Rosetta Stone Dominican Spanish

[drSix]

Finally! Level 2, Unit 3 of Rosetta Stone is teaching my things I can use here.

Le llega tarde al trabajo

Puedo tener algo de beber?

And... The words regalo and reg?lame!

I think at this point I can be done, that is all I really need. Well, and 'soy borracho'!

 

[drSix]

Probably better change that to estoy borracho.

Damn! It's all so confusing.

 

[jrhartley]

and tomar beer

 

[John Danzell]

Pimsleur Unlimited is much more practical to me than Rosetta Stone!

 

[Harleysrock]

I'm assuming your drunkeness is a temporary state. Soy borracho is saying you are a drunk as in the town drunk. Estoy denotes temporariness of the drunken state.

Good to know, soy borracho will work perfectly for me!

 

[Xavier_Onassis]

Soy borracho means "I am an alcoholic". Estoy borracho means"I am presently under the alcofluence of incohol." If you say the former and mean the latter, people will think that you just do not understand the difference.

Pimsleur mostly hawks the short phrasebook things that might serve to teach you a few useful phrases and a lot of stuff that is not likely to be useful. They will teach you how to ask questions, but the odds that they will teach you to understand the answer people give to your questions are quite small.

Paul Pimsleur was a French professor who died many years ago (in th2 1960's). He was a clever chap, but the people selling stuff under his name make a lot of silly claims for their programs that are essentially nonsense. What is best is any method that uses a computer than can record your voice and allow you to compare it with a native speaker. When Pimsleur was alive there was no such device available. Rosetta Stone is a good program but it is grotesquely overpriced. I have seen it in yard sales priced at $10-$20.

Neither Pimsleur nor Rosetta Stone are the likelty to be the best value for your money. Spanish language programs are usually revised every two or three years, and the trick is to buy last year's version (for Windows 7) at a bargain remaindered price, since the new version (for Windows 8) was just released. The new version typically sells for $79.99 and the remaindered price will be around $29.99. Check the reviews given on the Amazon website. You will need a headset with a mike. These are not expensive at all.

I spent 40 years teaching Spanish, and am familiar with these programs in general, and no, I do not hate Pimsleur at all (as the ads his promoters claim), but the guys who sell programs under his name are to language learning as Bose is to stereo systems: lots of hype and high prices.

Spanish is a lot easier for English speakers to learn than English is for Spanish speakers: English has 42-45 different phonemes (sounds) and Spanish has 21-23. Spanish is spelled logically and nearly phonetically, and English, is not.

Anyone that claims that you can learn a language without learning grammar and syntax is full of beans. You may not learn it consciously, but you need to be aware of different grammatical patterns or you will sound really funny and/or not be understood. There are four basic language skills: speaking, understanding, reading and writing, but probably the hardest will be understanding the answers to your questions, rather than asking them.

Buena suerte aprendiendo espa?ol.

 

[drSix]

Pimsleur Unlimited is much more practical to me than Rosetta Stone!

Is it just audio CDs? I tried my friends Pimsleur audio tapes, and it just wasn't enough to capture my attention (its my generation!) The Rosetta Stone is more like a video game, I want to beat the game! Problem is, I am really good at Rosetta Stone, but not very good at speaking.

 

[drSix]

I'm assuming your drunkeness is a temporary state. Soy borracho is saying you are a drunk as in the town drunk. Estoy denotes temporariness of the drunken state.

Ah okay. I can see that. When we were in the Campo out Dominican friends used it as the drunk person with a negative connotation.

 

[drSix]

Soy borracho means "I am an alcoholic". Estoy borracho means"I am presently under the alcofluence of incohol." If you say the former and mean the latter, people will think that you just do not understand the difference.



Buena suerte aprendiendo espa?ol.

Ah, an importance difference!

Gracias, lo necesito!

 

[Xavier_Onassis]

Rosetta Stone is pretty good, the Pimsleur tapes that they advertise online are very basic and sucky.

The trick is to practice on a regular basis. One useful trick is to advertise "Lecciones de ingl?s gratis", and team up with a Spanish speaker who wants to learn English for two or three hours per week.

 

[drSix]

Rosetta Stone is pretty good, the Pimsleur tapes that they advertise online are very basic and sucky.

The trick is to practice on a regular basis. One useful trick is to advertise "Lecciones de ingl?s gratis", and team up with a Spanish speaker who wants to learn English for two or three hours per week.

That's a good idea. I tell ya, it is the immersion that helps the most. Why wife has done far less Rosetta stone than I, but spends twice as much time in the DR as I do, and she is much better than me. I can put together some simple phrases, she can have complete conversations. Part of it too, was living in the Campo. We HAD to learn to survive, not so much in Sosua. I am still surprised how many Dominicans, although reluctantly, speak some English. Since I started traveling for work, I am even more surprised at how pathetically monolingual Americans are compared to the rest of the world.

 

[Viajero]

Finally! Level 2, Unit 3 of Rosetta Stone is teaching my things I can use here.

