likely to be a big plus. …por favor and Gracias…. I will try and probably wish I had started sooner.

We all wish we'd started sooner.

Try surfing the Audio Lessons in your Rocket Spanish. Ignore the audio bits and concentrate on the Play It's. Look for coversational situations that you think might be relevant. No point in rehearsing wedding planning. Use the switch to toggle the English/Spanish text for the Play It in order to challenge yourself.  Make a list of lessons that interest you and hit up the sentences as often as you can throughout the day. The audios and the recorder are  really valuable resources. Just don't let the recorder get to you. Be your own judge vs. the audio. Don't try to cram. Better to learn a small amount really well.

You might find that the most discouraging part of the experience is how well people speak English.

I have looked at Coffee Break Spanish and the thing that turned me off is it is España Spanish. That is, they use Vosotros, use vocabulary used in Spain and use the pronunciation used in Spain. All of this can be quite different from Spanish spoken south of the USA border. Certainly understandable in most circumstances, but it just added a level of complexity for me. 

Also, hearing Spanish taught by a guy with a Scotish accent is just so jarring for me. I have Scottish relatives, so maybe that is part of the hangup!

Unfortunately, I have not found an equivalent podcast (the Coffee Break folks do seem to do a good job). I wish I could find a podcast I could practice my listening skills (by far my weakest area) while also learning.  I have listened to the Duolingo Podcast, but it is not a teaching podcast, but rather a place to only practice listening intermediate Spanish. I like it because it doesn't translate, but the English speaker summarized key points. I am an advanced beginner, so I catch phrases and sometimes sentences and on rare occasions, the jist of an entire Spanish segment,  so it can be frustrating, but also empowering (on those rare occasions).

Hi Scott and All

I like the practicality of Coffee Break. We all have accents and dialects. In the U.K alone there are several and in Germany Bavarian is different to others too. I am more likely to go to Spain than South America, so am quite happy to learn European Spanish.  So maybe it is disconcerting to listen to Mark Scottish guy) teaching Spanish, but I am still learning from him. And with Rocket I get native speakers, so doesn't matter. 

I like that it is practical everyday stuff. From Greetings to reservations and ordering food. For my German, I have found it very helpful and more practical for actually using German in Germany. That said, Rocket is very good for Vocabulary and for getting me used to speaking, but a lot I would not be useful in Germany. We leave on the 31st May for 3 weeks, so am working hard at my German and Spanish and Italian is lagging a bit. 

All things told, I find using different options great, as creates a rounded experience Coffee Break Tv is also really good with various challenges and you get French, German, Spanish and Italian. A subscription. Native speakers explaining it all. 

At the end of the day, I am passionate about learning languages. So try and get the most out of many different progarams.

Maxie

Happy learning All

I live in Texas, thus my focus on south of the US Spanish. Maybe I will listen again as now my Spanish is more sophisticated then when I looked at Coffee Break and I was a very beginner.

I lived in Germany for 3 years, so spoke some German and you are exactly right about Bavaria! Even the Germans would comment on their accent, etc. I guess much like we find Georgia's accent to be tough to understand at times.  In fact I had a personal experience in Berlin one time.  I asked for something in German at a market and the lady says, “Ish, ish, vas ist ish?” (spelled out sort of phonetically) Then she called me a farmer. I learned German in the Eifel region (near Trier), which is very “country” for Germany and I learned to say “Ish” rather than “Ick” (and much more).

Enjoy your trip Maxie!

Thanks AI22, an excellent resource. Unfortunatley my listening is not at their level yet, but I am keeping that one as it looks like an excellent podcast when I get there.

HI Scott

You have made me smile. People can be so arrogant and intolerant. I have a pen friend that lives near Hanover and she speaks high German and has made comments about Bavarian German. It is quite funny really. The Brits look down on various accent, colonial and even in their own country.

My husband reckons Brazilian Portuguese is not Portuguese. I just laugh and say get over yourself.

