I'm going to Costa Rica in July. I'd like to learn to speak some basic Spanish before I go. Does anyone have suggestions for CD-Rom or DVD based programs? Has anyone used Rosetta Stone, and if so, is it worth the money? I like the fact that it has a distinct program for Latin America. Would I need to buy more than Level I to get some conversational spanish out of it? What about Rocket Spanish? Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Please read the first 100 or so posts - this has been asked and answered in the last 2 days. Happy trails!

Thanks hopefulist. I read alot of threads and did a search last night(nothing came up), but didn't do that before posting today. I'll go find the threads. Appreciate the heads up.

I can't find the other thread either. I've been working with Rosetta Stone for a while. I think it is pretty good; the problem is making the time to actually use it. And while I have learned some Spanish, I'm not sure I actually know how to say anything that will be useful on my vacation. I know how to say, "the dog is jumping" but not "where is the bathroom?" But then I've only gotten through about half of the first disk.

Hi Mary_Crawford,
I did find the other thread last night after hopefulist told me it was there. It's pretty interesting. Originally when reading threads I had the Costa Rica "filter" on so maybe that's why it didn't show up. I'll see if I can find the link for you and post it here.

Here's the other thread. It has alot of great info.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...amp;dirtyBit=1

OK, let's try that again..

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35104138

Gracias!