Le llega tarde al trabajo

Puedo tener algo de beber?

And... The words regalo and reg?lame!

I think at this point I can be done, that is all I really need. Well, and 'soy borracho'!

What does Rosetta Stone have to do with Dominican Spanish?

 

[Xavier_Onassis]

What does Rosetta Stone have to do with Dominican Spanish?

Rosetta Stone has tow versions: one is Latin American Spanish (more or less as is spoken by educated Colombians (Bogota) and Mexicans) and the other is Peninsular Spanish (as spoken in Spain). Dominicans understand either, but they speak with a number of quirks in vocabulary and pronunciation that are typical in the Caribbean. Dominican Spanish is similar to Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Colombia.

Rather than say "Puedo tener algo de beber", other phrases are more likely. "?Me da algo de tomar, por favor?", for example. Tomar is preferred over beber on this side of the Atlantic for "to drink".

 

[drSix]

What does Rosetta Stone have to do with Dominican Spanish?

Because I am finally to a section that has some real world application and includes words or phrases I have heard often.

When I first moved here, I had five people on the payroll. "You are late for work" would have been helpful, and because I came around Christmas time I heard the word "Regalo" as much as "Navidad"

You can never have too many ways to ask for a drink!

 

[Viajero]

Dominicans understand either, but they speak with a number of quirks in vocabulary and pronunciation that are typical in the Caribbean. Dominican Spanish is similar to Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Colombia.

Yes, of course. I would expect anyone who has Spanish as a first language to understand RS and use many common words and phrases (e.g., hola).

By "Dominican Spanish" I thought perhaps RS is using dominicanismos or specific words or phases that Dominicans might use. For instance, calling money "cuarto" or "cuartillo."

 

[Xavier_Onassis]

Rosetta Stone's Hispanic American version tries, as I understand it, to be universal.
Everyone understands,"No tengo dinero para eso", so why teach "No tengo cuartos"?
It like saying in English, "How much money is this going to cost me?" rather than, "How much bread I gotta lay on you, man?"

First learn to communicate. Learn the slang later. Slang is more difficult to use and varies more from place to place, social class to social class.

 

[PeterInBrat]

The classic is when a woman tries to say she's embarrassed and says she's pregnant instead.

 

[JLA1125]

Soy borracho means "I am an alcoholic". Estoy borracho means"I am presently under the alcofluence of incohol." If you say the former and mean the latter, people will think that you just do not understand the difference.

Pimsleur mostly hawks the short phrasebook things that might serve to teach you a few useful phrases and a lot of stuff that is not likely to be useful. They will teach you how to ask questions, but the odds that they will teach you to understand the answer people give to your questions are quite small.

Paul Pimsleur was a French professor who died many years ago (in th2 1960's). He was a clever chap, but the people selling stuff under his name make a lot of silly claims for their programs that are essentially nonsense. What is best is any method that uses a computer than can record your voice and allow you to compare it with a native speaker. When Pimsleur was alive there was no such device available. Rosetta Stone is a good program but it is grotesquely overpriced. I have seen it in yard sales priced at $10-$20.

Neither Pimsleur nor Rosetta Stone are the likelty to be the best value for your money. Spanish language programs are usually revised every two or three years, and the trick is to buy last year's version (for Windows 7) at a bargain remaindered price, since the new version (for Windows 8) was just released. The new version typically sells for $79.99 and the remaindered price will be around $29.99. Check the reviews given on the Amazon website. You will need a headset with a mike. These are not expensive at all.

I spent 40 years teaching Spanish, and am familiar with these programs in general, and no, I do not hate Pimsleur at all (as the ads his promoters claim), but the guys who sell programs under his name are to language learning as Bose is to stereo systems: lots of hype and high prices.

Spanish is a lot easier for English speakers to learn than English is for Spanish speakers: English has 42-45 different phonemes (sounds) and Spanish has 21-23. Spanish is spelled logically and nearly phonetically, and English, is not.

Anyone that claims that you can learn a language without learning grammar and syntax is full of beans. You may not learn it consciously, but you need to be aware of different grammatical patterns or you will sound really funny and/or not be understood. There are four basic language skills: speaking, understanding, reading and writing, but probably the hardest will be understanding the answers to your questions, rather than asking them.

Buena suerte aprendiendo espa?ol.

I took Rosetta Stone Spanish as a refresher course only because the company I work for paid for it. You are correct about grammar and syntax. Rosetta Stone doesn't teach it and many of my coworkers who took it as a beginner's course always had problems learning the grammar.

 

[JLA1125]

The classic is when a woman tries to say she's embarrassed and says she's pregnant instead.

And she ends up being embarrassed for a reason other than the original reason she was embarrassed.

 

[YUL514]

The classic is when a woman tries to say she's embarrassed and says she's pregnant instead.

Or General Motors trying to figure why the Chevy NOVA did not sell south of the border.
A good way to start learning Spanish is on youtube.You can learn the basic like numbers and letters.Also,watching TV in Spanish such as novellas and the news.Their pronunciation is easy to understand.

Regards

Mike