Good easy learn spanish website?

2 Comments

1. eddie.andrews says:

   May 15, 2010 at 4:14 am

   Here are some of the best sites that worked for me. For a series of videos, which appears to be your preference, these are the best:

   Yabla: http://yabla.com
   Destinos: http://www.learner.org/resources/series75.html

   Yabla lets you learn from music videos, and "real" people talking, and costs a few dollars a month.

   Destinos, which is free on the website, is a corny telenovela, but it works. While you don’t "need" to, pick up some used Destinos workbooks (not the expensive textbooks) on Amazon or Ebay to help you.

   If you don’t have much time, like video, and are dedicated, you can probably stop here. With just these two alone, mixed with practice, over the course of six to nine months, you should be at an intermediate level before you finish.

   I’ve also tried the following podcasts, and still use them for review. They’re all good, and provide a decent free section and add a small $5-$10 monthly fee for the rest of the material. I mainly go back between SpanishPod.com, which is funnier, and Eduphone. Choose the one that’s best for you.

   Spanish Pod (http://www.SpanishPod.com)
   Spanish Pod 101 (http://www.SpanishPod101.com) — yes, a similar name but different
   Eduphone (http://www.Eduphone.com)

   There are a number of other tools, including sites that let you test yourself, and partner with native speakers to help you practice and learn better. One example is:

   LiveMocha.com

   Also,

   Puerta Del Sol (http://www.elearnspanishlanguage.com/products/puertadelsol.html)

   lets you learn from an audio subscription of current events that comes on a CD. This is cool, but costs $100 or so, and has a more Spain feel than Latin American feel, but, again, it’s cool.Go

   Finally, because you really have to practice, and hear spontaneous conversation to "really" learn, these following methods — all free or cheap — worked for me and I recommend them for you:

   * Join (or start) a Spanish Meetup (http://spanish.meetup.com),
   * Go to a church’s Spanish service (preferably Apostolic Pentecostal – I just had to get that in as they tend to be more dynamic which keeps your mind more engaged.)
   * Watch and record one of the Spanish kids shows on PBS once a month (use one that also has a transcript available so you can record and re-watch with the transcript later).
   * Find a friend that speaks Spanish, and (with their permission) ONLY speak Spanish with them.

   BTW, there wasn’t a Spanish Meetup in our area so I started one, and it’s a place to just practice once a week (or once a month) without fear. Also, the first time I went to a Spanish service, I only understood about 5-10%, but kept trudging along, and ended up on the praise team!

   Good luck!
2. qadar says:

   May 15, 2010 at 4:14 am

   If you want to learn the very basic Spanish then the free programs on the internet are best. My daughter loved to learn Spanish and Arabic. She tried so many so called programs but without any much fruitful success to master it. Finally for Arabic I found her LQA and for Spanish she was delighted to get the Tell Me More Program.

   So far she is almost finishing both the programs. In the Arabic ones, she is confident to read and write. While as with the spanish one a very good deal of progress.