New user question about navigating the course

Hello, I am a new user to the program and am a bit confused in which order to proceed. Does one complete all audio lessons in section one before the language and culture sessions. It looks like that by the numbering. Thanks for the help! Mary

Generally speaking, for every Interactive Audio lesson there is a corresponding Language and Culture lesson. In Spanish, lesson 2.1 is "Taking a Tour" and 2.5 "Verbs in the Present Tense" is the corresponding Language and Culture lesson. They usually match up fairly well. They don't always match up 1-1 but this has been my experience.

Robert is correct, and you're right - the numbering is often confusing. Normally you will have an audio lesson which introduces something new (verb tense, comparitative adjective or something like that), and the corresponding Language and Culture lesson will expand on or teach that new part of the language in further detail. I think that it's important to study the corresponding Language lesson right after the audio lesson, as it explains the grammar involved. They don't always match up exactly, but in most cases the new language topic will either have just been covered, or will be very shortly in the audio lesson.

Thank you both for clearing this up- it makes a big difference. So glad I asked!

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I am glad you asked also, Mary. I have to say that figuring out the best way to navigate through the various pieces of the Spanish program was my biggest (really, only) issue with Rocket Languages. I started working my way through the audio lessons and I began wondering about the language and culture pieces. After awhile I finally figured out the loose connection between the two, and am in the process of "catching up." It would have saved me some time and been more efficient, I think, if there was some sort of opening screen when one signs up for a course that gives them some guidance on the best way to proceed; a recommended "study plan." I have reviewed some of the survival kit material and am using some things for reference, but I wonder how they are best incorporated into a study plan.

I don't know the best way either as they don't exactly synchronize with the Interactive and Language and Culture. They seem to be more of an in depth reference. For example, one lesson may be about a visit to the doctor and while it covers a few medical terms and body parts you would need to reference the survival kit to get a more complete, although not comprehensive, list of words you might need to know if you were to go to a hospital. I work them in after a few of the other lessons, just for variety, but i don't think the order is particular dependent, i.e. it wouldn't seem to matter if you learned colors before or after medical terms.

I agree, they are a sort of "reference", and a pretty good one at that. I have printed them out, and keep them together as a nice reference. Acutally I've used them on a few occasions, as they cover a wide range of subjects very well (clothing, food, medical, city life and so forth). While they don't actually do any "teaching" like the Audio lessons and Language and Culture lessons, they are a very nice bonus that comes in handy now and then.

Hello, I am a new user and can't get the software to recognize my microphone. I've been through all the settings recommended and just can't seem to figure it out. Any help?

It could be several things. First, can you use the microphone to record something not in Rocket? If you can, then the problem may be that Rocket needs permission to use your microphone. In the recordings there is a prompt for help. Click on it and you may get a prompt to enable Rocket to use recording. I had that happen to me once. I had lost power and I when I rebooted, my recording wouldn't work. Another thing to try is internal versus external microphone. You didn't say which you were using, but if your internal works and your external doesn't, then that is a clue that the settings for the external aren't right or the microphone doesn't work.

Hi Leigh, Thanks for your post. Our apologies for any trouble caused with your microphone. Byron has already given some helpful advice, and here's some more for you in case you are still having issues. Please try checking the sound settings on your Flash Player by playing some audio, then right clicking on the ROCKETrecord heading (or holding CTRL + click) and selecting "Settings". You can check your microphone levels under the Microphone tab and also see if your microphone is being detected at all. I hope that helps! If not, please contact the Customer Support team for more assistance.

Hola todos como estas New to the program I'm have a few glitches like Having to tap reveal to get the Amy/Mauricio voice when quizzing myself...it's hit and miss in some other situations also...I'm on an Ipad does that explain the issue? Other than a few glitches I'm enjoying the learning process and the attempt at putting to rest the "old dog, new tricks" theory. Thanks for what you do

Hi Mark, thanks for your message. Unfortunately I am not quite sure what you mean, I'm sorry. I recommend using the iOS App on your iPad if you're not already. If you continue to have problems, I encourage you to contact the Customer Support team directly. They keep note of App bugs for the developers, and so should be able to get your particular issue looked into. I hope that helps!

As a follow up to my July 2 post...I noticed that using the App to enter the site limited the tools used to navigate through the study and tests...Entering through the website improved my usage and is a better overall experience when using an ipad... The layout of the program using the App entrance is less user friendly than the website entrance... Hoping this helps someone else in the future Mark

There are severe limitations to both the android and i apps. After pointing this out to the support folks I noticed that somewhere (sorry, can't find it again right now) there was a caveat added to the main web site. Also, Mark, as you proceed thru the Spanish course you'll find some really bad/wrong English translations. Suggest you always have Spanish Dictionary available on your computer when you suspect something's amiss: http://www.spanishdict.com If you don't already, ANKI is a great flash card program to use: http://ankisrs.net/ Cost: free.

Thanks David I'm at the early stages of the program and appreciate any and all advice given...now I'm off to ANKI

You're most welcome, Mark. I speak 5 languages and am a TESL teacher and have found ANKI to be of tremendous help; only wish it had been available when I learned Japanese. One thing I found really helpful was to hire a coach to make sure my pronunciation would not offend Spanish speakers' ears. We just finished five sessions and I'm very pleased with the results. The Spanish "ll" sound is impossible to get right for most folks unless someone is coaching you one-on-one. And, if one speaks French the difference between the sound of words spelled exactly the same in the two languages is a real lulu to sort out. My speed also increased as a direct result too. It's so much easier to get it right when one is starting out rather than when one's errors have become the norm. Keep with Rocket Spanish and ANKI every day; even if you can only spare a few minutes. Daily practice, even on the really bad days, makes a huge difference. Incidentally, you're just a kid :-) Even really old dogs can learn new tricks!

It was interesting to hear David's comments about some really bad Spanish translations. I've been complaining and sending in tickets for some time now on bad German translations. Most of them aren't really horrible, but they often leave out adverbs and adjectives that weren't in the original or sometimes interject words. Once in awhile I do find something that clearly wasn't translated by a native speaker, but instead by someone who is not fluent in both German and English. I would have expected that by now, all lesson texts would have been reviewed by experts which I'm sure could be accomplished fairly quickly by native speakers, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe if enough of us complain, it will happen. That said, I still like the course and am learning from it.

This was working for me, but tried to download it on my Android app and that was unsuccessful. Then went back to the computer and every word/sound no longer has a place to click on so I can hear the phrase/sound, and each now has been replaced with "download". What is the deal? Now neither app nor computer allow me to hear how to pronounce words. Tried restarting program and computer, but no improvement. Can you help? Is this a different topic?

<p>Hi Jan,</p><p>I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble with the audio in your course. &nbsp;The recent Flashplayer updates have been causing a few issues for our members, but there are some things you can try to get it working again. &nbsp;Firstly, please make sure that your version of Adobe Flashplayer is up to date. &nbsp;Next, make sure that the internet browser you use is also up to date. &nbsp;If the audio is not working even after updating your browser and Flashplayer, I'd recommend trying the course on a different browser. &nbsp;We have found that Google Chrome and Firefox are the most reliable browsers to use with our course. &nbsp;</p><p>I hope this helps! &nbsp;If not, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support team for further assistance.</p>

I am unable to generate voice recognition on me iPad. Rocket has not requested permission in my iPad settings. Can you help?