Rocket Spanish Review

What is Rocket Spanish ?

NOTE : This is an older review of Rocket Spanish, before they created the learning lounge. The learning lounge is basically a membership site that you belong to which allows you to use the course material online or download it at your leisure. The Learning lounge has other features like testing your progress with quizzes and Rocket record that records your voice to improve pronunciation. Click this link for more on what the learning lounge offers.

With this said, the rest of this article will tell you what you get in the actual Rocket Spanish content, as this hasn’t changed that much as far as I can see.

Rocket Spanish is a Spanish learning course. Unlike many other Spanish learning products, it can be downloaded over the Internet. It took me about 25 minutes to download it with a broadband connection. The Rocket Spanish site has a provision for dial-up Internet but I believe this would take longer to download. (There is also a provision to buy the course as a hardcopy but it is considerably more expensive than the downloaded version and will take longer to receive)

What level is Rocket Spanish ?

The First Few Lessons

The courses caters for people new to learning Spanish. It aims to take beginners, through intermediate levels, to an advanced knowledge of the Spanish language. With this said, the level of grammar taught is quite advanced but you probably won’t be an advanced Spanish speaker at the end of the course. You won’t have the turn of phrase or the vocabulary to be an advanced speaker. You also won’t have the experience which will only come with using the language in real settings.

So I’d say you would have a decent conversational level of Spanish. You will be able to ask questions of people and have simple conversations about certain things. It’ll be fine for a tourist or someone planning to spend a bit of time in a Spanish speaking country that is willing to talk to people and take their learning to the next level.

How does it teach Spanish ?

The course comprises of 31 lessons.

The first 12 lessons are beginner lessons.

9 intermediate lessons build on the basics.

The remaining lessons are more applied and feature real life situations where you can follow a conversation, for example, in a restaurant.

Each lesson can take between 30 minutes to 1.5 hours, depending on the skill level of the student and the knowledge of the topic being covered.

How is a lesson taught ?

Rocket Spanish Grammar Lesson

The topics of the lesson are introduced along with any new Spanish words.

The student will read through the introduction.

Any Spanish words can be clicked on and the audio for the word will be heard.

The audio takes the following format : first, the English equivalent is spoken, then the Spanish.

Then there is a pause and the Spanish is spoken again. This gives the student a chance to speak the Spanish and practice what he/she is learning.

More on the grammar lessons

More examples will be given of the topic and examples of how it is used.

A variety of written and multiple choice type exercises end the lesson.

The Random button can be pushed at any time and a Spanish sentence or word from the current lesson will be spoken.

This can allow the student to practice conversation and comprehension for this particular lesson. It can also act as a test or even a game where you have to guess the words or phrases. Although these tests are not marked like the one’s in the Learning Lounge, they can still reinforce and complement your learning.

As already mentioned, the pdf style lessons can be downloaded or viewed online. Initially you might want to view them online so that you can go back to other features of the course and maybe even use the My Notes section to take notes if needed.

After that, you might want to download the Pdf guides so that you don’t have to be online to learn Spanish. you can even print the guides out if you want to away from the computer completely.

Any other teaching methods used ?

There are two games that are used to teach :

Rocket Spanish MegaAudio Game

MegaVocab – vocabulary recognition, match one of 6 pictures to a word picked at random by the software.

MegaAudio – comprehension, listen to audio of a word or sentence and guess which of the 4 pictures represent the audio.

These games are useful to consolidate the knowledge learned in the lessons or as a warm up exercise before the lessons begin. Last time I looked at the games only the two were featured but they may have added another one called MegaVerb which tests verb conjugation now.

Rocket Spanish Flashcards

Flash cards are provided :
154 beginner flash cards
123 advanced flash cards

What is good about the course ?

The course builds from beginner to advanced. It will give the student a complete grasp of the Spanish Language at the end of the course.
Random button is good for adding a bit of spontaneity to the lesson. This is useful if you have done the lesson more than once and need to freshen it up a little.

What is bad about the course ?

The pictures in the megavocab are a bit misleading at times which makes guessing the correct words difficult.
You can only improve your pronunciation by listening and repeating the audio, no feedback is given by the software as to how your accent sounds.

Any bonuses ?

A new bonus is the survival kit. This is 13 extra lessons or supplementary resources to help you hit the ground running, so to speak, as soon as you leave the arrivals terminal at Barcelona airport or some other Spanish speaking setting. The kit is a mix of things from a Spanish phrase book that lists key phrases you might need or hear when you first arrive in a Spanish speaking country.

Other resources include key words that you may need. Some don’t seem as necessary as others. For instance, knowing all the words for parts of the body might be nice to know but not essential if you were a tourist for a couple of weeks vacation.

If you are still unsure about Rocket Spanish then you can sign up for the free 6 day course . This will give you a taste of the full course and how it is taught.
Once you have bought the course, you will be sent the Rocket Spanish newsletter every fortnight. The newsletter has a new lesson in each issue.

Summary

I think the content and scope of the Rocket Spanish course represents good value. Although it will take some work for a new student to learn Spanish, Rocket Spanish can certainly make this effort easier.

