Espanol Latino!

(NOTE: This is another one of Rikki's rambling blogs. Read on at your own risk.)

So, over the next year, I have a new professional goal... to learn SPANISH! I'm not entirely sure where this sudden drive in me came from, but it is strong! I do have a few guesses and hence where the update begins...

This past weekend, I had the unique pleasure of attending a partial Nicaraguan Catholic/Protestant wedding. Translation: Extremely long bilingual ceremony with a huge party afterward. Anyway, during the ceremony (in between taking pictures because photography was the reason we had this unique pleasure in the first place) I was fascinated by the bilingual aspect of the ceremony. Also, they had a lot of Latin music. The priest played the accordion and sang at one point. It was a cultural hodge-podge and I was front and center and loving it!

Then there was the reception. As I said earlier, this was a cultural hodge-podge of a wedding, so the reception was no different. It was bilingual as well. There was a lot of food. Most of it traditional Nicaraguan food. But for kicks and grins, let me walk you through the line of food...

The first table had traditional fruit, meats, and cheeses. Then it moved on to a tub of refried beans, another tub of guacamole, a tub of pico de gallo, and a plate of fajita chicken meat with peppers. The next table had bread-sticks and chicken alfredo delivered from Pizza Hut. Then we end with homemade chicken enchiladas.
The next table had every two-liter beverage you can imagine and beside it was a keg of beer.

Did anyone catch the random Pizza Hut delivery? Just checking. I actually laughed out loud when I saw it because I was so amused. But I know that there were people there who were so thankful that they brought something in that they could enjoy without question. Me, I passed. I can order Pizza Hut any day. Bring on the ENCHILADAS!

Anyway, the next portion of the evening was the dance. This is the part that I enjoyed the most. Not because I danced, but because I watched others dance. Everyone was having so much fun! The music was so fun! There was Salsa dancing, line dancing, American music, Latina music... you name it, it was playing and everyone was dancing to it. At any given point there were about 5 different versions of dancing going on.

Now, I've always had an interest in learning another language. I've always wondered what language I would choose. I want to know them all. After visiting Europe and loving the Netherlands so much I thought it would be Dutch (I have to be different). But who knows when I will make it back there again, and most of them know English. And I can truthfully say, as of today, I have never encountered another person in Arkansas that I could not communicate with because they knew Dutch and I didn't. So this option was not practical.

I went to RA Conference a few weeks ago in Edinburg, Texas (if you have a map, it would be easier to find if you look for the southernmost point in Texas that is surrounded my Mexico... that's Edinburg). We had a blast. It was a great deal of fun. But I so very much enjoy the Hispanic culture. Some of it came out in the chants that schools did, some came out in the skits for roll call, but mostly, I just liked interacting with people and sharing. I spent a lot of time just talking to people from other schools around the area.

So, at some point this weekend, I decided to look up Spanish learning software; namely, Rosetta Stone. I've heard rave reviews about it, so I thought I'd check it out. Five hundred and forty dollars they want for this software. FIVE HUNDRED AND FORTY DOLLARS!!! I was shocked and appalled.

Now I realize that with this software I would learn this language in a fraction of the time it takes most people to learn a language. I realize that even with my discount at the university, I would still spend more trying to take all of those classes and learn it that way and it would take so much longer to do, and I also realize that this will dramatically increase my marketability on my resume... so I realize that it is well worth the money... but the fact still remains... I'm about $500 short of being able to buy it... lol.

So I leave you with this... has anyone ever used Rosetta Stone to learn a language? What about another type of software? Any recommendations? I've heard good things about "Tell Me More" software, which is overall a bit cheaper. Ideas? Suggestions? Comments?

Do tell...