IMPORTANT: If you were looking for the official Rocket Spanish website, CLICK HERE.

I am becoming a Spanish-speaker! That might not seem like a very earth-shattering statement to you, but to me it is remarkable. As a member of the baby boom generation, I have always wanted to master another language besides my native English, but it seems that things have conspired against me for more than fifty years of my life. Now, thanks to Rocket Spanish, I don’t have to think of learning Spanish as something I will do ’someday’. I am doing it now, and I couldn’t be more pleased and proud.

So, if I wanted it so badly for so many years, why did it take me so long? It seems that I met with one obstacle after another as time went by. When I was young, there was no real opportunity to learn a second language in my rural community. Almost everyone I knew looked, acted and spoke just like me. In high school I was able to take a class in German (the only language that was offered).  It was an entertaining class and I enjoyed learning Christmas carols and tavern songs in German, but I really did not come away with anything close to fluency.

In college I concentrated on class work that would help me become certified as an elementary teacher, and at that time Spanish skills were not considered marketable for any parts of the US but California or Texas. So, while I was always tempted by the language courses I saw on the class schedule, my practical nature led me to enroll in extra child development and education courses instead.

As a young teacher I finally had an opportunity to see just how useful it would be to be able to communicate in Spanish. I had a summer job for several years that involved teaching the children of migrant workers who followed the crops north each year. For six weeks, I worked with youngsters who spoke Spanish at home and in their regular schools in the border states where they lived during the winter. I was fascinated by their beautiful accents and the way that children as young as three could converse in English and Spanish with equal ease.

I joined the rest of the staff of our migrant education program for Spanish lessons that were held for ½ hour each morning before the students arrived. The teacher attempted to equip us with some basic phrases that would help us communicate with our young charges, and I did learn some colors, numbers, and greetings. It was rather discouraging, however, when I attempted to practice my new vocabulary with the preschool children in my class only to have them giggle at my efforts and correct my pronunciation.

As embarrassed as I felt, I still longed for the ability to speak with my students and their parents in their native language. I was fascinated by their traditions, food, and music which they shared with us at a fiesta at the end of the program each year. I had many questions I would have loved to ask, and even though most of the adults spoke English well, I knew they would have been more comfortable with me if I could have conversed in Spanish.

During those summers, I made up my mind that I would learn to speak Spanish. I wanted to visit Mexico, Central America, and even Spain, and I wanted to do it as a Spanish-speaker. I knew enough to realize it would not be easy, but I was sure that I would be able to find a way to master the beautiful language I admired so much.

Visit the Official Rocket Spanish Website!

Well, I soon became a wife, then a mother of four children in five years, and my goal of language acquisition had to be put on hold. For about twenty years the only foreign languages I learned were those spoken by babbling infants and slang-talking teens. I spent years as a teacher, instructing English-speaking children in reading and grammar. The only new subjects I studied were those taught in workshops designed to keep my classroom skills sharp. My travels consisted of journeys to watch sporting events and music concerts featuring my offspring, and a few family vacations to parks-both the national and amusement varieties.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my time as a mom and a school teacher, and I wouldn’t trade those years for anything. But there just wasn’t a lot of time for me to pursue a personal goal like the study of Spanish. If I had known about Rocket Spanish during those years, I would have definitely taken advantage of its offerings, but as it was, I simply kept the idea of becoming a Spanish speaker in the back of my head. I read books with a Latino flavor whenever I could. I enjoyed meals at a local family-owned Mexican restaurant and practiced pronouncing the menu items in my head. I also became a fan of salsa music and travel websites while biding my time.

Then one day, I had a revelation. My nest was empty! I was not required to be present at every basketball game that was held in my county! I retired from teaching and was no longer restricted to traveling as the school calendar dictated. There were long stretches of time when no one in my family required anything from me at all. Even my workaholic hubby seemed interested in getting away more often. I could finally set my sights on taking some of the vacation trips I had dreamed about for so long. My time to learn Spanish had arrived.

After experiencing this epiphany, I started looking at my options for ways to study the language. Maybe some of you have gone through this same thought process, and can identify with my search. Here are some of the choices I considered.

• Spanish classes offered at my local community college. Being a rather traditional member of my generation, this was one of the first sources I looked at. After all, I had grown up believing that a school was the place to go if I wanted to acquire knowledge. I realized after reading the course descriptions that college night school classes would not be a good choice for me, however. I would be required to attend class two evenings a week for four months, and that would only give me “a rudimentary foundation” in Spanish. This was much slower progress than I wanted to make.

I knew that I would become frustrated with trying to stick to a strict schedule of lessons, only to be expected to learn at the same pace as a whole classroom full of other people who were very likely to have a wide range of abilities in Spanish. I liked the idea of having other students to interact with, but did not relish the necessity of slowing down or speeding up my own pace in order to accommodate them. I also knew that it would be difficult to attend all the class sessions. After all, I retired from teaching partly so that I could be free from having to live my life on a schedule.

