Learning – Spanish Hackers

Best Way to Learn Spanish (There are 6)

Anthony — Sun, 03 Feb 2019 05:42:22 +0000

Updated 1/12/24
The first few days after I decided to learn Spanish I was as happy as could be. The idea of speaking another language fluently got me excited. I had visions of trips to exotic destinations and experiences with people from other cultures. In my mind I was well on my way to becoming the real life Dos Equis guy.

But the truth was I didn't have any clue how to start actually learning Spanish. I didn't really know anyone who had learned it as a second language. I'd heard of immersion but didn't know what is was, I also thought about Rosetta stone but was skeptical. I started searching in Google to find any information I could about how to learn a language.

My results didn't really help. I found a lot of information spread across all kinds of places. Evidently everyone is world has their own way of learning a language and swears that theirs is the best. Needless to say it was all a bit overwhelming.

Overtime, through trial and error, I was able to learn Spanish, but not without a few hiccups along the way. I wrote this post to give you the introduction to language learning I wish I had back then. This list isn't all inclusive, but I hope it gives enough information to help you choose the learning method that is best for you.

Enjoy!

What You Will Learn in This Post

The 6 main ways to learn Spanish
Which of these ways is the best (spoiler alert my vote is immersion)
The pros and cons of each learning method
Popular examples of each method

Quick Navigation

Immersion

Traditional Spanish classes

Private teachers

Online Classes & Tutors

Spanish courses

DIY methods

Conclusion

Immersion

Immersion is hands down the best way to learn Spanish. It is the fastest and most effective way to become fluent. If you have the opportunity to learn Spanish while living or traveling to a Spanish speaking country, do it! All the Spanish classes, courses, and learning tips in the world can't replace the experience of learning a language with native speakers in the real world.

What is Spanish immersion?

Spanish immersion is when you learn Spanish using only Spanish and little to none of your native language. You essentially surround yourself with Spanish (Spanish speaking people, Spanish movies & music, Spanish books, etc) and force yourself to communicate and interact with your environment in your new language.

Imagine dipping something into a bucket of water until it's completely immersed. Language immersion is the same idea except you're the thing and the new language is the water.

Immersion programs abroad

The most common way to get the immersion experience is to move another country and learn the language there. You can do this through an immersion program, independent study, or a combination of both. The important thing is that you are surrounded by the language as much as possible.

Immersion programs are often offered through universities, but there are also a lot of private Spanish schools that offer immersion programs as well. Some of these programs will allow you to live with a Spanish speaking host family during your stay.

Check out Gooverseas for listings and reviews of immersion programs

Immersion programs in the USA

You don't necessarily have to move abroad to immerse yourself in Spanish. Some universities have immersion programs right here in the USA. Check out Middlebury's Spanish Language School in Vermont. Their program is famous for its language pledge where students have to sign a paper that says they'll only use their new language for the entirety of the 7 week program or they are sent home (intense right?).

Create your own immersion program at home

Thanks to the internet it is possible to give yourself an immersion experience no matter where you live. Though you will probably have to use English for your job and for talking with friends and family, but you can push yourself to live the rest of your life in Spanish. If you have access to the internet you also have access to Spanish media, movies, music, and literature.

This type of at home immersion isn't easy, but it's definitely possible. Check out AllJapaneseAllTheTime where Khatzumoto shares an immersion based method he used to become fluent Japanese (a language much harder than Spanish) without ever having been to Japan.

Is Immersion Effective?

Yes! In most cases it's what all other forms of Spanish learning try to copy. Spanish classes try to incorporate it. Spanish courses try to simulate it. Spanish tutors (online and off) are substitute for it, but nothing beats the real thing! Immersion is often the standard of language learning by which other methods are measured.

Advantages of Spanish Immersion

Efficiency

Learning a language through immersion is very efficient. There's no BS or beating around the bush. You use the language right from day one.

The Spanish will stick

When you immerse yourself in Spanish you have to use it. If you don't you won't be able to interact with your environment. This necessity helps you remember, recall, and pay attention to the Spanish around you.

Spanish immersion is kind of like that

Disadvantages of Spanish Immersion

Price

If you're taking an official immersion program it will probably be quite expensive. Expect to pay in the thousands of dollars, especially if you going through a university. Prices can be cheaper in some Latin American countries, and there are reputable private schools that over more affordable options (I'll make a post on that one of these days).

If you're going aboard to learn a language you also have factor in travel and living expenses.

For an affordable language immersion tool we highly recommend FluentU. No travel required. It's free to try out with absolutely no obligation and there is a free plan as well! Please check out our in-depth review.

Time commitment

Spanish Immersion requires A LOT of time and energy. When you immerse yourself in a new language you can expect to spend the majority of each day practicing and using your target language opposed to your native one.

Immersion programs typically last weeks and sometimes months. They are not for the faint of heart, or the casual Spanish learner.

Not everyone can do it

Because of its price and the amount of energy and time you must commit to Spanish immersion, it's not for everyone. The majority of us just don't have the time or the money needed to spend a few months learning Spanish in another country or at a university.

You can create your own bootstrap immersion program at home for free, but it will still require a lot of work and commitment on your part.

Traditional Spanish classes

Typically the first thing we think of when talking about learning any language is a classroom and a teacher. This image carries with it the labor and bordem of school days past. This is a bad notion, especially if you didn't enjoy school. I think of a desk, boring teacher, a clock on the wall, and aching feeling that I should be doing something else....but that's just me. Maybe you liked school.

While Spanish classes aren't completely bad their certainly not my first choice is you want to learn to speak a language. They also have a tendency to be one of the more expensive options for learning Spanish if you're not already in a high school or college course.

What are traditional Spanish classes?

Spanish classes are common in almost all high schools and college campuses (in the US at least). Chances are you've taken a few yourself or probably know someone has. There are also private language schools in or around most major cities who offer similar classroom based courses.

More often than not these classes follow the standard classroom styled curriculum centered around teaching information to a large group of people with in a set time ( a year or semester). The material is very structured and based on a linear progression (basic stuff first, then gradually gets more complicated).

Are Spanish classes effective?

Class can be inefficient

Personally I'm not a huge fan of taking a class to learn a language. We all probably know somebody who has studied a language for a year or two but still doesn't speak it well. There is some research that suggests learning a language in classroom setting is inefficient. It's just not the fastest or best way to learn a second language.

A big problem with traditional language classes is that they usually focus on grammar rules and vocabulary lists. They tend to teach language as a series of facts instead of as a skill. Imagine someone teaching you about the parts of a bicycle, how it works, and describing how you ride it. At the end of the day if you want to learn how to ride a bike you have to actually get on a bike and ride it.

If you want to learn a language, you have to start using it to communicate. There's no way around that. Classrooms environments don't usually give you the type of practice and exposure you need to learn a language.

One advantage of Spanish classes is being able to meet other Spanish learners

Different classes

How well you learn Spanish in a class will depend on a lot of different things. Classes can vary in way they present the language. Some classes will be better than others. There are even some that incorporate immersion (though I've only heard of this offered to children at certain schools). Before you sign up find out how the language will be taught. It could save you a lot of time and money.

Advantages of traditional Spanish classes

Classes do provide the structure for the Spanish learner. When you take a Spanish class you are not responsible for what material the class covers all you have to do is show up and work with what is given to you. In other more independent forms of Spanish learning you are responsible for everything. You have to decide what to study, when to move on, and what and how to review. In a class all that is left to the teacher and the curriculum.

A teacher can make or break a Spanish class. A great teacher can take an otherwise boring and complicated subject and turn it into something interesting and understandable. However it's important to note that great teachers are always easy to come by.

In a classroom setting you get to learn alongside other Spanish learners. If you're taking a class it's almost guaranteed that you'll be able to connect with other students. This is a advantge is isn't always available when you learn independently or go aboard.

Disadvantages of traditional Spanish classes

Limited use of Spanish

A common problem among language teachers it can be hard for students to engage with a new language in a classroom setting. It can be hard for several reasons.

Research has shown that you need more input with a language than just reading, writing, and listening, unfortunately in the classroom setting these are the main ways you'll interact with the Spanish language. Practicing your speaking skills can be very hard in a Spanish class (especially a large one).

A class may not meet your individual needs

Your interaction with Spanish will also be limited by the other students. It's not a uncommon that a Spanish class only moves as fast as its slowest student. If you find yourself learning quicker than the rest of your classmates you may find yourself waiting for the rest of them to catch up.

The opposite can also be true if you're the slowest person in the class. There is a chance that the teacher will advance further through the material, before you are comfortable with it. When this happens you can risk falling behind.

Price

Spanish classes can be expensive. Though the price will vary between schools, expect the price to be in the hundreds.

Where to find Spanish classes

You're liable to find a Spanish class anywhere there's a university or community college. Most educational institutions have them, and many have internet based programs.

You can also find private language schools in and around most major cities. Their program and teaching style will vary, but you're interested taking a Spanish class it's worth checking out.

Private teachers

Another common way of learning Spanish is by hiring a private teacher (often called tutors).

What are private teachers?

Private teachers are essentially individual teachers than you can hire to help you learn Spanish. Teachers are generally paid by the hour and work with students on daily or weekly basis. A teacher may come to your house, or you may travel to theirs for the lesson.

Spanish teachers can range from someone who has teaching credentials to someone who is mere just a native speaker. Some teachers will provide a lot of direction during your lessons and teach you the language, others may act more like tutors and merely assist you.

Is private tutoring effective?

Private teachers provide you with one on one attention and can easily customize their learning materials to meet your needs. This eliminates a lot of the disadvantages you find in a Spanish classroom.

A teacher or tutor's effectives will vary from person to person. If you decide to look for a private teacher in your area ask around to see you can get a recommendation from one of their students.

Price

Price will differ between teachers and the area where you live. A rule of thumb that I hear used a lot is that a private teacher can cost between $20-$30 an hour, depending on their experience. You may be able to find one less. Just remember that a quality teacher more often than not demands a quality price.

Advantages of private teachers

The greatest advantage of a taking private Spanish classes is that you get exclusive practice with someone who is fluent in Spanish and has experience teaching it as a foreign language. Like I said before, a private tutor or teacher can provide the personal attention and focus that you wouldn't otherwise find in a large class.

Disadvantages of private teachers

A common drawback with private teachers is their price. It's not uncommon for them to charge around the $30 per hour range. This isn't a problem if they have experience and are actually great teachers, but it makes it hard to take classes if you're on a tight budget.

Another disadvantage is that your class times are limited to the teacher's schedule. You're not their only student and teacher have to balance their time between their lessons and their personal lives.

How to find a private Spanish Teacher

Take Lessons is a site that offers private lesson for music, arts, and languages. You can search based on you city or zip code. They have might a selection of Spanish teachers in your area. Yelp is also a good place to look. Of course you can always ask around too!

Online Classes & Tutors

An example of an online Spanish class

With the advent of apps like Skype and Google Hangouts it became possible and even more practical to move the language learning experience online. The past few years have seen a surge of websites offering paid one on one language lessons with a teacher through online video chat. The trend is growing in popularity, and it is now easier than ever to find your own language teacher.

What are online classes?

An online class usually consists of an online video chat (via Skype or Google Hangouts) between you and your teacher. The teacher can share learning materials via chat, email, or simply sharing their screen with you. This way you essentially get the same experience you would as if you took lessons in person.

If you're learning Spanish you will have your pick of teachers and classes. Spanish is the most popular second language in the US, and there are many sites and teachers ready to help you learn.

Are online classes effective?

In theory an online class is as effective as having a tutoring session in person. This will vary based each teacher and the learning approach they use. A teacher with a good internet connection can teach you from anywhere in world. As I said before they can share video, text, and audio and even use applications like Google docs to work on and edit materials with you in real time.

Price

Prices for online teachers will vary. A teacher with experience and certification will cost more than one without. Professional teachers usually start at $15-$25 per hour. However it's definitely possible to find a professional teacher for $10 an hour.

