So Far, So Good

Class 6 ended the first week of classes. Although it claimed to be a "review" class, it actually did touch on some new material - namely words used put things in order and to describe possession. I feel that after a week of classes we've covered some really useful stuff that allows for basic conversation. It has also taught some more advanced material for those of us who may have already had a little Spanish to work with.

I am enjoying the digressions during which difficult concepts are explained in more detail and with several examples. It makes for a nice mix of informal conversation and formal instruction which is great for people without long attention spans. This quick-paced and dynamic format is excellent for keeping me engaged and focused, often causing me to lose track of time. The classes are not laborious.

When I started working with Rosetta Stone I was excited and often would do marathon sessions (2+ hours); that wore off after about a week and doing the exercises on a daily basis became a chore. I think this was because the amount of information seemed endless --> despite these marathon sessions, and working with the program for just over a month, I still had months worth of material I hadn't seen. On one hand this is great because, although Rosetta Stone is quite expensive, it does give you a lot of meat. There are three main problems though: (1) I would have had to make Rosetta Stone my full time job to get through it all in a reasonable amount of time, (2) it didn't keep me engaged enough to use it on a regular basis, (3) a lot of what it taught was good for formal Spanish instruction, but it didn't prepare me for informal conversation in Buenos Aires - I still felt a little lost when I arrived.

I am interested to see if Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish continues to keep my interest as well as it has so far. It seems like it is going to provide comprehensive exposure to Argentine conversational Spanish in a very manageable amount of time.