• Hiring a private tutor. A friend of mine said she learned French very rapidly using this method, so I took the time to investigate tutors in my area. I did find one or two, but found that they presented some of the same drawbacks as college classes. Even though I could expect to progress at my own rate, I would still be required to stick to a schedule of tutoring sessions, and the teacher I liked best had a policy of charging students for the lessons whether they actually took place or not.

I can totally appreciate why a person giving private instructions would need this policy…if she is committed to being available at a certain time, she does not want her client to leave her high and dry with no compensation for her time. But, when I considered the price tag of more than $40/hour and understood that I would have to pay that even if I wanted to be gone for a week to visit my grandkids or something, I decided there must be a better option for me.

• Buying a set of CDs. I have long been a fan of audio books, and am well aware of the advantages of learning new information while driving or exercising. Over the years I’ve purchased audio discs in order to learn about financial topics like investments, or to examine subjects in the self-help area such as reducing stress or getting a better night’s sleep. Therefore, it was only natural for me to see what was offered as Spanish instruction in an audio format.

There were plenty of options available, but as an educator, I was not very impressed with the quality of the materials. Everything I saw in my local bookstore seemed to consist of a lot of drills and memorization, and there was very little that would help me learn how to read or write in Spanish. I might learn some vocabulary lists and put together a few basic sentences, but I didn’t see how I would really be able to use my Spanish in the real world without a more comprehensive approach.

• . When I began to search online for Spanish instructional materials, I came across several web-based programs. I knew then that I had hit on something that would give me the flexibility to work at my own speed along with a balanced educational philosophy that would aid me in learning to speak, listen, write and read in my target language.

I was very pleased to discover that several well known educators had studied Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and recommended it as an effective way to learn a second language. You can read a more in-depth article on this subject elsewhere on this website.  For now, let’s just say that I was sold on the prospect of learning Spanish by using a web-based program. It would allow me to interact with other students online, take the material with me wherever I went, and participate in educationally sound lessons to enhance my learning. Now, all that I needed to do was decide which program to use.

Visit the Official Rocket Spanish Website!

At this point in our discussion, it occurs to me that not all of my readers will have the same deep-seated, lifelong yearning to learn Spanish that grips me. Maybe you have never really thought about becoming fluent in a second language, but now have the curiosity about doing so for one reason or another. In case you are still waffling about whether or not you even want to make the commitment to study Spanish, here are some facts that you might find interesting.

• There are nearly 500 million people around the world who speak Spanish! This is up from just 60 million at the end of the 19^th century.
• Spanish is the principle language in at least 25 different countries.
• In the US, 12.5% of the population is now Hispanic. That’s 35.5 million people who comprise the largest minority in the country. Three out of four of these folks report Spanish is their primary language.
• The United States has the fifth largest Hispanic population in the world, trailing only Mexico, Columbia, Argentina, and Spain itself.

As you can see, the language is growing by leaps and bounds, and knowing it can be of great benefit to you in a myriad of ways. If you are interested in acquiring a second language, but can?t decide which one to study, you can’t go wrong by choosing Spanish.

What about people who have not had the kinds of life experiences that have influenced my desire to learn Spanish? The truth is, there are many valid reasons for studying a second language, and they fall into two main areas: Personal Fulfillment and Professional Advantages. Let’s take a look at them one at a time.

Professional Enhancements:

• Because Spanish is spoken in so many countries, businesses are frequently looking for employees who are bilingual. If you know Spanish, you may have a leg up on other applicants when seeking a job, and may be more likely to get a promotion or a new prestigious assignment in your current position.
• Attracting new clients, working with colleagues, closing sales deals, and providing customer service are all areas where the knowledge of Spanish can be helpful, if not vital.
• Employees who know more than one language can often branch out of traditional jobs in the business sector and find opportunities to work in government, tourism, the non profit sector or global organizations like the UN or the Red Cross.
• Learning a second language often has the surprising benefit of making the student better at communicating in his native tongue as well. Language study tends to make the learner more aware of grammar and sentence structure, which transfers to better skills with his or her first language, and that, is a good thing in just about every profession.