One of Italki's Spanish teachers

Some sites like Italki offer the option to take lessons with informal tutors, who don't necessarily have experience or certification but who speak the language fluently. Prices for this type of tutor can be anywhere from $4-$15+ an hour.

Whether you choose a professional or informal teacher chances are that an online teacher will be cheaper than an in-person tutor.

Advantages of online Spanish classes

Take lessons at home on your schedule

Learning Spanish online gives you the option of having a class right in the comfort of your own home. You can literally sit up in your bed and have a Spanish lesson. With a large selection of teachers from around the world and in different time zones, it's also much easier to find classes that fit your schedule

One on one tutoring at a cheaper price

Online teachers also give you all the benefits of individual tutoring, but at a cheaper price. Because there are so many sites offering online Spanish lessons and each one has a numerous teachers there is a lot of competition between teachers trying to attract students. As a student this helps you out. Teachers will usually err on the side charging less for their lessons so they can attract more students.

Disadvantages of online Spanish classes

Quality of teachers can vary

Not at all online Spanish teachers are equal. You will find that the quality of classes can differ from teacher to teacher and sometimes site to site. In general though, you get what you pay for.

If you want a quality and professional experience be prepared to pay for it. Don't assume that every teacher or site out is going to be professional and effective. Also don't expect a world class teacher for $5 an hour.

Real world interaction

As affordable and effective as online classes may be, they still aren't a substitute for having real world interactions in Spanish. I personally love online lessons, and I'm a huge proponent of them, but at the end of the day you should make an effort to go out and practice Spanish in real life when at all possible.

Popular sites for online Spanish classes

Italki is an online marketplace that connects language learners with language teachers from around the world. It's also probably the most popular site for online Spanish classes and is recommended by most language learning blogs. It is also the largest site providing online classes. Check out our in-depth review.

BOOK A LESSON ON ITALKI!

Though it doesn't quite have the selection of teachers and languages that Italki has, Verbling does have a couple strong points. All their teachers are vetted so they only provide professional teachers. They also an awesome in-site video chat system which lets you translate, take notes, and even make flashcards while having a lesson!

BOOK A LESSON ON VERBLING!

Spanish courses

Chances are you've probably heard of a few Spanish courses: Pimsleur, Rocket languages, and of course Rosetta Stone. Spanish courses are made up of a series lessons or exercises that are designed to be worked through in a sequential order. They range from only text lessons, to audio, video, and everything in between. These courses are made so that you can learn Spanish on your own instead of taking a class or having a tutor.

Each course is almost always based off of some sort of language learning or cognitive research.

Price

Price will depend on the course but generally Spanish courses run from $100-$300+.

Advantages of Spanish Courses

The main attraction of language learning courses is that they don't require much on the part of the learner. Everything is presented a complete package. All a student has to do is sit back and work on the material. Though this could be an advantage or disadvantage depending on how you look at it.

Research

A lot of courses (but not all) are well researched. There's a great deal of work that goes behind what material you learn and how it's presented to you. Everything is designed to make your learning experience better. You can actually read some of that research for Rosetta Stone and Duolingo, two of the most popular Spanish courses.

Courses work well for beginners

Courses are more effective for beginners then they are for more advanced learners. This is in part because the first levels of language learning are the easiest. If you are new to Spanish pick a reputable course and stick with it you will learn some Spanish.

Disadvantages of Spanish courses

Courses are incomplete

Formal languages classes aren't for everyone

One of the biggest drawback of Spanish courses is that they are incomplete. There isn't a single course that can bring you to fluency in a language. It's almost impossible for any course to replace the experience of communicating with another human being, which is usually the main skill you want to develop for learning a language.

When you can't practice with native speakers one big thing you miss out on is cultural context. Culture is what brings language to life , and you can't find that form a course. In addition to slang, and figures of speech, there's a lot of Spanish you won't be able to understand until you have more or less experienced it.

A Notable Exception:

Rocket Spanish

There are five aspects of language learning: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Language courses are notorious for for focusing on one or two of these aspects and ignoring the rest.

Rocket Spanish is the rare course that teaches you the language holistically, so that you develop a strong foundation in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

The course also does an usually good job of teaching Spanish you can use in a real conversation while also teaching you grammar.

TRY ROCKET SPANISH FOR FREE

Courses can be expensive

Two of the most popular Spanish courses Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur can cost upwards of $300 or more depending on how many levels you buy. Not all courses are this pricey, but you can usually expect to pay well over $100 for one. One notable exception is Duolingo, an effective course that is widely popular and completely free.

Popular Spanish courses

Duolingo offers a fun way for a total beginner to start learning Spanish. This super popular app has two big advantages over many other Spanish courses: the app uses a gamified lesson style that keeps learning fun, and the entire course is free (with ads).

The big promise Duolingo makes on all its languages is that you can learn a language in just five minutes a day. The app provides challenges and keeps track of things like how often you sign in every day to give you rewards and encourage you to carry on with your brief daily lessons.

But can you really learn Spanish from the five-minute games in the app? Yes and no. If you have no previous background in Spanish, you will likely find Duolingo an entertaining way to begin learning Spanish vocabulary and a few other basics like how to pronounce key sounds. That said, you won't get great speaking practice and you will not learn much about Spanish grammar.

Because the app is free, you may find it helpful to download it and give it five to ten minutes a day alongside your core language program, as a way to boost your vocabulary.

GET DUOLINGO!

Rocket Spanish

Rocket Spanish lies on the complete opposite end of the language course spectrum from Duolingo. This course takes a much more intense, comprehensive approach to Spanish, trying to cover all the elements of the language to help you truly gain fluency.

First, the downside: Rocket Spanish has one of the higher price ranges for any language course out there, with a total cost of $450 if you want to purchase all three levels offered for Spanish. However, you can try a free trial to see if you like the program.

If you love a gamified learning program, you may find Rocket a little dull. On the other hand, if you truly want to learn Spanish and can’t afford the time or money for an in-person course or tutor, Rocket may be your best option.

Just the first level of Rocket will take over 100 hours of dedicated study to complete. The lessons have an audio focus but also use Google Voice Recognition software to provide great speaking practice, and app-style review elements like drag and drop or matching activities.

Plus, one of the big advantages to Rocket is that it does provide grammar instruction to help you understand the foundation of the Spanish language.

TRY ROCKET SPANISH FOR FREE

Pimsleur’s app-based Spanish course is one of the best options out there to get you conversational as quickly as possible.

One of the cool things about Pimsleur’s Spanish course is that you can choose either Castilian or Latin American Spanish. Make sure you subscribe to the app-based course (just under $20 per month) rather than using one of Pimsleur’s older programs, though.

Pimsleur’s app-based Spanish course still uses the traditional elements of Pimsleur’s reputable language-learning model, based on the theory of Spaced Repetition, which means that you circle through material with carefully timed recurrences of subject matter to reinforce it in your memory.

Plus, every lesson in the app still begins with a thirty-minute audio segment, with a narrator and two native speakers engaged in conversation. The narrator encourages you to use active listening and to frequently say things out loud during the audio lesson.

While this type of lesson does require prolonged focus on your part, it is great for listening comprehension and pronunciation.

It is also really helpful to have the narrator explain things in English around the Spanish conversation between the two native speakers. Unlike a fully immersive program such as Rosetta Stone, you get to understand why parts of Spanish work the way they do.

While it still has a strong audio focus, the app also includes newer elements, like reading and writing segments, speaking practice using a voice recognition software, and more.

GET YOUR FIRST PIMSLEUR LESSON FREE

DIY methods

What are DIY methods?

The blogosphere is gradually filling up with more an more polyglots and language learners who have developed their own language learning methods without using formal programs or courses. Sometimes these original methods use specific Spanish tools, other times they are developed from personal experience.

Benny Lewis, one of the most famous language bloggers in the world has his own method for learning languages

Is learning Spanish DIY effective?

These methods are typically unorthodox, but that doesn't mean they aren't effective. Sometimes I think they are more effective because they are more interesting. These methods of learning center around using the language not learning about a language. Going back to the bike analogy these guys will all tell you to get on a bike and start riding right away!

What really sticks out with these methods is the way that they approach a language. Some start with pronunciation, some start with basic phrases and don't focus on pronunciation. Some focus on listening and writing before you speak, others are completely based around speaking. Each method is different.

As a Spanish learner you have the option to follow one of these methods, mix and match them, or even make up your own as you go. This was essentially my approach to learning Spanish. If you go this route know that there will be some trial and error as you discover what does and doesn't work, but as the same time it's a very creative and fun way to learn a new language.

If you value freedom and independence in learning then this may be the route for you.

Price

The price can be whatever you want it to be. You could learn a language using only free tools and resources, or even none at all. Also you could purchase a course you like and supplement it with one of these DIY methods.

If you're following the method of a blogger/polyglot except to pay some money. When you purchase their method it's important to understand that you are not buying a Spanish course. These methods will not teach you Spanish. They will teach you how to learn Spanish, usually in way that's efficient and engaging. These methods differ in price but except anywhere from $30-$100.

Affordable DIY Resources (Free to Try!)

Fluentu is not exactly a Spanish course, but it does offer the closest thing you can get to an immersive learning experience without visiting a Spanish-speaking part of the world in person. This program is great for a visual learner because it is composed entirely of hundreds of short videos.

Some of the videos come from FluentU creators, and others come from YouTube or even commercials. They all have interactive subtitles, which makes it easy to learn vocabulary.

FluentU lessons usually last just ten to fifteen minutes and consist of a couple of videos and a review quiz. You can test into an appropriate level before you begin which is a nice way to make sure you get a selection of videos just right for you.

You will not get a lot of grammar explanations here, and you also don’t get any speaking practice (other than pausing the videos to repeat what you hear). But it is true that the immersive feel of watching these authentic videos can help you build excellent listening comprehension and begin to pick up the feel of Spanish.

You can also explore the full library of thousands of video clips in Spanish. You can search by your level or by subject, which is super helpful if you want to focus on building Spanish vocabulary for a particular areas like healthcare or food.

The biggest downside to FluentU is that it costs a lot for a program that works best as a supplement to a more comprehensive Spanish course. If you pay one month at a time, a FluentU subscription is $30/month.

TRY FLUENTU FOR FREE

SpanishPod101 teaches Spanish primarily through audio based lessons. Their site also has a lot of extra features like in-site flashcards and vocabulary quizzes. Their lessons are especially good at helping you developing your listening skills and are great you have to learn on the go.

TRY SPANISHPOD101 FOR FREE

Advantages

Using the approach and tricks of a seasoned language learner can be a very effective way to learn Spanish. You very easily learn from the mistakes they made so you don't have to make the mistakes yourself. Also because they have spent their time actually learning languages, the method of a polyglot/blogger is usually very practical and not theoretic, unlike a lot of Spanish classes and courses.

These guys have put in the time and know where the rubber meets the road. Their methods will reflect that.

Disadvantages

Not all DIY methods are worth your time and money. While there are some out there that are genuinely effective, there also some there a not. You definitely want to do your research to find out which methods you should consider using.

These approaches to language learning don't usually have the structure or accountability of classes or tutors. It tends to be all on you. They will show you the direction to toward fluency, but you have to find your way through their method more or less on your own.

If you like space for flexibility and creativity, then using one of these methods could right for you. If you prefer a more structured and delineated approach then working with a teacher or program is probably better.

Popular DIY methods

Story Learning’s Spanish Uncovered is one of the most unique online Spanish courses out there. The concept behind this learning method is that humans communicate in story. This is how you tell someone about your day, how companies try to sell you things, and ultimately, how your brain best absorbs information.

Based on this idea that human brains need a narrative, StoryLearning uses an ongoing story to help teach all the elements of Spanish, from grammar to culture to literacy.

The program does have a high one-time cost of almost $300. It also does not have a sleek interface or an app at this time. But it does come with many hours of lessons and review material.

Each chapter in the course opens with a segment of an ongoing story. You can listen to the story in Spanish, read it in Spanish, and then finally read a translation in English. If you want to learn Latin American Spanish you have the option to listen to that audio. Alternatively, you can listen in Iberian Spanish.

