The Spanish Language

There are so many reasons why you should consider Rocket Spanish and lean Spanish
1. Peer pressure: would it be good to engineer some? If you feel like you'd study better in a group, if you thrive off team achievements and support, if you want to make new friends or create a reason for your existing friends to meet more regularly, maybe see if others want to join you or perhaps join a local class. With the Internet, you don't have to bother with all that going to class, travel, babysitting nonsense, and group can be spread all over the world. With Skype, you can all talk together, free of charge. Create your own class.
2. What's already around that you can use? By this I mean, if you work with someone who speaks Spanish, maybe you can arrange to try to get by with them in Spanish only. Then, you've got conversation partly covered, so what you need is all the other bits, the vocabulary, grammar and so on. Maybe you can remember school Spanish (so that's ‘around', you can use it) but maybe you need to practice real conversation. Maybe an immersion school might help.
3. Do you have support? I know it's a guy thing, but it's no good sneaking around trying to learn Spanish. We all need support, so ask. That's all it takes. Ask, and you receive.
4. Where are your opportunities? If you spend two hours a day commuting on the bus or train, maybe the Speed Spanish course would work for you: it's succinct and you can print out what you need. Do you have lunch breaks? Is there time when your partner watches something on tv that you're not interested in? Might your work give you time out for learning? Might they pay for the course? Send an email to everyone you know asking if they know someone Spanish you can email or instant message with.
5. Are you motivated? I think of myself as a self-starter. I get up and go to work every day because I want to, but some courses I review just don't get my juices flowing. And some, they do. So. Do you need something that jiggles you along a bit? Or can you sit and work through pages with nothing but a coffee and biscuits?
6. Learning style. Oh boy, this is teaching 101 stuff. Ready? OK: Are you the sort of person who wants to know why (if so, books and grammar tutorials are for you)? Or, are you a gregarious, people-person (talky stuff, classes)? Do you just want to get out and try it (immersion classes, travel)? Or are you a management type, good at working out where your strengths and weaknesses are and sorting out a plan to address them? Well here's a surprise for you. I'm not going to say "work out how you want to learn and go with it". My advice is: know how you prefer to learn and recognise it as a strength. But do take at least a little time to do the other things you're not as comfortable with. Grammar's no use if you don't speak it.
7. How much resource do you have? I don't just mean money. Money's the least of the issues. If you've no money, get books out of the library, find a Spanish friend by putting a note on a noticeboard, and use the Internet at your local library. There are plenty of online Spanish language learning resources, too. I happen to think, though, that the courses I talk about are worth the money. Speed Spanish is only $19.95 (at the time of writing), after all. But, particularly if your boss is paying: it's worth saying there are some very professional Spanish language courses out there. Time is the big deal. Learning a language takes time. The good news is that lots of small bits of time are more effective than occasional big chunks of time, so learning a language lends itself to using corridor time, commute time, and waiting time. If you have lots of time, you can learn quickly. If you haven't, you'll have to take things more slowly.
8. What's your purpose? Why do you want to learn Spanish? Is it for promotion? To find new friends? To be more interesting? To develop a useful skill? To keep your brain active? To make travel more interesting? Because you are emigrating? To find love? Because there are Spanish people in your office and you are nosey about what they are saying? Whatever your reason, it influences your learning method. If you want to find love, you'd be better off in a class than at home reading a book, for example.
9. How quickly do you want to learn? I've seen people type into Google "learn Spanish in one minute". Well, let's hope they aren't on dial-up. I probably should have put this point near the top, what do you think? Anyway, Speed Spanish is geared for speed, and if you have had a good night's sleep, you have coffee, and a free day, maybe you can work through the whole thing in one day. I'd wear a tight hat though or your head might pop. But that's the point.
10. How deeply do you want to know the language? If you really want to know a language, we're talking a few hours a day for a couple of years, assuming you get the chance to use what you are learning. You won't use just one resource, you'll use every resource you can find. In academic study one technique is to have two or preferably three books on a subject and to read the chapter on what you're studying in each. At least one of them will hit home, and they will all approach it differently. In the middle is understanding. So don't just use one course.