Your suggestions/comments on how to learn the lingo.

[Lisa Andrews]

I go to Escuela Falcon twice a week and it's definitely the best way to learn. I am surrounded by spanish at work all day and listen to spanish podcasts, do spanish activities, read and write and communicate in spanish, but the most useful has been classes, they force you to concentrate for an hour and the teacher keeps the class to what you want, there is so much information out there it is hard to get it in your brain and it can be so overwhelming about where to start, I find the hardest is to understand others speaking so change teachers every couple of months to help learn different accents. But there is nothing really like living in mexico and talking to people since they generally don't speak clearly (spanish reality tv is also a good way to hear how people actually talk not just your teachers who pronounce words properly)

Other websites I find good and not mentioned are:
http://www.veintemundos.com/en/
http://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/...g_passages
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/

I find the app Mind snacks great to just learn basic words, I have used duolingo on and off for ages and still like it.

Rosetta stone seemed expensive to me and i did the free thing which I found way too easy but maybe for a complete beginner it is good.