After this, you move into multiple lessons that relate to that part of the story, on aspects like grammar, culture, and speaking practice.

While there is no voice recognition software involved, you are encouraged to practice saying words and phrases out loud. The lessons sometimes feature video clips from a professional Spanish tutor as well.

Finally, Story Learning does offer a comprehensive four levels of Spanish courses, taking you from beginner to advanced intermediate. Each level contains more than 100 hours of lessons and review work.

TRY STORY LEARNING FOR FREE

Conclusion

Spanish fluency is a wonderful destination. There are many roads you can take to get there. While each one may be different know that the journey towards fluency will not be an easy one. But it will be worth it. So don't ever give up! And if you want MORE specific Spanish language apps/courses ideas, check out this page Best App to Learn Spanish by All Language Resources. These guys cover a massive amount of resources including Spanish.

Have you had any experiences with these learning methods? If so what where they? Let us know in the Comments!

The post Best Way to Learn Spanish (There are 6) appeared first on Spanish Hackers.

Learn 100 Spanish Words in 1 Minute With This Simple Rule

Anthony — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 01:05:22 +0000

Yes learning Spanish can be hard, but..

Despite what you might have heard, it can be hard to learn Spanish.

Even after you take classes and study endless word charts you still can't say much. It's not that you don't know how the language works, it just that in the heat of a conversation you can't remember any words! (Ask me how I know)

Suddenly all that study and hard work seems...pointless

Here's the thing...

If you want to speak Spanish you need to have words to say. The more you have the more you can speak.

To learn fast you're going to want to use every Spanish learning hack in the book. After all life is short and you only want to spend your time and energy doing things that will help you speak (the sooner the better).

Luckily there are some general rules that can increase your Spanish vocabulary almost instantly. In fact I made a list of 10 of the most common.

I'm going to walk you through 1 of them that will help you learn at least 100 words in one minute. Don't believe me? Get ready to start your watch!

Work smarter not harder

Learn hundreds of word fast with Spanish Cognates

The rules I'm talking about are for Spanish and English cognates. If you haven't heard of cognates here's a quick rundown.

Cognates are words from two different languages that share a common root word from another third language. Because both Spanish and English are both heavily influenced by Latin they share thousands of words that are very similar, and even identical to each other.

These words usually follow a rule or pattern so that it is easy to remember them. So I'm going to share with you one of rules I find the most useful.

Are you ready?

...Ok start the clock!

Spanish Rule: -ly = -mente

English -ly endings usually become Spanish -mente endings. Here's an example:

Take the English word exactly. To say exactly in Spanish simply drop the -ly and ad -mente to make exactamente.

Easy right? Here's another:

The English word normally. Drop the -ly and ad the -mente ending and you get normalmente.

It's a breeze!

Here's a quick list of some other Spanish words that use this rule:

-Ly to -Mente Rule

English -ly endings usually become Spanish -mente endings

English Word

Original

Legally

Secretly

Naturally

Negatively

Positively

Actively

Commercially

Confidently

Socially

Totally

Spanish Equivalent

Originalmente

Legalmente

Secretamente

Naturalmente

Negativamente

Positivamente

Activamente

Comercialmente

Confidentemente

Socialmente

Totalmente

A few notes:

The spelling can change slightly from English to Spanish. (Notice secretly becomes secretAmente). Also there are the occasional false cognates where the words look the same but are different. (actualmente really means currently in Spanish. It does not mean actually). But other than that this rule is straight forward and a great rule of thumb to follow!

Life is easier with Spanish Cognates

There literally hundreds of Spanish words that use this rule. See a more complete list here. It's amazing how one rule can increase your vocabulary by hundreds of words! In reality you're not learning the words from scratch. Instead you're making a connection to hundreds of words that you have already learned in English.

...And that's how you learn hundreds of Spanish words in 1 minute.

The good news is that there are more rules just like this one, and they cover more than just adverbs ending in -ly. Here's a list of 10 that cover nouns, adverbs, verbs, and adjectives.

These grammar rules will help you speed up fluency and strengthen your vocabulary. Learning Spanish does take work, but why work harder than you have to? Happy Spanish Hacking!

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3 Steps to Improve Your Spanish Listening

Anthony — Sun, 02 Apr 2017 03:17:21 +0000

After studying Spanish for four years, I thought I was ready to conquer the Spanish speaking world and signed up to live in Barcelona, Spain for a month. I was confident that my skills would shine through and living in a Spanish speaking environment would be a breeze. I stepped off the plane and let’s just say reality sunk in pretty quickly.

Throughout my Spanish courses I heard native speakers talk (through videos or audio clips), but didn't realize how much guidance the teacher provided. I couldn’t believe how fast everyone spoke! I couldn’t understand anyone! Their accents were far different than I was used to and it seemed like everyone blended their words together. I panicked!

Luckily, after a lot of trial and error, I found my groove and adapted to my surroundings. That is when I got to thinking. How could I have prevented a very stressful week of getting used to conversing with native speakers? I realized the answer was simple: I should have practiced listening more.

With today’s technology and access to the internet, practicing listening to native speakers is so easy. But where should you start? Here are 3 ways YOU can practice your Spanish listening skills to avoid making the same mistake I did:

1. Practice Active Listening

This just simply requires you to sit down and listen to someone speaking Spanish. You can do this by using the internet to find music videos, movies, news clips, or sports commentating. Find something that is interests you and play just a small segment.

Listen to the Spanish and write down what you think you heard. Don’t go for a word to word translation, write down the general idea of what was said. Start small and then work your way to a longer portion of the clip. Do not hesitate to replay the clip over as many times as you need it.

After you have finished writing down what was said, verify that your response was correct. You can do this easily if the clip has subtitles. If not, you may have to also write down the Spanish and break down the translation on your own. I would suggest sticking to clips that have subtitles for your first couple of practices.

Recommended Tools

There are a few great sites that offer listening tools to help you along:

Lyricstraining.com

If you are into music this is a great FREE site for you to practice your listening comprehension. Simply select a song (in Spanish) to listen to and type in the lyrics as you hear them. The beginner level provides you with most of the lyrics and you just need to fill in a few that are missing. As you get more advanced, you will eventually be typing in all of the lyrics.

Spanishpod101

Use podcasts that produce fun and culturally relevant Spanish lessons that you can listen to. Site does offer some free material, but has a paid monthly subscription as well ($4-47/month). Check out our in-depth review.

YouTube

YouTube is the mecca for finding all types of Spanish videos from telenovelas, to movies, to music videos and beyond. Pretty much anything you can think of is on YouTube.

FSI Course

These FREE Spanish courses are created by the US government that offer a pronunciation component in each lesson that breaks down phrases by syllable.

2. Practice pronunciation

The way you pronounce, or speak, Spanish directly affects your ability to understand it. It you are consistently pronouncing the word “dog” (perro) wrong, you will struggle to understand a native speaker when they say it correctly. That is why it is so important to learn how to pronounce the words correctly.

Along with pronouncing words correctly, your Spanish accent will sound more native, causing the language to sound less foreign to you when you hear it spoken by someone else. As an adult learner of Spanish you will always have a slight accent, but by knowing how to pronounce words correctly, your accent will be harder to detect.

What to Practice

Focus on difficult sounds in Spanish by starting with the alphabet. If you know how every consonant and vowel sounds, you will be able to pronounce words better.

Vowels

Concentrate on the differences in the vowel sounds from English. For example, the I sound in Spanish sounds like the E in English.

Consonants

There are 29 letters in the Spanish alphabet so you will have to get used to the 3 extra letters. Some of the more difficult sounds to master are the R and RR. It requires trilling your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Many struggle with this because we have nothing like it in English.

How to Practice

Practice letters and sounds individually with a drill like quality. There is a military style alphabet song in Spanish that has a catchy tune and is easy to remember. Once you have mastered the ABC’s, move on to different types of listening. Pick a song, speech, dialogue, or other Spanish audio clip that you can replay.

Break down your Spanish audio piece by piece by repeating what the speaker is saying. Make sure you are imitating the speaker word for word. If it feels weird you are doing it right! Spanish rap is great audio to imitate and adds an element of fun to the task.

3. Make Listening Part of Your Daily Routine

Combine listening and pronunciation activities into a “daily listening boot camp.” Set aside about 30 minutes a day to practice your listening comprehension. Break it down into 10 minute segments throughout your day:

10 minutes vowel/consonant drills
10 minutes Listening
10 minutes imitation practice

By breaking it down, you can fit it into your schedule easily and it will not take up a large chunk of your time. By doing this daily, it will become part of your routine, and enhance your Spanish at the same time. It’s a win-win situation.

Incorporating a listening comprehension aspect into your Spanish learning will set you up for success in many ways. Understanding a native speaker while traveling or having a conversation will be a breeze, especially if you are practicing daily.

Please make sure to use the comment box below if you have any questions or strategies that have worked for you. We are always here to help!

Keep up the great work! Listening comprehension is one of the harder things to master when learning Spanish. Remember to take things one at a time and don’t forget to make listening to Spanish part of your daily routine. Everyday you will get a little bit better. Before you know it, you will have mastered listening comprehension!

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Best Tools for Learning Spanish for Free

Anthony — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 01:45:56 +0000

If you have made the decision to start learning Spanish, you probably have done a little research and discovered that paid learning courses can get expensive. Not everyone can afford to take a college class, and thanks to the internet, you don’t have to. There are a lot of FREE language learning websites and applications that can help, but researching all of them can get daunting. This is where Spanish Hackers steps in. We did all the research for you! We put together a list of the best FREE language sites to help you successfully learn Spanish.

1. Spanishpod101

Spanishpod101 is the ultimate learning hub for everything related to learning Spanish. The site and app is most well known for it's premium (paid) podcast lessons. What many people don't know is that Spanishpod101 also offers a free lifetime account, which gives you access to a ton of useful resources. There's a pronunciation guide, Spanish dictionary, grammar lessons, downloadable worksheets, essential phrases lists with audio, and a lot more. Also as a bonus you get the first three episodes of every premium podcast season for free.

Monthly Free Stuff

Every month Spanishpod101 gives its free members a monthly prize pack. You'll find video lessons, eBooks, pdfs, and all sorts of other goodies. These help bring variety to your learning and the anticipation makes learning all the more fun!

The phrase lists are super useful because they include audio and example sentences (think of them as a phrasebook on steroids). The free sample podcast episodes are also top notch and are a great way to improve your listening and comprehension skills.

Another great tool included in this site is the learning blog, which features articles on vocabulary, grammar, general language learning tips and a lot more.

How Can Spanishpod101 Help Me?

Spanishpod101 is the perfect tool for someone that wants an easy introduction to Spanish. The dictionary and phrase lists are great reference tools, and will help you learn vocabulary.

My favorite feature on of the free account is the guide on reading and pronunciation. It teaches every sound and letter of the Spanish alphabet. It even covers tongue position and gives practical tips on how to improve your Spanish accent.

2. Duolingo

Duolingo is an awesome free website (and app) that allows you to personalize your learning. The site offers practice in reading, writing, and speaking for all types of learners. Think of as speed dating for language learning. The lessons are quick and easy to understand and you move on once you are done. Whether you are just starting out or just want to brush up on your skills, Duolingo offers engaging lessons for everyone.

Game Like Format

Duolingo is great because it presents the lessons in a game like format. Even as an adult, I don’t want to just read information from a screen and try and memorize it. I need some engagement! If you are competitive, you will really enjoy this site, because you have to set goals to commit to a certain amount of time a day to practice (5-20 min/per day). If you fail to meet your daily goal there are consequences.

Every day that your goal is met, it tallies how many days you have been active on the site. Trust me, this will keep you logging back in everyday to complete more lessons. If you fail to meet your daily goal, the tally resets to zero.

Earning Rewards

The first thing you will do is look over the main ideas of the lesson via a “cheat sheet” of learning points. After that you start the “game” by answering questions to unlock the levels. Levels are grouped by topic and progressively get more difficult. Once you unlock a level you earn a reward.