Personal Benefits:

• Numerous studies have shown that studying a second language enhances the brain function of a student. For example, if you are young enough to have the college entrance exams still in front of you, you should know that students in two studies who had at least a year of second language instruction scored statistically higher on the verbal portion of the SAT than those who had not studied language.
• Older Spanish students like me should be aware that learning a second language, even if mastery is never attained, can be very beneficial in slowing or even stopping many of the age-related disorders that plague older adults. Dr Andrew Weil, author of Healthy Aging and contributor to Good Morning America on ABC believes that ‘by learning a foreign language we can reduce the risks of getting some of the most common age-related symptoms and diseases such as memory loss and Alzheimer’s.’ He says this is because language learning forges new pathways in the brain that keep it healthy and functioning at its best.
• Likewise, a study by Tel Aviv University’s Herczeg Institute for Aging found that the cognitive state of older adults’ brains was better in those folks who were multilingual as opposed to those who knew only one language.
• Besides benefits to your brain and health, language learning can greatly enhance the pleasures of life. Travel to other countries is less stressful and more enjoyable if you can converse with natives.
• Cultural treasures can be more fully appreciated with some understanding of the native tongue of the artist, writer, or musician who created them.
• You will often be perceived by peers and new acquaintances as sophisticated, chic, intelligent, and worldly if you can speak two languages.

After reading all my irrefutable evidence about the advantages of learning a new language and the benefits of knowing Spanish in particular, I hope you are convinced that embarking on a quest to become a Spanish-speaker is a good thing to do. Now, I intend to show you why I believe Rocket Spanish is the very best tool you can use to help you along your way.

As I said earlier, I did a lot of research before I decided which approach I wanted to take. When I realized that a Computer Assisted Language Learning program was the way I wanted to go, I still had to choose between many programs on the market. I looked them all over carefully, and picked Rocket Spanish as the best system for me. Now that I have been using it for a couple of months, I have to say I?m very happy with my decision. It follows sound educational principles, is flexible, portable, instantly available, interactive, and uses a multi-media approach. Take a look at some of the many reasons why I?m sold on Rocket Spanish.

Visit the Official Rocket Spanish Website!

As a trained teacher I know that the more the five senses of a student are engaged, the better the comprehension of the subject matter. This means that merely listening or reading is not enough to truly cement a new language into our minds. We need to hear it, see it, write it, speak it, and interact in it in order to achieve fluency. Rocket Spanish understands this principle and employs many different methods of study that all combine for an effective learning experience. Take a look at the components of RS and the ways that they work together for you.

The heart of Rocket Spanish is 12 hours of interactive audio lessons. These are not like the self-help cassette tapes I used to listen to. At no time is the student allowed to simply sit and listen to a recording. From the very first lesson, an active response to the material is expected, and that definitely enhances learning.

The teacher of the course is a Chilean native named Mauricio Evlampieff. He was suddenly thrust into an English-only school when he was twelve, so he can identify with the struggles of someone who is attempting to master a new language. He has a pleasant voice and a perfect accent that will give you great examples to follow.

In most of the lessons, he is conversing with Amy Waterman, who lived and worked in Ecuador for years. The two teachers hold interesting dialogues with each other that serve to teach new vocabulary and grammar skills in a fun way. The lessons begin with explanations in English and practice in Spanish, but gradually move to giving all the instructions and encouragement in Spanish, a very motivating teaching method.

I love the fact that I can download the RS lessons to my iPod and take them with me wherever I go. They are perfect for time spent in the car or exercising-two things I do almost every day. Since I am usually by myself for those activities, I have no problem repeating the words and phrases that Mauricio pronounces for me, and I love trying to answer his questions with a sentence in Spanish to see if I can get it right before I hear the answer.

Later, when I have access to my computer, I go over the written materials that correspond to the audio lessons I have heard. For me (and for most students) seeing something in writing that I have previously heard spoken is a great way to reinforce the learning. I can see the words, practice writing or typing them if I want, and feel confident that I will retain their meanings until the next lesson.

The grammar section of Rocket Spanish consists of 200+ pages of lessons with beautiful illustrations. Now, before you groan too much about grammar, you should know that RS does not require you to learn lists of verb conjugations or do other repetitive drills like so many courses. Instead, the exercises are used to reinforce and re-teach what you have already heard in the context of a real-life, practical conversation.

Following the principle of using a multi-media approach whenever possible, the folks at Rocket have even included about 180 short audio tracks that are meant to enhance the grammar pages. I find when doing them that reading, listening, and writing performed together help me internalize the grammar rules with a minimum of struggle.

My very favorite part of Rocket Spanish has got to be playing the computer games that come with the course. Even though I am no longer a kid by any stretch of the imagination, I still find that a game that lets me compete with my own past high scores can really keep me motivated and learning. And RS has three games like this!

The first one is called Mega Vocab. It is composed of more than 1000 pictures of common items that flash on your screen one by one. When you see an object, you are given the choice of four Spanish words that could name it. If you make the right choice the first time, you get the maximum number of points. Of course, each time you make a mistake, your score is lowered. I find that once I miss a word and get a low score, I am not likely to make the same mistake again. That?s why I think Mega Vocab is a great way to review the vocabulary that I learned a few days or weeks ago. It really stretches my memory and keeps me sharp.

