Hablo español
Mi hablo español. Well, not quite yet but I'm taking steps towards it.
The International Programs Office offers a number of free Rosetta Stone licenses for Fisher students. Definitely a good opportunity I had to take advantage of.
I knew I wanted to learn either Mandarin or Spanish. Because I thought Chinese would be more difficult to learn, I picked that. When you are trying to learn only by looking at pictures and "guessing" what the word/phrase/sentence means (as Rosetta Stone asks you to do), there are lots of opportunities to guess incorrectly. And starting at a certain point, I had no idea what I was saying anymore. So, I had to quit Mandarin.
I asked IPO if I could switch to Spanish and see if Rosetta Stone could still work for me. Spanish would definitely be easier to learn since a lot of Filipino words are similar or the same (I rock numbers!). I just needed to learn proper grammar and how to match words to the proper tense and gender - not an easy task, by the way.
It was also helpful that we had conversation hours with a Spanish teacher. It helps me understand proper syntax, grammar, and pronunciation. (Note to IPO: Chinese RS users should also have their own conversation hours especially since a word has a different meaning with a different pronunciation).
Anyway, I think I am making good progress. Let see how fluent I will be when I graduate.
Adios!