The reward system is super easy to figure out. You are rewarded with Lingots (Duolingo’s online currency) that can be used in the virtual store. You can buy “Power Ups” or practice activities. There are also other ways (like inviting friends to join Duolingo) to earn Lingots to enhance your bank.

The “Power Ups” add to the game like format by allowing you to stay motivated to continue your learning. You can even buy one that freezes your level so you can take a day off and skip your daily goal. If you are the betting type, you can bet against yourself that you will step up your game and exceed your goal.

Immersion

The immersion option takes your learning up a notch and gives you a place to practice. You have the opportunity to work with other Duolingo members to translate articles/documents into Spanish. So, what does this exactly mean? Well, let’s say Joe (a Duolingo member) needs to translate an advertisement for his restaurant in Spanish, but needs help. You could use the immersion option to help him out and practice your skills at the same time.

The down side of Immersion is that it is not available to everyone. The Immersion tab must be present on the blue bar at the top of the screen for you to access it. If it isn’t there, unfortunately, there is no other way to access it. Don’t take it personal, it appears that development for Immersion terminated in June of 2015. Duolingo is in the process of deciding whether or not to keep it.

Text Translation Services

Maybe you are just starting out on your Spanish language learning journey and need some help translating documents. Duolingo can help. As a member, you can upload noncommercial text (documents for personal use) and have it translated for free.

Need something for commercial (copyrighted) use? Duolingo can still help, but there is a fee associated with it. You also have to apply for this service, which is not hard.

If you don’t have the Immersion tab on your page, simply search (in Duolingo) for “translation.” On the right, click “Can I upload immersion documents to be translated?” Finally, click the “upload content” link and it will take you to the proper page to get you started.

Why Duolingo?

Other than the unbeatable price tag, Duolingo is actually well researched and proven effective. They use and analyze the data gathered from their site to tailor the learning to each member. Schools nation wide use this site to aide in learning a language.

On average 34 hours of Duolingo is equal to 1 semester of a college level course. In essence, after you finish, you could hold our own in a college level 2 Spanish class. Keep in mind that the number one factor of student success actually hinders on the student. Student motivation is a key factor.

How Can I Use Duolingo to Aid My Learning?

Since Duolingo has a mobile app, you have the ability to learn Spanish anywhere, anytime. You can complete your lessons on the subway, waiting in line at the DMV, or in your pajamas at home. It’s your choice when and where you learn.

If you are just starting out, or speaking Spanish like a native, you can use this site to learn new vocabulary or brush up on what you already know. It is also a great site to practice all of the grammar you learn right here on Spanish Hackers! Trouble with the preterite? Head on over to Duolingo and practice using the tense!

No matter what your Spanish language goals are, Duolingo has something to offer. The fact that it is used in schools elementary through college is proof that this site knows what it is doing. With the added benefits of game like lessons and the possibility to earn rewards, Duolingo can keep you motivated and wanting to learn more.

3. Spanishdict

SpanishDict is a website that provides an online Spanish-English and English-Spanish dictionary, translation, and language learning tools. It also offers a Q&A Forum for Spanish learners to ask questions to other users regarding the Spanish language.

Online Translator & Dictionary

I will be completely honest when I say that this is the ONLY online translator I will use. It gives the most accurate information as well as 3 different sources for each translation. All you have to do is type in an English (or Spanish) word and it provides you with a translation, audio on how the word sounds, dictionary definitions, multiple ways the word it is used, and sentence examples. It’s so much better than looking the word up in a paper dictionary!

The best part about this site? It gives you a conjugation table for any verb you look up. That’s right, all the tenses and how to conjugate the verb for each subject. Life as a Spanish language learner just got better!

Not only do you get a verb conjugation table, but it also provides you with examples of common expressions used with the verb. If you are more of an auditory learner, there is a video option (on the tab bar right under the verb) that gives you a brief video of how to say the word and how it sounds in a sentence.

Free Grammar Lessons

On the menu tab of Spanishdict, you can find free Spanish grammar lessons to suit your learning needs. The lessons are neatly organized by grammar topic and easy to navigate. There is a free practice quiz at the end of each lesson that allows you to test your new knowledge. This is a great feature because you will be able to determine if you mastered the skill or need more practice.

Why Spanishdict?

I am not joking when I say that this is the BEST online translators ever. It gives you the most accurate translation, even if you use if for a short sentence. I love that the site not only translates, but provides you with so many different types of information as well. So, go ahead and throw away that paper dictionary! This site has everything you need for all of your translating needs.

How to Incorporate This Website into Your Learning

Spanishdict is an amazing all around reference tool. It is a great site for looking up words and phrases, as well as verb conjugations and grammar rules. As you continue to learn and practice your Spanish, you can also use this site to reference any vocab or grammar that you feel needs reinforcement. The practice quizzes can further enhance your learning by giving you an idea of what you need to work on.

4. Forvo

Forvo is a website that offers users the ability to listen to words pronounced by native speakers. Simply search for a word in Spanish by typing it into the search bar. From there, you will have the option to choose what type of native speaker you would like to hear pronounce the word. It gives you their name, gender and where they are from.

Being able choose where a speaker is from is huge bonus of this site. You can tailor your learning to where you are traveling to or the Spanish dialect you want to learn. You can also download the speakers’ voices as audio files OR download the app so you can learn on the go.

Users also have the ability to vote on the pronunciation of each native speaker. You can use the voting information to determine who you want to commit to listening to. Once you find a speaker you like, you can use them as a pronunciation reference every time.

Why Forvo? Can it REALLY Help Me?

If you are learning Spanish on your own and don’t hear a lot of Spanish, this is the perfect site for you. Not only is it well researched, but it is proven effective as well. It gives you the opportunity to reference correct pronunciation of the new words you learn. Since you can download the files, you can practice your pronunciation over and over again at your own pace.

As I mentioned before, if you are learning Spanish to converse with native speakers, the option to choose a dialect in super valuable. Most courses teach traditional Spain Spanish, which obviously focuses on one dialect. Forvo allows you to hear how words are pronounced in dialect that suits your needs.

5. Memrise

Memrise is a website that prides itself in using scientific brain research to help users learn Spanish, and commit what they learn to long term memory. The site helps learners use the memories they already have and connect it to learning the Spanish language. You don’t have to already know Spanish to do this, they use techniques to help you make connects to what is already in your long-term memory based on your life experiences.

By using different kinds of tests, the site creates a “work out” for your brain that is tailored to you. According to their research, the more your brain works to recall a memory, the more likely you will remember it long term.

Using the Mems

Memrise uses memory cards, aka “mems” to help jog your memory for the vocabulary you are learning. Every time a new vocabulary word is introduced in Spanish, you select a new mem to help you remember that word. As you go through the courses, the mems will appear when the word is presented.

The mem cards are created by other users, or community members. Members can post a card for everyone to see and use. If you don’t like the mems available for your vocabulary, you have the option to create your own.

How the Program Works

Once you create a user login and choose the Spanish course, you will start by learning five vocab words at a time. As you are learning each word, you will select a mem that serves as a memory device. The new vocab words are presented about five times each by using reading, writing, and listening in a spaced repetition system. All audio is spoken by native speakers with different dialects. If you struggle to remember a word, you can reference your mem to trigger your memory.

After all of the vocabulary is presented and practiced, you will take a short test to review what you just learned. The site is good about giving feedback after the test so that you can determine what vocab words you need to work on. As you progress through the courses, old vocabulary is intertwined with new so that you can commit it to long term memory.

Why Memrise?

Because of its format, Memrise is probably the easiest spaced repetition platform to use to learn new vocabulary. The website is really good at repeating vocabulary that you already learned into its new courses so you don’t forget everything once you have moved on. This site is really good at using different types of learning (visual, written, and audio) to capitalize on all learning styles.

How Can I Use Memrise in My Learning?

This is a great website if you are just starting out learning Spanish. It will give you a base of vocabulary words that you can build upon. and use as you move onto grammar concepts. Since you have the opportunity to hear, see, and write the vocab words repetitively, they are solid concepts in your memory, and can be applied to forming sentences and having conversations.

If you already know some Spanish, Memrise is the perfect place to test your vocab knowledge and get in a quick review. It’s fun to go back and revisit basic Spanish and, who knows, maybe you might learn a new word or two!

6. HelloTalk

HelloTalk is a mobile chat app that allows you to practice your Spanish via text, voice messages or phone call. All you have to do is find a language partner within the app and chat away. You can find native Spanish speakers around the world that are ready to not only chat, but help you learn along the way.

How Does This Work?

Just like other mobile chat apps, HelloTalk has specific features that make it unique. You can voice chat, text chat, share pictures from your camera, and even send a smiley face (or two). By turning on the notifications (of new messages), you will never miss a messages from your language partner and can answer back quickly.

HelloTalk also has a feature that converts voice recognition into text. This is especially helpful if you are a little nervous about speaking to someone in Spanish over the phone. This way, you can still speak into your phone to practice, but review the text before you send it.

An in app translation feature is available, which is great for beginning learners who understand the main ideas, but still need help. Since the translation is built into the app, you don’t have to leave the conversation and hop on the internet. You simply press the translation button, and BOOM, the text is translated for you.

The app encourages language partners to help eachother out by correcting any mistakes there may be. All you have to do is highlight your partner's response, click the correction button, and it will show him/her the corrections in red. They can also do the same for you. This feature helps to keep the conversation flowing, since neither of you have to stop the conversation to correct each other.

If you do better speaking to someone face to face instead of on the phone, the app also has a feature that searches for Spanish speaking users that live near you. Just be careful, the app doesn’t do background checks and not everyone chooses to fill out all the information on their profile. It may be safe to stick to texting for the time being.

Premium Features at a Cost

HelloTalk does offer paid premium features which include the translation and voice recognition options. It is not necessary to purchase these features, but depending on your level of Spanish, you may want look into it. The app does offer a 3 month free membership, so you can try before you buy. All you have to do is sign up and text the HelloTalk Team “FI3M” to receive the three free months.

Using the App to Aide in Your Learning

Conversing in Spanish is by far the hardest part about learning the language. This app gives you the opportunity to incorporate Spanish conversation into your everyday life. You get better by practicing, and what better way than to connect, and talk, than with a native speaker?

7. Lingua.ly

Lingua.ly gives you the opportunity to read authentic text in Spanish in areas of your personal interests. The site offers tools to help you along as you read, as well as devices to help you learn new words and practice them. Lingua.ly can be accessed through your home computer or through an app on your mobile device.

Summary of features

After you register, you begin by browsing the articles in Spanish (by category) that peak your interest. If you get stuck on a word within the text, simply double click it and a box will appear. If you don’t know the definition of the word, there is a translation option in the upper right hand corner of the the box to help you out. Select the correct translation, and add the word to your word bank.

Practice Tests for Vocabulary

Once you add a few words to your word bank, you will be able to take a practice test so see how many of the definitions you remember. You must continually add words to your word bank in order to take a quiz. The site doesn’t allow you to continuously test the same words over and over.

Vocabulary Flashcards

Another feature of this site is the digital flashcards. The site uses images, audio, and text to create flashcards to help you remember new words. Simply click on a word in your word bank to see a picture of the word, hear how it sounds, and read it in a sentence.

Updated Articles

Lingua.ly is really good about keeping the articles fresh and current. They are usually listed on the site the same day they are published. Each time you login, you have a new set of articles to choose from based on your specific interests.

Translation Option

If you are reading along and start thinking, “I have NO idea what this article is about,” you can select the translation button to help you. Since you don’t have to translate the entire article at once, you can get the general idea of a section, and then continue reading in Spanish for the remaining portions.

Incorporating Lingua.ly into Your Learning

This site is a great place for intermediate and advanced learners to stretch their reading comprehension, while also learning about the Spanish speaking world around them. As you read the authentic text, you can discover new words in context that you may never been exposed to. It is also a great way to see grammar concepts in action and how they play out in the written form.

I personally would not recommend this site to a beginner just starting out. Reading articles can get frustrating without some vocabulary and grammar knowledge. They do have a beginner option, however, I would wait until you can string a few sentences together and know how to conjugate verbs.

