So here's another thing most people who know me well already know: I have a tendency to make things a lot more difficult for myself than they need to be. Must be a firstborn thing. Maybe a Virgo thing. In any case...
Since I just started this blog, I figure now may also be a good time to start thinking about how I am going to achieve this goal of mine. Miss Virgo needs a plan, you see.
When this idea began to take shape, my go-to plan in my head was Rosetta Stone. For the unfamiliar, it is a popular and well-regarded software learning program. I have seen commercials for it, but I really saw it in use when I was working in Adult and Community Education, as the ESOL students used it in a lab setting, and they loved it.
Oh, and it's really, really expensive.
I talked with my husband about it and when I mentioned that I couldn't even find used versions on ebay, he suggested we go ahead get it at some point and then re-sell it when done since it seemed to hold its value. What a smart guy - he's good like that.
So today the kiddos and I went to the library (we are already out for the summer) and it occurred to me to hunt around or at least ask about what software they might have to borrow. I struck up a conversation with the librarian and she completely blew me away by telling me the library has a comprehensive online education program...including foreign languages. For free.
Free? Yippee!
So here I was, all prepared to spend money on something that I can now do for free. She showed me how it works...from what I can tell, it seems awfully similar. There's visuals, audio...it even tracks your progress. Fantastico!
She's now following my blog too. :)
I read The Alchemist recently for the first time and it struck me that this could indeed be "beginners luck" on this journey, but I like another quote from that book more:
"When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it."
Good luck Tara! I'm looking forward to following your journey - your Spanish is my Polish... now that my grandmother's gone I thought I had no one to translate things for me. Thankfully a cousin on Facebook is helping me but it's so frustrating that I can't do it myself.. I hope to learn Polish one day..
ReplyDeleteThank you Sandra! I'm sorry about your grandmother. My grandparents were also fluent in Polish but my mother is not (although she is listed as "Matka" in my cell phone-lol). The program that I am using through the library is called Mango Languages. I checked to see if our system included Polish-unfortunately it did not but perhaps your library does. Worth a look! Good luck to you with all of your ongoing projects as well!
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