Hola Jillian. Welcome to the Rocket Spanish forum! I'll leave your first
question (about the 4 CDs) for someone else to answer, but since I not long ago
recommended Learning Spanish Like Crazy as a great next step after Rocket
Spanish, I'll try to tell you why I think so.
Before I start, let me say that I don't think there's any need for you to buy
any other program right now. I think you're best off going through the Rocket
Spanish audio lessons and also going through some or all of the supplementary
materials: the Instruction Manual, the Conversation Course, the Beginners Book
and the Advanced Book, the MegaCards, the Vocabulary Supplement, and more.
They're all available in .pdf format and can be downloaded from the Rocket
Spanish Members Area that I think you were told about when you bought Rocket
Spanish. These are great materials, and they should keep you busy for quite a
while.
Eventually, however, you'll finish the audio lessons, and even if you haven't
finished with all the supplementary materials, you'll probably want to continue
to improve your ability to speak and understand spoken Spanish. That's where
Learning Spanish Like Crazy may prove very useful. Although it describes itself
as suitable for beginners, I think it's really considerably more difficult than
Rocket Spanish. In the Rocket Spanish lessons, Mauricio and Amy speak slowly
and clearly, and they explain everything so you really understand what you're
learning. The Learning Spanish Like Crazy speakers speak clearly but much more
rapidly--at a pace more like you might hear in a real conversation. They speak
with a variety of Latin American accents, and that too will prove useful. The
lessons cover much more ground than do the Rocket Spanish audio lessons. Though
it's possible to start with Learning Spanish Like Crazy, if you know no Spanish,
I think you'd be wiser to begin with Rocket Spanish. It will give you a great
start, and then you'll be ready to move to something more advanced. At that
point, I'd highly recommend Learning Spanish Like Crazy. And, as I recall, even
Mauricio recommended it in a Rocket Spanish newsletter several months ago.
Please understand that I have absolutely no financial interest in Learning
Spanish Like Crazy or any other program. In my quest to learn Spanish, I've
used Rocket Spanish, Pimsleur (Levels II, III, and Pimsleur Plus), and Learning
Spanish Like Crazy. I also briefly tried Rosetta Stone but didn't like it, so I
can't really say much about it. Of the programs I've tried, the one I'd
recommend most enthusiastically for beginners is Rocket Spanish. As
the next step, I'd definitely opt for Learning Spanish Like Crazy. I found I
learned more from the one level of LSLC than from all the different levels of
Pimsleur (though there are good points to Pimsleur, too).
I'm sorry to have babbled on at such length. Perhaps I should change
my username on this forum to something other than Nohablo! :D