8. Italki

Italki solely focuses on connecting with others to learn Spanish. There are no pre-set courses to follow, the site relies entirely on human interaction. You can connect with a native speaker via Skype or connect with other members in the “community tab.” Italki offers both free and premium paid features to assist you in your language learning needs.

Free Features

After you create a profile you can begin searching for native Spanish speakers by age, gender, and country to connect with. From there, your language partner and yourself will determine a time to Skype through the site’s message system. There is no way to video chat with your partner within the site, so you must be connected to Skype in order to do so

Notebook

The site allows you to post writing entries from your “notebook” to receive corrections and feedback from native speakers. You can also post questions or start discussion on their community board to practice writing in Spanish.

Community Blog

Both students and teachers can post on the blog about language learning topics. These topics can include articles about grammar, the best way to learn vocabulary, or tips for learning another language.

Premium Features

Italki offers members the ability to hire different types of teachers for Spanish lessons for a cost. The price varies depending on your needs, but they do offer trial lessons for a reduced cost so that you can find a teacher that works best for you.

Professional Teachers

These are lessons conducted by professional teachers that are certified to teach a language in the real world. These lessons are more expensive, but are of higher quality and tailored to your needs.

Informal Tutors

These are people who are passionate about helping others learn Spanish, but have little to no experience teaching off of Skype. This option is usually cheaper than professional teachers, but the lessons are less likely to follow any type of format. It is more about practicing with a native speaker who can correct your mistakes when appropriate.

Why Italki and How Can it Help Me?

Italki is one of the largest language learning communities that make it easy to connect to real human beings. By having the option to speak with native Spanish speakers around the world (via Skype), you can practice your Spanish is a comfortable learning environment. Conversing in Spanish is the best way to learn and practice. The more you practice, the better you will get.

You also have the opportunity to practice your writing on this site using the notebook feature. By receiving feedback and having your questions answered, you are able to correct your mistakes and learn from them.

If you are interested in learning Spanish (or have already begun this adventure), but are not interested in pay thousands of dollars to learn, you don’t have to. The internet has opened up the possibility of learning Spanish for FREE! You now have some of the best sites available at your fingertips. So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for the site that suits you best!

The post Best Tools for Learning Spanish for Free appeared first on Spanish Hackers.

Learning Spanish With Telenovelas

Anthony — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 19:12:50 +0000

In the Latin culture, telenovelas are all over television and immensely popular. Just like sitcoms and TV dramas are talked about here in the States, telenovelas are the topic of conversation in social settings, the workplace, and even schools.

Ranging from highly romantic, to humorous, and always over dramatic, the plots always leave the audience wanting more. Not only are the episodes entertaining to watch, they also can be used as a learning tool as well. Watching TV to learn Spanish? Sign me up!

What Exactly are Telenovelas?

Telenovelas are serial dramas that are a staple of Latin American TV. These dramas are usually very melodramatic that revolve around star-crossed lovers with lots of plot twists and turns. Most are romantic in nature, but in recent years, Telenovelas have started to tackle social issues as well.

Although telenovelas have been called “Spanish Soap Operas,” they do have their differences. Telenovelas only run a limited amount of episodes and generally only last 6 months to a year. This is very different from English soaps that sometimes go on for decades!

Telenovelas also have the privilege to be run during prime time television, unlike US soaps which are only aired during daytime TV. Originating in Latin America, the telenovela trend has exploded all over the world in a variety of languages.

They are popular in Canada, Europe and in Asia. They are shown on TV in the U.S., however, the trend never took off as well has it has in other countries. You can really only access episodes on the Spanish speaking stations or on Netflix.

Common Genres

Most of the telenovelas highlight the working class life with lots of romantic endeavors, however, there are six major genres in the telenovela world. These six include:

Working-class melodrama - these highlight the life the working class and are easy to understand. Typically, it involves a poor woman falling in love with a rich man. His family does not agree with this relationship and rejects the woman.
Teen drama - focuses on high schoolers that are tackling real life issues such as bullying, sex, and drugs.
Romantic comedy - love stories with a comedic angle.
Historical romance - romance stories that take place in a historical time period.
Mystery/thriller - showcases a mystery, such as a disappearance or mysterious death, that tears people apart.
Pop band story - usually created for a teen or pre-teen audience, these telenovelas focus on the life of aspiring pop stars.

Can Watching Telenovelas Help Me With My Spanish?

Yes, they can!! Telenovelas are a great way to improve your listening and comprehension skills. You can start by finding a genre of your liking on Netflix and pop on the Spanish subtitles. Listening to the audio and visually seeing the subtitles will help you learn the context of words. Do not hesitate to pause the episode or switch to the English subtitles if need be. This is a great way if you are struggling with specific tenses like the preterite and imperfect.

Not only can telenovelas help you with learning Spanish, they are also a great way to learn more about the Latino/Hispanic culture. They give you window into the lives of others by showcasing food, religion, culture, and even fashion. It is a fantastic way to immerse yourself without having to buy a plane ticket.

The best part about these shows is that they provide a fun and engaging way to learn Spanish. The shows are entertaining and very addictive which will have you racing home to learn. Not only will you remember more, but you will also be able to apply and practice your Spanish with each episode. Soon you will find yourself yelling at the TV in Spanish when your favorite character makes a poor life decision!

There are so Many! Which Ones Should I Watch?

There are a lot of great telenovelas out there and it can be confusing knowing where to start. Here are a few to get you started and worth checking out:

María la del Barrio (Maria from the Neighborhood)

This Mexican telenovela is considered to be one of the most successful shows and is broadcasted in over 180 countries around the world! Produced in 1995, this working-class melodrama is actually the last segment of the Maria Trilogies (Trilogía de las Marías). María Hernández is a young working class girl who loses her godmother/guardian at age 15. Taken in by a wealthy businessman, María is taught how to adjust and live in a world with money.

Over time, she catches the eye of the eldest son of the family, Luis, who falls in love with her. This causes Luis’s mother as well as other member of the family to instantly hate María, boasting that she is below Luis. Slowly, María begins to win the hearts of the residents and employees of the house, but not without some setbacks along the way.

Yo Soy Betty, La Fea (Ugly Betty)

Set and filmed in Bogota, Colombia, this romantic comedy is considered to be the first telenovela to make it big worldwide. Remember the U.S. sitcom, Ugly Betty? Well, it was a spin off of this telenovela! Due to it’s popularity around the world, Yo Soy Betty has been given credit to bringing telenovelas to a whole new level of success. Beatriz Aurora Pinzón Solano (aka Betty) is a secretary at EcoModa, a fashion empire. Betty is actually a brilliant economist but is not taken seriously due to her looks.

The irony of an unattractive secretary at a fashion empire does not go unnoticed in the workplace. Shortly after being hired, others begin to what an asset Betty is, including her boss, Armando. Of course, Betty falls in love with Armando but keeps her feelings a secret.

EcoModa goes through many financial struggles and it is Armando that calls on Betty to help him out. Will Armando find out the truth of Betty’s feelings? Guess you will just have to watch to find out!

Escobar, el Patrón del Mal

This thriller series is a fictional representation of the life of Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug lord. The creators of this show, Camilo Cano and Juana Uribe, are no strangers to the real life Escobar. Pablo murdered Cano’s father and kidnapped Uribe’s mother at one point. The shows popularity is not without controversy as many viewers have criticized different aspects of the series. The series begins with a scene of Escobar’s last moments before being shot to death by the Colombian National Police.

Pablo has a flashback to his childhood where the viewers are given insight into how he grew up, and where his influences to live a life of organized crime came from. If you are planning to converse with Colombian’s in a very informal setting, this is a great show for you to watch. The series uses a lot of Colombian slang that can be beneficial to a Spanish learner. The show also uses a lot of profanity, so make sure you know what you are saying before you try out your “new” words.

Telenovelas are a great way to to learn and practice your Spanish in a fun and exciting way. The episodes will immerse you into the language and culture with their humorous, romantic or mysterious plots. Now, when you travel to a Spanish speaking country, you will be ready to engage in conversation about telenovelas and which ones you like best. The only thing you really have to worry about is becoming addicted to them!

The post Learning Spanish With Telenovelas appeared first on Spanish Hackers.

Learning Spanish with Comics

Anthony — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 20:57:39 +0000

In all my years of learning Spanish, it never occurred to me to use comics to gain a better understanding of the language. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. What better way to learn colloquial expressions and understand humor in another culture than comic strips?

Language learners of Japanese use comics and manga to learn all the time, giving the learner a quick view not only into the language, but the culture as well. If it works for learning Japanese, it most certainly will work for learning Spanish as well. Let’s take a look at how to go about doing this.

Benefits of Using Comics

There are a wide variety of comics out there, so finding one to peak your interest should not be a problem. I personally would do a tad bit of research on the country of origin, just so I had some background knowledge before reading. This will help you understand the humor a little easier, especially if you are selecting a political comic.

Since many comics target political and social issues, comics are such a great way to get a glimpse into the culture and how the people really feel about certain issues. This is hard to do when learning a language without physically living in a Spanish speaking country, so you can use comics as a gateway.

Aside from the cultural and language benefits, reading comics is fun! When you find one you like, you get excited for the next one, which gets you excited to learn more Spanish. It’s a win-win situation!

Comics are Short and Sweet

We all have busy lives and sometimes reading a book or magazine in another language is just not an option. Comics are short, sweet, and to the point. It only takes a few minutes to read one, yet you still get the full benefits of reading in Spanish. You can pick them up and read them anywhere, anytime of the day.

The images on comics provide an additional benefit as well. They accurately go along with the text, so you many not have to look up every word that perplexes you. Just like children learning to read, you can use the images to figure out the meaning of words without a dictionary.

How Can I Use it in My Learning?

First things first, try and look up as little words as possible. As I mentioned before, use the images to help you determine words you don’t know. Try hard not to reach for the dictionary right away. Use context clues first.

Once you pick a comic, see if it has an English and Spanish version. Try reading through the Spanish version first, then go back and read the English version to check your understanding.

Spanish Comics resources:

Gocomics.com has a variety of comics in both Spanish and English. I like that they have popular English comics, like Dilbert and Garfield translated into Spanish. If you already follow a few popular comics in English, these may be the perfect ones to start with. Gocomics.com also has a moblie app so you can read on the go.

Amazon

Amazon has a few comics in Spanish as hard copies if you prefer not to read on a screen. This also gives you an opportunity to write notes (in the book or on sticky notes) as you read for comprehension.

Comics are a great way to enhance your learning in the Spanish language. Since they are “short and sweet,” they give a busy learner an opportunity to read and comprehend in Spanish, without being bound to a book for hours. On top of that, comics give you a great glimpse into the culture of Spanish speaking countries without having to actually move there.

Even if you struggle a little at first to understand the comic, don’t give up! It will get easier as you learn more Spanish. Every victory counts, you got this!

Questions? Don’t forget to ask your questions in the comment box below. We love helping our readers in their Spanish language journey.

The post Learning Spanish with Comics appeared first on Spanish Hackers.

3 Best Sites for Online Spanish Classes

Jesse — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 15:03:34 +0000

Taking classes online was still pretty new when I started learning Spanish. But these days its becoming much more popular. Before I was able to travel, taking classes online gave my Spanish abilities a huge boost.

I'm always quick to recommend online classes to anyone who is trying to learn Spanish. Even though nothing beats having real life conversation with a native speaker in the real world, learning online with a native speaker is the next best thing.

An example of an online class

Given the rise in popularity on online language classes there are a lot of websites offering them. This post covers what I believe are your three best options for learning Spanish online.

Quick Navigation

What are online Spanish classes?

Italki

What makes Italki different?

What makes Verbling different?

Pros

Cons

Verbling's free lesson offer

Baselang

What makes Baselang different?

Pros

Cons

Baselang's $1 Trial Offer

Conclusion

What are online Spanish classes?

