Con mezcló emociónes.../With Mixed Emotions

The day finally arrived. Today I finished Rosetta Stone's Level Three of Latin American Spanish. I was so ready to be done! It's a fine program but I used it so much in the last nine weeks that I just couldn't take it anymore! (¡No puedo más!) I was very happy to finish. However, those moments of happiness were soon followed by a little bit of frustration, followed by a little bit of sadness.

A little review of Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish, Levels 1-3:
I think it was very helpful; introduced new vocabulary; got me comfortable speaking the language. It did start out really slow, only to introduce too much too fast at the end. There is a lot that I did in the lessons in the last sections of Level 3that I still don't feel comfortable with using in "real life". I think that it probably got me into maybe a college-level Spanish 3 class (but then, I never took Spanish 2 so what do I know?... and I did take Spanish 1 like, 15 years ago).
Let's face it there is not one program on the planet that will get you from basically knowing nothing to speaking conversationally all on its own. I think Rosetta Stone did what it was supposed to do: gave me a good introduction. I could go to Mexico now and get by alright. I could travel, ask for directions, shop, etc. But I couldn't hold a conversation.

That's where the sadness comes in. I've studied A LOT over the last nine weeks and I still feel pretty stupid. Don't get me wrong. I'm willing to feel that way because I want to improve (wink, wink). I had just hoped that the difference between then and now would have been greater.

And here's where the additional bit of sadness came in:
We went to a Mexican Restaurant to celebrate. Of course, the waiter was a native Spanish-speaker (or whatever the PC term is now). The Husband spoke up (in Spanish) first. I then added a little bit in Spanish. The waiter took a step back, sized me up said something like, "¿Tú hablas en español?" I replied, "Un poco" and smiled. He then said, "But you look more latin than him!" Ugh. He had no reason to believe that I didn't speak Spanish until I opened my mouth.

Clearly, I have much more work to do.

He Thinks I'm Cheating./El Piensa Yo Estoy Haciendo Trampa.

Enough said. I am beating the socks off him! The Husband has seriously underestimated how much I want to win. Honestly, I'm kinda sick of studying Spanish. But as long as I have that carrot dangling in front of me, I'm gonna work and work to win the carrot!

You may think that this must mean that when I win the prize I won't want to study anymore. I don't believe that's the case. My theory is that by then I will have obtained a base knowledge of Spanish; Hopefully enough that through daily conversation, reading my favorite books in Spanish, and learning new vocab (through studying), I'll be able to continue to make progress in the language.

Right now I'm really working to get through Rosetta Stone. I'm in the last unit of Level 2. Soon I'll be in Level 3, which is the last level we own. Apparently, they've come out with a Level 4 and 5 but I'm not sure we're sold on purchasing it. I'm looking forward to focusing on some other studying options. Don't get me wrong. Rosetta Stone has really helped build our vocabularies, increase our ability to understand the spoken language and most of all, helped us gain confidence in SPEAKING Spanish. Lately we've just been concentrating on it so much that I'm pretty anxious to see what we can do once we're done with Level 3.

I'm not sure if me winning (so far) is going to get The Husband to pick up his studying time, so I'm going to have to continue going full steam ahead. We'll see what happens... :)