One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year is the Fluenz Spanish Latin America language learning software. It is the same idea of Rosetta Stone but better and I've been really enjoying it. You can check them out on their website to get an idea of how it works. I am already half way through the level 1. Mostly because I did take three semesters in college and it is a lot of review/remembering of things for me. When I reviewed the program online I did the German since I have never learned any of it before and wanted to get a good feel for if it would work. I felt like I had to work at it but learned- German would be going slower right now then the Spanish but progressing. Still it is enjoyable, meets my criteria of using native speakers, and I feel like I am getting the basics down faster and faster. Hopefully by posting this here it will commit me to keep going. I really do want to learn- no matter where we have lived there is always someone that speaks Spanish and I want to be able to join the conversation.
The bonus of this is that my kids are now slowly wanting to learn and explore it as well. Jacob chose to do a session today on his own after watching me do them for the last two weeks. I've told the kids I am willing to help them learn whatever language they desire, but the programs are expensive and it's hard to find good ones for younger kids. The other problem is the kids like to switch which language they want to learn a lot so I am waiting for them to have a steady desire for a longer period of time.
That is one of the many projects I have going on right now. I hope everyone had a great Christmas as well. Hasta luego.