Spanish classes via video chat

Taking a Spanish class over the internet is essentially the same as taking one in the real world. In an online lesson you are able to see and hear your teacher via video chat. The teacher is able to share course materials ranging from text, audio, to video. These classes are usually one on one between just you and the teacher.

Typically you book a classes in increments of 30 minutes. Depending on how much time you book with your teacher a single class can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes or more.

Saving time & money

Online language classes are becoming more popular because they allow you to save both time and money. Because the classes are on online you can learn a new language from the comfort of your own home. Also because there are an increasing amount of language teachers available it is also easier to find classes that fit your schedule. Online classes also tend to be significantly cheaper that real world tutoring sessions.

Price

$4-$15+ per Hour

Trial

3 Trial lessons at a discounted rate

Teacher Quality

Varies (Low to High)

Italki

Pros

Largest selection of teachers
Best prices
Great language learning community

Cons

Class quality can vary between teachers

Buy 1 Italki Lesson Get 1 FREE*

*Use this link to purchase a minimum of $10 (US) of Italki credits and receive an extra $10 free! (Bonus added after purchase)

You can check out a more detailed review of Italki here.

What makes Italki different?

Italki is an online marketplace that connects language learners with language teachers from around the world. It's also probably the most popular site for online Spanish classes and is recommended by most language learning blogs. Aside from being the most popular, there are two things that set Italki apart from other online language learning sites.

Huge selection of teachers

The first is its selection. Italki has a huge selection of teachers (over 2,000) who offer classes in over 70 languages. If you're learning Spanish, or most other languages for the matter, you're unlikely to ever have a shortage of teachers to take classes with.

Professional teachers vs Informal tutors

The second thing that distinguishes Italki from other sites is the option of choosing informal tutors. Italki separates its teachers into one of two categories: professional teachers and informal tutors. Professional teachers have a degree or certification as well as experience. When taking a class with a professional teacher you can expect to follow a structured method or curriculum.

Informal tutors usually don't have any formal certification aside from knowing the language they speak. Typically tutors don't use a structured approach and you will be expected provide direction for the class.

Cari is an example of an Italki tutor who goes above and beyond to provide structured professional lessons (she was my first teacher). Not all Italki tutors do this, but it's awesome when it happens.

There are exceptions, but generally professional teachers are better at helping you learn a language and informal tutors are better at helping you practice a language. Informal tutors are an excellent option to have, especially if you are learning Spanish on your own. Just remember that teachers, because of their credentials and experience, usually cost more than tutors.

Pros

Selection

Italki gives you the most options when choosing a teacher for an online class. With literally thousands of teachers it's the largest site offering online language classes. Currently there are over 400 Spanish teachers and tutors from Latin America and Europe, way more than any other site out there.

Price

Italki allows its teachers to set their own prices. Because there are so many language teachers vying for the same students their price per class tends to be lower than other sites. If a teacher's price is too high their students are likely to go to someone else.

Also because Italki has teachers from around the world, some teachers will be able to offer a lower price based on the cost of living in their country. Because of this teachers from Latin America are sometimes cheaper than teachers from other parts of the world.

However, even with the price competition between teachers a professional teacher will still probably be somewhere around $15 per hour and up.

Community

Italki has a large an active language community. You can search for other language learners and set up a language exchange. You can also post questions or discussions to a public board to get help from native speakers. There is also a blog that is largely written by teachers. All the community features are free to use.

Cons

Teacher quality

Because anyone can be a teacher on Italki the quality of teachers varies. Italki separates its teachers into two searchable categories: Professional teachers and informal tutors. Professional teachers usually have a degree related to language or teaching and have also have experience teaching. Informal tutors don't need credentials or experience.

In general you get what you pay for. If you want a structured class lead by a good teacher then you will want to stick with the professional teachers. If you already have a grasp on Spanish and just want to practice then informal tutors are great.

You may have to try out a few teachers before you find one that's right for you.

Trial lessons

Italki doesn't offer a free trial. After you register an account on Italki you are given 3 trial lessons. These allow you to take 3 thirty minute classes at a discounted rate. Italki lets their teachers decide whether or not they want to offer trail lessons and, if the teacher chooses to offer them, how much the discount is.

It's not uncommon for a teacher to offer a trial lesson at 50% off their normal rate. Just remember not all teachers on Italki offer trial lessons.

Buy 1 Italki Lesson Get 1 FREE*

*Use this link to purchase a minimum of $10 (US) of Italki credits and receive an extra $10 free! (Bonus added after purchase)

Price

$9-$20 per Hour

Trial

1 Free 30 Minute Class

Teacher Quality

High

Verbling

Pros

Offers individual & group classes
Offers class packages
Professional teachers

Cons

Higher quality means higher price
Less selection than Italki

Book Your 1st Verbling Class for Free

You can check out a more detailed review of Verbling here.

What makes Verbling different?

Verbling follows a similar format to Italki with its key difference being that it offers group classes and class packages in addition to individual classes. Verbling has a smaller selection than Italki but this is because Verbling's teachers have to meet certain criteria before than they can teach. Verbling tries to use only professional teachers and follows a quality over quantity approach.

Pros

Professional teachers

Unlike Italki, not everyone who applies to teach on Verbling is accepted. Verbling prefers teachers with experience and a formal teaching certificate. Experience and a certificate aren't required for all Verbling teachers but they are highly encouraged.

This means that overall Verbling has a higher quality of teachers. Odds are that if you select a teacher on Verbling you will be taught by a capable and experienced teacher, which you can't always say for some of Italki's tutors.

Don't get me wrong there are a lot of great professional teachers on Italki too. In fact some teachers teach on both Italki and Verbling (and sometimes their prices are lower on Italki because it is more competitive than Verbling). I wouldn't say Verbling has a monopoly on quality online classes, but they do make an effort to make it easier for you to find professional teachers.

Group classes

One thing that sets Verbling apart is their group classes (which they call tandem lessons). In a group class you have the option of taking a live online class with other learners via Google Hangouts. It's a cool dynamic and can be a pretty interesting way to learn Spanish.

With a tandem lesson you do lack the one on one attention that you'd get if you took an individual session; and because group classes are now only slightly cheaper than individual ones (sometimes the price is equal or more), I'm less inclined to recommend them from a price standpoint, but they are worth checking out.

Lesson packages

Verbling's packages offers a unique way to purchases Spanish classes online

Verbling also offers another interesting option for classes called packages. You can buy a group of individual sessions centered around a specific topic such as culture, business, or grammar. The individual sessions essentially make up a short course that you take with a specific teacher.

When you purchase a package you receive a discounted price per session , because you are purchasing multiple classes at once. It's like buying Spanish classes in bulk at a lower price per class.

Cons

Higher prices

Because the teachers on Verbling tend to be more professional and experienced they also cost more. You're not going to find someone to practice Spanish with for $5 an hour on Verbling like you would on Italki. Most teachers on Verbling are at least $10 per hour.

If you compare the prices with the professional teachers on Italki (not the informal tutors) the prices are generally the same; but as I said before sometimes you can get lucky and find a teacher teaching on both sites with are lower prices on Italki.

Less Selection

Verbling's selection of Spanish teachers is lower Italki's (<100). This is mainly because they are stricter with who they allow to teach. Still, if you're trying to find a quality teacher to help you on your Spanish journey, the odds are pretty good that you'll find one on Verbling.

Verbling's free lesson offer

After you sign up for a free account Verbling offers you one free individual 30 minute class with one of their teachers.

Book Your 1st Verbling Class for Free

Price

$99 per Month

Trial

$1 for One Week of Unlimited Spanish Classes

Teacher Quality

Very High

Baselang

Pros

Best value for serious Spanish learners
Professional Teachers

Cons

Teachers only from one Country
Not the best value for casual learners

Try a Week of Baselang for $1

What makes Baselang different?

Baselang offers online classes just like Italki and Verbling, but with one key difference: you pay per month and not per lesson. For $99 Baselang gives you unlimited Spanish lessons for one month. Unlimited does mean unlimited, if you wanted to take 10 hours of Spanish lessons everyday you could.

Baleang's teachers are hired and paid directly by Baselang. The student pays $99 per month and can then book as many sessions with as many different teachers as he or she wants. At the time of this article there are currently 23 teachers on Baselang. Classes are offered in the morning, afternoon, and evening ( usually up to 12:00AM).

I'll admit the first time I heard about Baselang it sounded too good to be true, but I've tried it for a month now and have had no problems.

Pros

Price

If you're serious about your Spanish learning and you plan taking a lot of online classes then Baselang is your best option hands down. If you take at least 5 hours of classes a week, that would be 20 hours a month. At $99 that's pretty much $5 per hour. Baselang's teachers are also highly vetted (even more so than Verbling), making the $99 price tag a steal if you book a lot of classes.

Baselang is able to do this because they hire teachers exclusively from Venezuela which has a lower cost of living, thus its easier for the company to pay their teachers a decent wage.

They also follow the membership business model. Baselang counts on the fact you probably won't take 10 hours of Spanish classes everyday (though you are encouraged to). It's the same model gyms use. Tons of people have gym memberships but not everyone works out all day all the time. I myself have only be able to take 5-7 hours of classes per week since I signed up, so the model seems to be working well for Baselang.

Professional teachers

Baselang has the highest requirements for teachers out of all the other language learning sites on this list. Baselang teachers are required to have a degree in teaching both English and Spanish, as well as a high speed internet connection, neutral Spanish accent, friendly personality, and good writing skills (among other things).

A deeper look into Baselang's hiring process for their teachers.

Cons

Price

If you only plan on taking Spanish classes a few hours a week then Baselang is not the best value for you. If you want to get the most out of their service you'll need to use Baselang a lot, otherwise you might be better off with Verbling or Italki.

Selection

As of the day I'm writing this article Baselang only has 23 teachers all of which are from Venezuela. 23 is plenty, even if you plan on taking a lot of lessons. So far in a month I've taken lessons with 5 different teachers, which has felt like plenty. Because their teachers are high quality you should be able to find some that work well with you.

However the main drawback is that, because all the teachers are from the same country, you will not be exposed to different dialects or other variants of Spanish. Again, not a huge problem, but if you were planning on learning Spanish from a specific country (mainly Spanish from Spain) then you might want to check out Verbling or Italki instead.

Baselang's $1 Trial Offer

Baselang offers a one week subscription of unlimited Spanish lessons for $1.

Try a Week of Baselang for $1

Conclusion

Italki, Verbling, and Baslang are all reuptable sites for Spanish classes, and 9 times out of 10 you're likely to have a good experience with any one of them. I recommend you check them out yourself (at least their trials) and decide what's best for you.

If you're on a very tight budget, you should probably check out Italki's informal tutors. If you plan on taking as many Spanish classes as possible you should definitely look into Baselang. Otherwise check out all three.

In the end it's not so much about the site but the teachers themselves. When you find a great teacher, one that's right for you, it won't matter as much which site they're on.

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How to Learn Spanish (The Ultimate Guide)

Anthony — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 14:19:51 +0000

Overview of the Spanish language

Spanish is the official language of 21 countries and holds special status in 6 others. Well over 400 million people speak Spanish across the globe, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

If you're a native English speaker you will have a big advantage learning Spanish as a second language. The two languages are closely related (more so than other languages like German or asian languages), and share many similar words and sounds.

More than just being popular or easy to learn, the Spanish language is a large cultural force. It has a long history of literature and art, as well as a modern influence in music, movies, and television (telenovelas anyone?)

What You'll Learn in This Post

The steps you'll need to take learn Spanish effectively
Different learning methods, tools, and resources for your journey

1) Set clear goals

Why do you want to learn Spanish?

This a basic question, but don’t let that make you think that it isn’t important. It’s very important. This one question will set the tone for your entire Spanish learning experience.

Do you want to learn just to travel for a week or two in a Spanish speaking country? Do you want to learn to better connect with relatives or loved ones? Do you need to use the language in the workplace? Maybe you just love the Spanish language.

What you want determines what you need

There are tons of reasons people want to learn Spanish. Use your reason to help determine how much Spanish you want to learn. If you’re just traveling through Spain for a couple weeks you won’t need to nearly to know as much Spanish as you would if you plan on speaking the language for the rest of you life.