Note: You Don't Get A Laptop With The Purchase...It's Just Saying Online Access

Go to the Rocket Spanish website for more details and testimonials.

Transparent Spanish Complete Edition VS Rocket Spanish: You Decide

Rocket Spanish vs Transparent Spanish

Rocket Spanish vs Transparent Spanish - Which One Is Best ?

Spanish is the second most diversely spoken language in the world next to English. So it is only natural that Spanish language learning programs are high in demand.

But with so many readily available on the market today, people who want to learn this language, like yourself, can get confused on which one truly is the best – especially since they all claim to be.

Not that it isn’t true – it is just a matter of finding which one is best FOR YOU.

So here you will find two of the top Spanish language learning programs in an unbiased comparison to help you get what you are looking for.

Here’s a Transparent Spanish Complete Edition VS Rocket Spanish review to help you decide what kind of Learn Spanish course you need.

Method and Tools and Functions

One of the most important things you have to consider before choosing a program is how it will teach you and what it will teach you with. No two programs are alike, as neither are any two people.

The creator behind Rocket Spanish believes that the best way to learn Spanish is by learning it the way you learned your mother tongue – the conversational learning approach. So in this course, you will focus on speaking and listening comprehension.

When you were young, these were the two skills that you used way before you  could write or read and you ended up becoming fluent anyway.

For Transparent Spanish Complete Edition, the creator believes in utilizing all of your skills. So unlike Rocket Spanish, you will be focusing on both written and verbal approaches.

With Rocket Spanish, you have 31 interactive audio conversations that you will actively participate in from day one. To help you out, a complete script of the dialogues also comes with the whole package as well as step by step explanations and instructions.

Aside from that, for you to really get into the Spanish language, you will also have 31 Spanish history and culture lessons that are bound to help you understand the language and give some context to the new words you are learning.

What’s In A Game ?

Another great tool that is supposed to help you learn the language better while having fun at the same time is the games that are provided. When you enjoy what you are doing, studying will seem effortless.

MegaVocab is a game where in you have to match the correct Spanish word to the corresponding picture. This should help you learn as well as retain new vocabulary and phrases.

MegaAudio, similar to the first game wherein you have to match audio files to the correct picture, should help you improve your listening comprehension as well as your Spanish pronunciation.

MegaVerbs, the latest addition, should help you out with learning grammar and, one of the hardest parts of learning Spanish, conjugation.

Testing 1,2,3…Testing

Since learning can’t be all fun and games, there are self tests and quizzes that you can take to check just how much you have learned. The progress tacking feature that comes with will automatically record your results so that you will know exactly which areas you need to focus your attention on and which ones you can pay less.

Let’s Be Transparent

If you think that that Rocket Spanish has a lot of features and tools, then you will be surprised on just how many Transparent Spanish Complete Edition has.

Well, it isn’t called COMPLETE for nothing. This program is actually a compilation of other programs created by the same company. It has 5 audio CDs as well as around 1200 MP3 media files and videos.

Transparent Spanish Vs Rocket SpanishOn Your BYKI

BYKI Flashcards are a part of the whole package. This is an age old method that was given a twist to supposedly increase its effectiveness. Basically you are supposed to preview the words written on a card – the English and the Spanish.

Then you have to choose the right definition of the Spanish term, Finally you are supposed to produce the words with a couple of English phrases provided.

BYKI (pronounced bikey) is a system that uses declarative learning techniques as opposed to procedural techniques. this is based on research that suggests that we store information in facts and figures (and in terms of language – vocabulary) in the declarative part of the brain. We store ways to do things in the procedural part of the brain.

Whilst you need procedural skills to speak a foreign language, you also need a heap of declarative facts or words in order to speak fluently.  The BYKI system helps you learn words. It is like a computerized version of the age of flashcards. It’s a bit more sophisticated than plain old flashcards but the purpose is the same.

How About A LinguaMatch

LinguaMatch is one feature that you probably won’t find in any other program. Since not everyone has the opportunity to practice Spanish in real life situations on a day to day basis, LinguaMatch provides you with 30 virtual reality ones that you can actually enter.

Here you will be able to interact with the characters, ask questions, and be asked in return. They claim this to be a great method to practice your speaking skills and further develop your vocabulary and grammar, such as conjugation.

Aside from those tools and features, there are even more such as the slow sound function that allows you to control the speed of Spanish conversations and the progress pie chart that lets you know which areas you need to focus on and which ones you don’t by a color coordinated system- not to mention the tons of visuals, games, tests, and quizzes right at the tip of your hand- actually, more like the click of your mouse.

Transparent Spanish Vs Rocket Spanish Summary

So as you can see, from the method to the tools and functions, these two programs are both different however they “promise” to give you the same thing – for you to be able to speak Spanish in a relatively short amount of time. If you want to go with the simple more natural way of learning, then Rocket Spanish is highly recommended but if you want a more traditional approach with all the bells and whistles and even more, then Transparent Spanish Complete Edition is your best bet.

One is not necessarily better than the other. It really is a matter of preference. So basically now that you have the facts, regarding Transparent Spanish Complete Edition VS Rocket Spanish, it’s up to you to decide which one fits your learning style.