One really cool feature of Mega Vocab is that you can upload your own pictures into the game. This is great for anyone who needs to learn specialized terms of any kind in Spanish. You can load in technical, personal, or business-related words and images and use them to play your game.

The second game in the Rocket Spanish package is called Mega Audio. This one is scored much like Mega Vocab, but instead of seeing a picture to identify, you will hear a word or phrase and find the appropriate picture that matches. Many people who learn a second language say that they are quite comfortable reading the target language, but when they are forced to try and comprehend something spoken at normal conversational speeds by a native speaker, they are at a loss. That?s why Mega Audio is so helpful.

The words you hear in the game are pronounced at a realistic tempo by native Spanish speakers. As the game goes along you will progress from hearing single words, to phrases, and then complete sentences, so your audio comprehension builds upon itself.

The third game is called Mega Verb, and as its name implies, it helps you learn those sometimes perplexing verb conjugations that students of Spanish are often frustrated with. Mega Verb approaches this thorny area in a systematic way that makes the learning easy, and even fun?something I never thought I would say. I have found that playing the game after hearing a new and challenging audio lesson helps me figure out how the context and tense of a verb causes it to change, and I am able to remember the process much more easily.

Visit the Official Rocket Spanish Website!

So far in my studies, I have been thrilled with the way that Rocket Spanish provides a learning community for its students. One of the biggest advantages of using Computer Assisted Language Learning is the fact that interacting with other speakers of Spanish is facilitated. This is so much different from the process of studying from audio recordings or books alone, because they can never give you the feedback and reinforcement that peers and teachers can. Even if those people are online and respond to you in the virtual world, the benefits remain. There is much more information about this vibrant group of students elsewhere on this site, but I wanted to restate my opinion of its value. Knowing that Mauricio will respond personally to my emails, and other folks will answer my questions in the forum keeps me motivated and helps me get through any rough patches in my studying.

When I purchased Rocket Spanish, I was given a lifetime membership to the Learning Lounge. This is an online area that I can access whenever I wish, day or night. All of my course materials are kept there, and I can find charts that track my progress through the lessons and show me what I ought to concentrate on next. When I feel like a challenge, I can take an interactive quiz, or assess my skills with a test. I can even get a Spanish Certification from Rocket Languages when I am good enough, and that will be a sweet day indeed.

As a member of Rocket Spanish, I know that I will be granted access to any upgrades the company makes to its programs, free of charge. And since it is run by a progressive, dedicated bunch of folks, I?m sure they will keep striving to improve. Their commitment to customer service is unparalleled, and I like the idea that I will never have to pay to enjoy the new developments that come along.

It should be obvious by now that I am sold on the merits of the Rocket Spanish course, and plenty of other people agree with my assessment. I?ve been studying for a couple of months, and I am so excited about the advances I?m making. The other night, I was able to have a little conversation with the members of the mariachi band at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Spanish. They were so pleased at my efforts to speak to them in their native language, and complimented me greatly on my accent. Just a short time ago, I would have never believed that I could learn so much from a computer assisted course.

Of course, you are probably wondering if RS will be as effective for you as it has been for me. I have a couple of suggestions to help you out there. First, you should do what I did when I first read about Rocket; request the free sample lessons. You don?t have to supply a credit card number or any personal information, and the lessons will arrive each day for six days in your email inbox. I found that they gave me a very good idea of what I could expect from the complete course.

My second suggestion is to go ahead and order Rocket Spanish, knowing that it comes with a full money back guarantee. If it doesn?t work for you, if you something comes up and you don?t have time to study, or if you just change your mind, you can get a complete refund for 60 days from the time of purchase. This is so crucial, in my mind, because I hate dealing with any company that will not stand behind what it sells. I have seen plenty of scams and shoddy products in my lifetime, and I?m glad to say that RS does not fall into this category. The Rocket website spells out just what you can expect from the materials, and the product delivers on the promises. It couldn?t get better than that.

As for me, I am working my way steadily through my lessons, and pouring over guidebooks to the Mexican Riviera at the same time. My husband and I are planning a winter getaway to the Cancun area, and I am determined that we will get away from the resort for at least part of the time and mingle with some of the locals. If I need to ask for directions, I?m confident I can do it. I can?t wait to talk to natives about the Mayan ruins, and jungle habitat. I?m looking forward to ordering food at an authentic local restaurant. But mostly, I?m anticipating fulfilling one of my lifetime goals.

Rocket Spanish has been one of the best investments I have ever made. It has filled my free time with knowledge, kept my brain sharp, given me something to look forward to, and helped make my empty next years some of my best. I really hope that you will give this terrific program a try and see what it can do for you.

Visit the Official Rocket Spanish Website!