When most people think about learning a language they imagine fluency, but you don’t always need to shoot for fluency right away, even if you plan on using Spanish for a long time.

So what should you aim for?

Goal setting

This is where goal setting comes in. In language learning setting goals can make or break your journey. The right goals will help you work effectively and track your progress, but wrong goals could set you up for disappointment.

There’s a common acronym used for goal setting and it works great with language learning. I’ll briefly cover it here but for a more detailed look check out our article on how to learn Spanish fast.

You want to set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, and Time specific.

Specific:

Avoid general goals like “I want to learn Spanish”. Try something more detailed. What level of proficiency do you want to reach in the language, how do you want to be able to use the language? Maybe you want to travel or make friends. Breaking it down this way can help prevent a lot of unneeded frustration.

Hmmm...not that kind of Spanish goal

Measurable:

Instead of setting a goal like “I want to learn more Spanish this week”, try thinking of a goal with a specific number of new words you’d like to learn. Having a measurable goal will help you track your progress. This way you'll feel good about the work you put in and it’s easier to see a result.

Achievable:

Be realistic with your goals. You want to stretch yourself and step out of your comfort zone, but at the same time you don’t want to overwhelm yourself! Trying to be completely fluent in Spanish in a month is a noble but unrealistic goal. Aiming to be conversational within 3 months is still difficult, but much more achievable.

Relevant:

Make sure your goals actually help you learn the Spanish language. Going salsa dancing once a week is great, but it won’t necessarily help your Spanish learning. Taking salsa lessons in Spanish, on the other hand, would be fun and help your learning!

Time specific:

This is the difference between a goal like ”I want to be able to have basic conversations in Spanish”, and “I want to be able to have basic conversations in Spanish in 6 weeks”. Having a time frame keeps you accountable, and again it helps you keep track of your progress.

2) Choose a Good Method (The HOW)

Now that you have your goals you can pick the method that you’ll use for learning Spanish. What exactly is a “method”? For the sake of this article a method will be anything that you use to learn Spanish. It could be a book, a course, a Spanish class, or even a teacher.

This method or material should the resource that will be the foundation of your Spanish learning. Everything else you do to learn the language will be centered around it.

5 Types of methods for learning Spanish

If you’re a native English speaker then you might have heard the old adage “There’s more than one way to skin a cat”. Well there’s also more than one way to learn a language, though some ways might be better than others. Here at Spanish Hackers we divide the methods into 5 categories:

1) Classes

Classes are the traditional Spanish classes you’d think of in a high school or college setting. Teacher, chalkboard...you know the drill.

2) Personal Teachers/Tutors

At one time the only way to have a Spanish tutor was to have someone work with you in your own home or maybe during extra hours at a school. Now in addition to real world tutors we also have to option to take Spanish classes on the web. Whether it’s real world or web, personal teachers work with you one-on-one to develop your Spanish skills.

3) Courses & Curriculum

Typically Spanish courses allow you to study by yourself and at your own pace. There are a wide range of options for Spanish courses. Some use books and pictures while others might use only audio or video. Duolingo is a popular course that allows you to learn Spanish in a game format on your phone or pc.

Duolingo is an effective course that teaches languages in the format of a game. Research has shown that it to be very effective at teaching grammar and vocabulary, and best off all it's completely free!

4) Immersion

Learning a language through immersion means surrounding yourself with your target language and learning and using it to interact with your environment. If learning Spanish were a job, immersion would be on the job training. When you immerse yourself in Spanish instead of learning a language and then using it, you learn the language while you use it.

You can either sign up for an immersion program or create your own. Most immersion occurs within a foreign Spanish speaking country, but it doesn’t always have to.

5) DIY Spanish

The blogosphere is beginning to feature more and more language learners who have developed their own learning approaches independent of a course or class. For the sake of this article we'll call these DIY methods. DIY methods tend to be different from the normal Spanish class, courses, or programs, in that they focus more on how you learn versus what you learn.

For instances a DIY method might require you to learn basic words and phrases and talk with native right away, another may involve focusing on pronunciation first and forgetting about vocabulary. Each method is different, but most do not focus on formal vocabulary or grammar in the beginning, whereas courses and classes would.

DIY approaches are also focused more on self-study. You're pretty much an independent learner when you follow a DIY method. This provides flexibility in the learning process.

Here's a popular DIY method you can check out:

The Mimic Method focuses on learning pronunciation through music. It breaks down a language into it's smallest parts syllable by syllable so that you can get into "the flow" of your target language.

How to choose a method

If you’re considering a course, or anything else you have to purchase, search around for what other language learners are saying about them. You should be able to find reviews via Google or Youtube. Spanish Hackers also has a growing number of product and course reviews.

There are also some other popular language learning blogs that offer reviews and tips:

Benny Lewis' site is one of the largest language learning blogs in the world. He offers some great insights on how to learn a language and what tools/methods to use.

Donovan, an applied linguistics graduate, shares learning insights as well as product reviews on his site. He also tells some interesting stories too.

Also, remember that dedication and hard work are the best ways to learn a language, no method or course can cut that part out. There are no short cuts.

3) Practice what you learn

Here’s where it really starts to get fun! Once you’ve chosen your method and started learning Spanish, now you get to practice what you’ve learned. There are two main ways you can do this, and I recommend you do both!

Spanish Arts, Media, & Entertainment

The first is through media. Start diving into different cultures through movies, TV, books, music, online videos, and other media outlets. The Spanish speaking world is full of awesome entertainment, history, and culture. Here’s some places to start:

Fluentu provides native Spanish videos with a built in subtitle and vocabulary system. You can watch real Spanish videos (commercials, tv clips, music, etc) and learn words in a real life context. It also has its own flashcard system and other learning resources. Check out our in-depth review!

Lyricstraining is a free site that helps you learn vocabulary through music videos with subtitles. The site is set up as a game. Some of the subtitles will be missing and as a video is played you have to type in the missing words in real time.

Native speakers

In addition to enjoying Spanish culture through books and entertainment, you also have to start talking with real people. This is where the rubber meets the road. Even though it can a little intimidating at first, this is where learning Spanish comes to life and gets very exciting. There two places you can find native Spanish speakers: in the real world, and on the internet.

Real World

Language is a living thing and one of the best parts about learning one is that it opens the door to new experiences and meeting new people. This is especially true if you live in the USA, the second largest Spanish speaking country in the world!

Most major US cities have some sort of hispanic community where you’re bound to find food, music, maybe some dancing (and probably soccer); so get connected to the community and live out your new language. Try searching for Spanish language exchanges on meetup or facebook, or maybe stop by your local taqueria to practice, buy a taco, and maybe even make a new friend

Internet

Can’t find local native speakers? Use the internet! there are plenty of free language exchanges where you can practice your Spanish with native speakers from around the world .

This is a great option if you’re under a tight schedule. You can practice Spanish one on one with a native without even leaving your room! It’s not a substitute for in person communication but it is definitely a valuable asset to your learning.

Wespeke is a free online language exchange where you can practice with Native Spanish speakers from around world via video or text chat.

4) Remember What you learn

Whether you learn a new word in class on or on a soccer field you will want to remember it. Remember if your Spanish vocabulary isn’t growing then it’s dying. The process of remembering (memorization) is so important to learning Spanish that we it its own step.

You will remember new words and phrases best after you use them in a real conversation. But I also highly recommend you start using a spaced repetition system to give you an extra edge on Spanish vocabulary.

These systems allow you make your own digital flashcards and then they automatically test you. The system will base the next day’s review on which words you got right and wrong so that you practice the harder more and the easier ones less. This way you practice words the moment before you forget them. This is a powerful and efficient way to review your vocabulary.

This technology is fairly easy to use and there are a couple free apps for it. Memrise and Anki are a couple great memorization tools to look into.

5) Use Tools and apps

There are an array of online tools and apps available to Spanish learners, and just like the methods some are better than others. That being said, there are some truly awesome learning tools out there. Some tools live up to their name, are very practical, and make parts of learning easier. Other apps and tools are just really fun to use.

Take advantage of these apps and tools to help make sure the learning process stays interesting and keeps you engaged with the new language. Or just use them to have fun. Here’s some great tools to get you started:

Spanishdict is the one of the best free Spanish to English dictionary I've come across online. It also offers conjugation charts , lessons, and practice quizzes on Spanish grammar. A great free resource.

6) Avoid burnout and push through plateaus

While learning Spanish you will inevitably hit a wall where it feels like your hard work isn’t paying off. Especially as you become more advance in your learning, it will take more work for less return. To avoid burnout try incorporating a new way of engaging with the language such as a new app, different method, or podcast; anything to help spice up your learning and keep things interesting.

Travel was a big reason I learned Spanish

Also, it couldn’t hurt to take a day or weekend off if you are really burnt out. A short break can work wonders for the weary language learner, just make sure you don’t give up!

7) Plan a trip to a Spanish speaking country

By this point you have put a lot into your Spanish learning. Why not reward yourself with a trip to a Spanish speaking country? There are tons of immersion programs where you can spend a week or longer living, learning, and speaking completely in Spanish.

You could also book your own trip and travel for a short time and test your new skills. For a lot of Spanish students this is the dream, to speak your new language in another country and experience another culture. I know it was a dream for me!

8) Keep learning and use what works

Once you have reached a higher level of Spanish proficiency, the only thing left is to keep going. Use the parts of learning that have worked the best for you, and always look for new ways to continue engaging with the language.

Learning a new language is a lifetime journey, not a destination. Enjoy it! You will see fruit along the way, not just in your fluency but also in the person you become.

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Best Language Exchanges for Any Language

Anthony — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 01:31:08 +0000

There are a TON of free resources for learning a foreign language online. Most people when they want to learn a language, want to speak it. When you want to speak in a new language the most important thing you can do is wait for it…..speak the language!

One of the best ways to do this is through language exchanges.

How Language Exchanges Work

In a language exchange two people agree to help each other practice their respective languages. For instance, if I'm a native English speaker who is learning Spanish, then I would look for a native Spanish speaker who is learning English and we would both practice English and Spanish together.

An example of what half of a language exchange might look like (this one is in Russian)

This is a fun (and free!) way to get real one on one language practice, and you can practice any language not just Spanish, English, or Russian.

There was a time when finding a language exchange partner could be difficult, but thanks to the internet and a few really awesome websites, it's now easy to find and connect with other language learners from around the world!

Here's a quick overview of 5 of my favorite online language exchanges:

Free Language Exchanges

Quick Navigation

Wespeke

Pros

Easy to Use
A Lot of Useful Features
Specifically Made for Language Exchanges

Cons

Newer Site: So Not as Many People Use it

Start Speaking with Wespeke Now

As far as I can tell Wespeke is a newer site. I think I found out about them through a Facebook ad. They allow, text chat, voice chat, and video chat. When you sign up with an account with Wespeke you make a profile, upload a picture, and enter all the usual stuff: your name, age range, native and target languages, and your country etc.

After that Wespeke asks you to enter in your interests in categories ranging from food, music, and books, to politics and the environment (none of this is mandatory). You just check boxes next to what you are interested in, much like you do when you first get a Netflix account.

Wespeke then uses this feature to give you recommendations on language partners who share your interests. The idea here is that you will have more to talk about with them because you are interested in similar things.

A quick video showing all of Wespeke's language exchange features

What I like

Easy to Use

Wespeke is easy to use. It doesn't take long to make a profile and once you find a potential language partner you can start chatting right away.

Chat Flexibility

Wespeke shows you everyone who is on their site. You can browse their users by target language, then send them a message and if they respond you’ll be given a chat window and can easily switch between text, audio, and video chats with that person. I really like this feature.

Chat Tools

There are a selection of in-chat tools that help you keep the conversation completely in Wespeke. You can look up words and share links directly within the chat so you don’t have to constantly switch between Spanishdict or Youtube to look up words or share videos.

