What resources have you turned to for learning español?
I’ve posted a lot of diferente tips, advice and ideas I have about learning español. I hope it’s been helpful for you. But it’s all just from mi perspectivo. Every persona has their own journey through learning a languaje, so it’s good to see what other people have to say.
One forma of learning isn’t going to work for every persona, relying on only one of many resources can’t get you all the way from 1 to 100 percent, and there are certain resources that will work in some situaciones better than others. You should have several diferentes opciones to work with – mix things up a little and come at español from diferente angles.
For ejemplo, one of the resources I use is DuoLingo. It’s easy to pull out for a few minutos at a time while I’m waiting for something (or someone). But when I’m doing something like driving or cleaning my house, I’m not able to look at a screen, so I like to listen to a podcast instead.
Here are 7 useful resources I recommend for practicing and learning more español.
- An app (and website) that boasts learning Spanish with just 5 minutes a day. It’s a bit like Rosetta Stone, using little tests, pictures, speaking, and multiple choice questions to teach you. I’ve been using this to learn French and it works great for me.
- Another app/website, something like DuoLingo except with a little more fun added in – It uses la idea of your learning new words and phrases to earn points, in order to travel through space. When I heard of Memrise, I tried it out, but quickly got to a point where I needed to pay to continue (as for as I could tell) so I went back to DuoLingo. I can’t say mucho more about this because I didn’t use it mucho, but I did enjoy it during that short tiempo.
- I mainly use this site for its español–inglés diccionario. It actualmente gives you examples of words in sentences, and diferente translations and ways of using words. I’m sure I’ve recommended this site many times – I use it every time I come across a Spanish word I don’t know, or a word en inglés that I want to say en español but am not sure about. Besides el diccionario, it also has flashcards, words of the day, conjugaciones, a language guide, and more fun stuff.
- Another website I use all the time – When I find songs in another languaje that I really like, I use Lyrics Translate to follow along and match el español (or French) lyrics to the inglés translation. This really helps to learn slang and the more casual way natives speak, since songs don’t normalmente follow proper languaje and grammar rules.
- This website teaches you español based on cognates. Real Fast Spanish helps you start speaking español with words you already know en inglés, since there are so many words that are very similar between los 2 anguajes.
- A podcast to help you learn español – I haven’t listened to much of the español because I discovered this after I already felt comfortable speaking español, but I have listened to plenty of Coffee Break French and it has helped me improve my pronunciación and become more conversational.
- A free show on YouTube – I was looking for something in simple español for a student of mine, and came across this show. It’s about a guy named Sam who learns español while in Spain. It may be a little cheesy, but the characters speak slowly y clearly, y almost completemente en español.
*I’m not affiliated with any of these resources; this is not an ad in any way.*
Obviously there are more sites and resources out there that can help you learn Spanish. These are just some of my favoritos which have helped me personalmente along the way.
As you’ve read my blogs, have they seemed to work for you? Have you had any thoughts about how you best learn?