Due to the resounding success of Rocket Language’s flagship Spanish course, Rocket language have produced French, Italian, German, Japanese, Chinese, Sign and now Arabic language courses in exactly the same mould, proving just how successful their initial language course has been!
But just because the company is successful does it honestly mean that their Spanish course product is a good product?
The simple answer to that question is YES, it is!
continues to be an online success story and the reason why it has been such a success is because of the unique design of the course, the results that the vast majority of its students achieve (over 400,000 of them!) and of course the cost.
Rocket Spanish is the most interesting and unique Spanish language course available online. It is also one of the lowest priced Spanish language products on the market, but don’t be fooled by this as the price-tag does not reflect the quality of the product only it’s excellent value for money.
Rocket Spanish is an audio based and interactive Spanish course that teaches reading, writing, comprehension and conversational skills.
The course consists of 31 audio tracks that are each between 20 ad 30 minutes in length, all together, the course contains over 12 hours of audio. Breaking it down, the first 12 lessons are aimed at the beginner followed by 9 intermediate lessons and the remainder concentrate on building a good practical use of Spanish in real life, everyday situations, such as going shopping and ordering a meal at a restaurant.
The course has been designed to help the student achieve a competent level of Spanish within 8 weeks, although this time frame can be increased. One of the main benefits of this course is that it provides the flexibility that so many people require; so if you need to take longer than 8 weeks because you haven’t had as much time to study as you would have liked it isn’t a problem, just take the course at a slower pace, the results will be the same, if not better!
The lessons themselves are very easy to understand, ‘no frills’, some would describe them as, because they are very concise and direct. Unlike many other Spanish audio courses the voices are very clear and friendly making them much easier to follow and understand and much more enjoyable to listen to.
All the lessons are in MP3 format and have been designed specifically for learning on the move as they can be downloaded onto an iPod or any other MP3 player or simply burned to disc if you are anything like me and still have a portable CD player!
As well as the audio lessons there are over 500 pages of written material that provide transcript of audio lessons, grammar and written tests to gauge exactly how well you are doing. In addition to this there are also three enjoyable games, MegaVocab, MegaAudio and MegaCards. All of these games provide some interactive fun that will help you learn Spanish even quicker and below I will provide a quick review of each game.
MegaVocab is an interactive game that, increases and improves your vocabulary.
The game itself covers 23 topics each of 25 questions and covers topics such as football, (as the screenshot illustrates), shopping and food among other things and will quickly help to increase your vocabulary.
An excellent feature of MegaVocab is that it allows you to add your own questions and images. Because of this feature it can be used well beyond its initial 575 questions and still be of use once you have outgrown the course!
Megavocab provides excellent feedback on how well you are actually doing…the big plus, unlike so many other linguistic games I’ve encountered, is that it is actually great fun to play!
MegaAudio is an audio version of MegaVocab, as you have probably guessed, and is similar in structure.
This time there are 20 topics to choose from covering approximately 1000 words.
Each screen shows six images accompanied with the description in English. You are then played a word or phrase in Spanish and you then have to select the correct image that matches that word.
There is a repeat the audio button if you need it and you are scored upon the amount of correct answers given.
Again, the more you play the easier understanding spoken Spanish will become.
This game will definitely improve your comprehension and pronunciation, especially if you repeat every word the speaker says whilst playing. By doing so, it will help the student speak Spanish with a more natural accent.
Megacards is a vocabulary memorization game that uses picture flashcards with the Spanish word on the flip side, not a new idea, but a well proven and beneficial way to improve vocabulary.
Rocket Spanish will help a student to achieve a low intermediate level of Spanish which is enough to hold average social and commercial conversations, perfect for achieving a grasp of Spanish prior to attending an intensive Spanish course.
The course is enjoyable and the interactive games are still beneficial well after the course has been completed. Results speak for themselves, so in that respect Rocket Spanish gets a big thumbs up, check out their testimonials, more than any other language course site I’ve seen!
With regards to cost, at under $100 for the digital version of the course, it is extremely good value for money, especially when you compare it to its many competitors. To be perfectly honest though there are better Spanish language courses available at much greater cost; however, these courses are only marginally better and that marginal improvement does not, in my opinion, warrant the a price hike of, in some cases, 9 times what you would pay for Rocket Spanish.
Another major factor when purchasing Rocket Spanish is that you are covered by a 60 day money back guarantee, and there aren’t too many over-the-counter courses that offer the consumer that type of protection, I know!