Also they provide some standard buttons like “Say it again”, “Say it slower”, and “Can you write it?”. All you have to do is click the button and Wespeke lets the other person know what you mean.

Wespeke might be the best site for language exchanges I've found

Notebook feature

Wespeke has a cool notebook feature that lets you click on a word that has been written in your chat and add it to your “notebook” where you can add comments or write the definition. The notebook saves your changes and you can access it during any chats in the future.

What I don't like

Newer Site

The only drawback I've found on Wespeke is that it is a relatively new site. Consequently sometimes there aren't as many language learners to chat with as there are on the other language community sites.

Start Speaking with Wespeke Now

Speaky

What I like

Easy to Use
Unique features like timer & calender

What I don't Like

Not much that I can think of

Speaky is one of my favorite language exchanges

Start Speaking with Speaky Now

Speaky is another online newer language exchange that boasts 100,000 users from 180 different countries. Speaky's platform is very similar to Wespeke and provides both on site text and video options.

Speaky functions like a social network in that you design your profile and then search the profiles of other members ( you can search based on language, nationality, and age). You can then request text chats or send friend requests to others members.

Even though Speaky is similar to other language exchanges it offers some useful features that help it stand out.

Speaky's correction feature

What I like

Easy to Use

Speaky's site is simple, sleek, and easy to use. After making an account and creating a profile Speaky will walk you through their site and its basic features. Chat tools are straightforward and I've never had any problems with them.

Mobile

Speaky has a mobile app so that you can use it on the go. It's a great option that allows you to take your language learning anywhere.

Unique features

Two features that I think really help Speaky stand out are its timer and calendar features. The timer allows you to keep track of how long you speak in a particular language during a chat. This helps keep the language exchange in both languages, which can be very helpful.

Speaky also provides a calendar feature that allows you to set dates with other members for language exchanges. This is a highly useful feature that I've wanted to see in other language exchange sites.

One of the greatest difficulties I've had with language partners always involves scheduling. Often times I have a great practice session with a new language partner only to never hear from them again because it's so much trouble to schedule another session.

Speaky's calendar feature helps overcome that. To my knowledge Speaky is the only site that provides this.

What I don't Like

Honestly I can't think of very many draw backs for using Speaky. It's easy to use and has a great deal of features to help your language learning experience be the best it can be.

Start Speaking with Speaky Now

HelloTalk

What I like

Over 1 Million Users
Transliteration & in App Translation
Can Connect w/ Learners in the Real World

What I don't like

Have to Pay to get full use of Transliteration & Translation features

Start Speaking With HelloTalk Now

With over 1,000,000 users HelloTalk is the largest language exchange app out there. HelloTalk is a mobile app that allows you to find language partners and practice a language via text chat, voice messages, or a phone call.

A look at HelloTalk's transliteration feature

HelloTalk functions as a regular mobile chat app (think WhatsApp) only with extra language related features. Within HelloTalk's voice and text chat platform there is a voice recognition feature which allows you to practice your speaking and pronunciation even within a text chat. You simply speak into your phone's mic in your target language and Hellotalk will convert the speech in to the appropriate text.

What I like about HelloTalk

Transliteration

Also HelloTalk gives you the option of automatically transliterating. This is especially helpful when you're learning a language with a non-romanized script (like Mandarin). HelloTalk will automatically covert the script into a romanized version so that if you don't know the characters you can still benefit from a text chat. NOTE: there is a limit to the transcription feature if you use the free version. You will have to use the paid version if you want to use the feature past the limit.

In app translation

There is an app translation feature. It works fairly well, but like most translators it isn't perfect. It's still nice to have the option of translation without having to use Google translate or some other external app. NOTE: Your translation limit is capped if you use the free version of HelloTalk. There is a paid version which allows you to translate more.

Other features

HelloTalk has a character counter so that it easier to make sure both language partners are practicing their respective languages.

You can also edit the messages of your language partner to correct them and help them improve. I especially love this feature because it keeps the correction process simple while allowing the conversation to keep moving.

Connecting in the real world

You can use HelloTalk to connect with language partners in the real world. The app lets you search for other learners based on their location. You can use the app to screen possible language partners . When you find one you work well with you can set up a real world language exchange.

What I don't like about HelloTalk

Paid features :(

Honestly there aren't many negative things I can say about HelloTalk. The app works great and can help you practice a language. Obviously it would be better if the paid features were free, but I don't think it's wrong for the app developers to make a little money. They gave us a great app so I think it's fair.

Start Speaking With HelloTalk Now

SharedLingo

What I like

Focused Completely on Language Learning
Easiest Exchange to Use
Fastest Exchange

What I don't like

No Video Chat
Not Good for Long-Term Language Partners

Start Speaking With SharedLingo Now

Sharedlingo is an online language exchange made by the founders of Sharedtalk. For those who don't remember Sharedtalk was one of the oldest and largest language exchanges on the web before it was shut down in late 2015.

Sharedlingo is pretty much a better more modern version of Sharedtalk. It offers the exact same features such as text chat, audio chat, and a messaging system, but Sharedlingo is mobile friendly, where Sharedtalk wasn't.

Sharedlingo is essentially a giant chat lobby for language learners. You are able to see the name, country, age, gender, and languages of all available members in real time. If you see a person you'd like to chat with you simply send them a request. If they accept the request the chat begins.

What I like about Sharedlingo

Language Learning Only

What I like most about Sharelingo is that it is straight to the point. The site is only for language learning. Using the site for social or romantic reasons is discouraged. Consequently the member profiles aren't that detailed, there aren't any user photos, and there is no video chat option. In my opinion this makes it a little more likely to find a serious language learner to practice with.

Sharedlingo functions as a giant chat lobby for language learners

Easiest & fastest exchange to use

Sharedlingo is probably the easiest language exchange to use, because so very simple. There's not much to the site outside of the main chat lobby. I count this as a benefit because you can create an account and start practicing with someone almost instantly.

What I don't like about Sharedlingo

I do miss video chat

I'll admit that sometimes I prefer to have a video chat over a voice chat. If you're looking for nothing more than straightforward instant language practice Sharedlingo is a safe bet.

Not good for long-term exchange partners

The same features that make the site great for instant practice also make it bad for long term connections. If you're looking to connect with language partners in the hope of developing a long term language exchange/casual friendship Sharedlingo is not the best choice. But if you do find a language partner that you connect with you can always swap contact info with them and move the language exchange onto another platform.

Start Speaking With SharedLingo Now

Italki

Though Italki is primarily known for its paid online lessons, it also has a free language exchange feature

Italki

What I Like

Large & Active Community
A Lot of Supplemental Learning Features

What I Don't Like

No Insite Chat Feature

Start Speaking With Italki Now

Italki is primarily a platform to connect language learners with language teachers and tutors. You have to pay if you want to have a lesson with a teacher or tutor, but the site also has a community tab where students can interact with other students and practice for free.

You can check out my review of Italki's paid lessons here.

Italki is essentially a giant social network for language learners. You make a profile, upload a picture, and enter your information. Under their community tab you are able to search for other students by native language, target language, gender, age, and country.

The Good

Writing & Discussion Features

Italki lets you post journal entries, submit questions, and start discussions on their community board where you can find answers and correct your writing with native speakers. This is great if you want to double check on how to translate a word or just want to work on writing in your target language.

Italki has a very active community of language learners.

Active Community

There is no shortage of people on Italki and it feels like there are new profiles every day. It’s a fairly active community, there are always discussions going on and questions being asked.

Community Blog

Italki also has a blog where teachers and students write posts about language learning in particular and Spanish learning specifically (they write about other languages too). This is a nice bonus resource. There are some cool articles on Spanish grammar that I found helpful.

The Bad

No Insite Chat

Italki does not have an instant chat feature like other language exchanges. You have to contact language learners through their message system and then swap contacts and chat through Skype. This takes a little more initiative on you and your language partner's part to get in touch if you want a language exchange.

Start Speaking With Italki Now

Conclusion

As you can probably tell by now there are a lot of free options for practicing a new language online with native speakers. Anyone of these 5 are a great choice, and since they're all free I recommend you try out a few to see which you prefer.

There are other online language exchanges out there but these were the 5 I thought were most noteworthy. Do you guys know of any others you would recommend? What has your experience been with these sites?

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The post Best Language Exchanges for Any Language appeared first on Spanish Hackers.

6 Outside the Box Ways to Learn Spanish Vocabulary

Anthony — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 04:35:12 +0000

Learning new Spanish vocabulary can be difficult outside of the school setting. It takes a lot of time, dedication, and motivation to memorize new words to be able to have a conversation in Spanish. This is where we at Spanish Hackers can help. We have thought of 6 different, and outside of the box ways to learn Spanish vocabulary. Check them out below!

1. Label Items in Your House

Simply grab a stack of notecards and label away! Decide on what in your home is the most important for your learning and go for it! Every time you look at an item you will see the note card in Spanish and automatically say it to yourself. Over time, every card will be committed to memory.

Suggestion: Start with 10 cards first. It you go and label 100 items in your home you will get overwhelmed. After you learn the first 10, add 10 more. As you master the vocab, remove the note cards so your home doesn’t get too cluttered. Don’t forget to have a little fun with it. When friends come over, see how many words they can learn before they leave.

2. Thirty Words in One Month

Once again with notecards, put a different Spanish vocabulary word on 30 different notecards. One the other side, put the translation on the back for self checking yourself. Everyday, read one notecard, with the goal of mastery in mind. If you are really motivated, and have access to native Spanish speakers, try to use your new “word of the day” in a sentence.

Don’t have time to create vocabulary cards? Why not invest in a desk calendar with a Spanish word of the day? Check out this link from Amazon to buy one:

3. Learning Food Vocabulary Through a Recipe

This one really challenges you! Find a recipe in Spanish and try and make the dish without the English translation. This means you will really have to be confident in your food, measurement, and cooking vocab. You may want to practice using idea one and two above before tackling this task. I did a quick Google search and found a great site. All the recipes are in Spanish:

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/HealthyEating/SimpleCookingwithHeart/Cocina-Simple-Con-El-Corazon-En-Espanol_UCM_444723_Article.jsp#.WCIQQnYz9Z1

4. Learning With Friends

All you need for this activity is a few friends, a rolling die, a piece of paper, and a bunch of Spanish vocabulary. Choose a Spanish word (you can create cards to draw or just randomly pick one). Have the first person roll the die and follow the instruction for the number rolled (each number on the die will be assigned an activity). For example:

Translate the word
Act it out (and have the others players guess the word)
Give a synonym or antonym in Spanish
Draw it (and have other players guess)
Use it in a sentence
Spell it

This game is a great way to practice with friends, especially if they are trying to learn Spanish as well. Grab the bottle of wine and start playing!

5. Learning With Paint Cards

Head on out to the Home Depot or Lowe’s and pick up a bunch of the free paint cards with the varying shades (see picture). Take a marker and write Spanish vocab words on each shade. May I suggest that you keep the vocab within the same topic. This will help keep you organized and learning cohesively. Once you have your words written, stick them in a box. Pull a paint card out of the box and learn/review the words.

Try to use at least one of the words from your card in a sentence that day.

6. Craft Stick Flash Cards

Breaking out of the mold of notecards, put your Spanish words to learn on craft sticks. In one color, write the word in Spanish. In a different color, write the word in English on the other side. Put all of the sticks in a jar somewhere you walk by everyday. Pull 1-5 sticks out of the jar daily. Know the word? Take the stick out of the jar. Don’t know the word? Put it right back in.

Each day you will master more and more words. Pretty soon, you will have an empty jar to fill with new words.

Anytime you can learn Spanish in a fun and creative way, it simply enhances your motivation to learn more. Have any ideas for learning new Spanish vocab? Please share it with us! Type your idea in the comment section, we love to learn new ways to help others.

Don’t forget, learning Spanish takes time so don’t rush it. Start small and work your way up. Getting overwhelmed and frustrated will only result in giving up. Keep up the great work and stay positive!

The post 6 Outside the Box Ways to Learn Spanish Vocabulary appeared first on Spanish Hackers.