Mozambican Portuguese is different in a certain way.

I have been to Trier. Explored the Roman ruins. We were staying in Koblenz, drove down the Mossel and back to Koblenz. Next day drove along the Rhine to Mainz. At this stage we have plans to go to the Dresden area. For hiking. have asked the other 5 to tell us what they want to see. So wait for that. I am happy to go anywhere. I get to practice my German, which is a big plus.

Have a great day

Maxie

I was travelling through Louisiana years ago and stopped at a service station to ask directons. The man was very nice and was really going out of his way to tell me everything that I needed to know. The only problem was, although I knew he was speaking English, I couldn't understand anything he was saying - Cajun was my guess. I knew right away it was hopeless so I just listened politely and when he stopped talking I thanked him and left none the wiser.

It was a really interesting experience and the only way it could have been more humorous is if he had been pulling my leg like the woman from Québec who makes videos of her deliberately messing with people in France by speaking French while using expressions that the French have never heard. She thinks it's hilarious when they apologise for not understanding her.

Maxie - drank plenty of Rieslings grown on the Mosel as our base was right there (13 miles away) and my last F-16 ride we followed the path of the Mosel and enjoyed the views (awesome!). 

Robert - When we were moving to Lousiana, we had the exact same experience. Asked a guy how the fishing was (we were at a Bayou) and none of us understood a word of his reponse. He never smiled or looked back at us as we walked away, so I think he spoke to us in Cajun and had done it so many times he was smiling on the inside.

AI22 - You are right, I have gotten through all the Module 8 lessons. I like your idea of 5 minutes. That doesn't seem so overwhelming. I might also slow the podcast down (75% maybe) and then speed it back up when I am understanding the first 5 minutes. I really like this idea, thanks!

For your podcast listening pleasure, have you ever tried just having it on as background noise rather than listening intently? I find that one of the biggest obstacles to listening comprehension is what I do understand.  Realizing that I understood something tends to distract from what follows. When listening subconsciously, the things I understand tend to be more of a blip than a distraction. The overall process is more absorption than listening and I find it easier to catch entire phrases and sentences as thoughts rather then trying to parse word by word.  We can't even parse what someone is saying in our native tongue word for word unless they're speaking very carefully and being very selective in their choice of words. It's essential for us to overcome this tendency to try to parse - eventually.  Also, you can listen to something repeatedly without getting fatigued.

Robert

Another interesting idea! I always listen to a podcast while working out or driving, but I find I drift in and out of hardcore listening. I used to think if I wasn't listening hard to the Spanish, I was wasting my time. But I will give this a try!

Definitely a place for that, Scott. Thanks to the revised grammar lessons in RF there are plenty of sentences that I'm not familiar with. I always start those lessons by listening to the sentences without looking at the text (I wish we could just toggle it off). I'll listen to a sentence over and over if necessary. Obviously, the more of a sentence I can grasp right off the bat, the more likely that I'll be able to discern what the other words might be. So, when you listen to a narrative, it doesn't matter so much if you can catch every word as long as you can make some sense of the chunks of words. Imagine if you could get into a meditative state where you were just seeing images rather than hearing words. Each time you listen to the narrative, the images are clearer and you're better able to get more of the overall picture (jigsaw puzzle).

Robert

Robert

I also listen to the lessons with the narrative without reading it. I often find I get the gist of the narrative and usually understand completely many of the sentences. Speed is still an issue for me - my brain is still processing what was just said and they are already moving on to the next sentence, but nothing like when I listen to an all Spanish podcast or show. With these lessons, they know what we have learned so far, so they obviously tailor the lesson around that.

I agree with what you said, it is important to not fixate on word by word translations but rather understanding what is being said. 

Scott

Oops, looks liek Alme said don't translate word by word! 

AI22 - The Joel Z resource was awesome.  I love the “high beginner to intermediate" target. It is awesome that he does 4 easier podcasts followed by 2 tougher episodes. The pace feels unaturally slow (even in English), which is perfect for me! Thanks!!

