A Little Rebellion Every Now & Then

Perhaps it’s premature to be concerned, as we’re only on Leccion Cuarto (that is, Lesson 4) of La Clase Divertida, out of fifteen total lessons. However, if we manage to follow anything close to the schedule I outlined last week, we’ll finish it sometime around Christmas, which means I have to consider the next step.

Generally, La Clase Divertida is working well for us. G seems to have good retention, and I like that it talks about the culture as well as the language. The problem I have with it is that some of cultural segments are… honestly, they seem quite prejudiced, not to mention slanted to a Christian perspective. In the puppet segment of Leccion Tres, the puppet toucan (voiced by Senor Gamache) says that before Cortes came, the native people worshiped a feathered serpent. Fair enough. Then he proceeds to laugh and say “Not very intelligent, eh?” The whole story is told with an air of glorifying the behavior of Cortes and making Montezuma seem rather dumb and backwards.

So I don’t know if I want to spend the money on the next level of La Clase Divertida. It offers several things that I want from a Spanish program, namely that the emphasis is on conversational skills, and the fact that it includes materials for two students (and hence, I don’t have to wonder what to get for Jacob down the line) is a nice bonus. However, it’s a significant expenditure for something with which I may not be entirely happy.

Complicating matters is that I don’t want to use anything that requires the computer until she’s older, which means Rosetta Stone is right out. If I decide to stick with La Clase Divertida, I don’t know how much of Rosetta Stone would be review, but I think that’s where we’d go, and then when we finished Rosetta Stone, we’d find a class or tutor or something. Maybe. I don’t know!