Does Rosetta Stone Really Work?

I had my six-week progress evaluation last week to see how my Spanish is coming along. I am estimated to be a 2/2+, or a 2 in speaking (limited working proficiency) and a (weak) 2+ in reading (between limited working proficiency and professional working proficiency) according to the ILR scale.Although anything with the word “limited”

Hundirse o Nadar (Sink or Swim)

Remember when I took a language assessment test hoping to get into a more advanced class and then discovered, with some disappointment, that I was enrolled in the basic FAST course after all? Yeah — not in the FAST course (which I found out stands for “Familiarization and Short-Term”).Turns out I managed to trick someone

Back to School, Back to School

Monday is my first day of school. I start eight weeks of Spanish at the Foreign Service Institute. I’m in the FAST Course, which means that I didn’t do well enough on my language assessment test to place into a “regular” class.

Language Assessment Test

This morning I took my language assessment test for Spanish class at the Foreign Service Institute. It was informal — a few minutes on the phone with one of the teaching coordinators.

Being Here Now

I almost titled this post, “Am I making a huge mistake?” But I didn’t want to alarm anyone (my husband) or be overdramatic.I am truly very excited about all these changes in our life. This wasn’t always the case, though. If I could trace the trajectory of my feelings about Foreign Service life, it would

Rosetta Stone Level 3

As you might have guessed based on yesterday’s post, I recently started Level 3 of Rosetta Stone Spanish (Latin America). That means I’ve completed Levels 1 and 2! And it only took me FIVE months. Really though, what is so difficult about it (other than finding the time)?

Wordless Wednesday: Finally!

Foreign Service Blog Round Up: Chaos

Well hello, bandwagon.I knew I wasn’t the only person who thought of the brilliant idea to start a blog chronicling my adventures abroad as a Foreign Service spouse. I have discovered that there is an entire community of Foreign Service bloggers — blogs by FSOs themselves (State & USAID), blogs by their spouses and partners,

Learning Spanish with Rosetta Stone

We’ve all seen the ads praising how easy it is to learn a new language using Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone uses “Dynamic Immersion,” which the company describes as its “award-winning method for learning new languages” modeled after the way in which people learn their first language. But does Rosetta Stone work?