One thing that intrigues me is asking yourself what it is that you're listening for ; the Spanish (in your case), or the English within the Spanish. The French Travelogues narratives always begin with some variation on Bienvenue dans les leçons (Welcome to the lessons). The English is a no-brainer, but I was forever being distracted right off the bat by the use of the preposition dans (which normally means in) instead of something more obvious like aux leçons (to the lessons). So, eventually I researched it and found out there are several prepositions used after Bienvenue depending on the context.

The point being that there may be more than one effort being made with listening comprehension depending on what you're trying to accomplish. Are you just trying to get the jist of what's being said, which is perfectly reasonable, or are you at the same time, trying to learn how to say what you're hearing, in which case, you'd have to understand it on a different level. There can be so many things going on in your head at the same time, you might have to make an effort to filter some of it out - by just listening mindlessly sometimes, for example.

Robert

Hi All

In all the Rocket languages that I am doing, I find doing the sentences and conversations makes for comfortable speaking and also feels natural. There is one particular Italian conversation where I just could not say this specific word. Was liteterally like I tongue twister and when I attempted it, it just made me laugh. A few in German too. That said with repeated efforts, I now find them effortless. 

So I think it is a combination of many things. So many facets to learning a new language. I listen to Easy Italian news and get quite a kick out of it when I do recognize words and believe me there are many that I don't. 

Happy learning 

Maxie

Robert - I try hard not to translate in my head but rather get the gist of what was said. In fact, the Joel podcasts I often understand (not just the gist) what is being said, at least in his breakfast series thus far. When they moved up to the Intermediate-Advanced level, Joel asks the question in almost the same way he does in the advanced beginner podcast, so that is easy. But the answer feels like full speed, probably simplified answers. There I am getting the gist.

I sometimes find my mind wanders when I am understanding well and answer the question myself in Spanish, which I also think is OK.

Maxie - I also have some tongue twisters in Spanish and I agree with you. At first, they are hard and I often have to break the word apart (using the Pimsleur idea - I say the last syllable, then add on the second to last, etc.). Eventually I get an old phrase come up in my non-Rocket flash card deck and I think to myself, “I remember when this was really hard to say!"

I tried Easy Spanish News a while back (probably 6 months) but I quit as I struggled to get the gist even. I should go back as my Spanish comprehension is improved.

A lot of great suggestions. I will use some.

I am in Cuenca. Just arrive two days ago. I will start taking lessons at Yanapuma Spanish School school. I will be paying $6.5 for group lessons. We have two people in a group as right now. There are a few other schools in Cuenca that you can choose from. 

Good luck,

Oxsana

Hello and welcome! It's great to hear that you've chosen Rocket Spanish as your language learning program. It's not uncommon to experience difficulties with remembering and recalling material when learning a new language. The key is to practice and reinforce what you've learned through repetition and regular exposure to the language.

To find classes or a tutor that specifically works with Rocket Spanish, you can try reaching out to Rocket Languages directly. They may have recommendations or resources to support your learning journey. Additionally, you mentioned considering Italki and Preply, which are online platforms where you can find language tutors. They offer a wide range of tutors who can provide personalized lessons based on your needs and goals.

In terms of finding places to practice Spanish where you live, you can explore language exchange meetups, local community centers, or cultural events that cater to Spanish speakers or language learners. Connecting with native speakers or fellow Spanish learners can greatly enhance your language skills and provide valuable opportunities for conversation practice.

Before your trip to Cuenca, Ecuador, it's a great idea to take some lessons to improve your speaking skills. Practicing with a tutor or language partner can boost your confidence and help you communicate effectively during your trip.

Remember to be consistent in your learning efforts and don't get discouraged by any challenges you encounter along the way. With dedication and practice, you'll make progress in your Spanish language journey. ¡Buena suerte!