learn Spanish

Taxi driver waiting for you to pay him the correct amount.

Mi Vida Loca is an interactive first person telenovela. It’s so interactive that the program starts by asking if your male or female. The characters talk directly to you. The video stops and helps translate and the narrator is always helping.

The first episode has you in a taxi driving around Madrid enroute to your friend’s apartment. At the end of the taxi ride click and drag the correct amount of Euros to pay for the fair.

I really enjoyed Destinos, this is much more interactive than Destinos and the story stops while grammar or translations are being explained by the narrator or by the human phrasebook that pops up and gives helpful phrases and translations.

I’ve only seen the first couple of episodes, but the plot has a mystery to be solved and moves along pretty well.  Here’s the link again for Mi Vida Loca.

Think Spanish!

Think Spanish! Audio Magazine is a magazine about Spanish culture from around the world. It says it’s for all levels however, I’d suggest at least some knowledge of Spanish is needed so you will at understand some of the magazine without have to always refer to the included glossary on every page and not be discouraged. The magazine is a monthly issue accompanied by an audio CD. The Audio CD contains the entire magazine, so you can listen while you read or listen to the CD during your commute.

This makes a great addition to your regular study program in that it gives you a look into Spanish culture and unlike a regular Spanish magazine or newspaper, you won’t need your dictionary because a bilingual glossary is on every page.

Think Spanish! gives you the variety of something different every month and each issue is filled with vocabulary, grammar,

Think Spanish! arrives at your door every month filled with practical Spanish vocabulary, grammar, idioms and even short test that review what you’ve read.

This is a great way to keep your Spanish fresh and current. Only $10 a month for the magazine plus audio CD or if you only want the magazine delivered it’s less.

Think Spanish! Audio Magazine

This is more immersion and not so much instruction. There music videos, Spanish speakers talking about various subjects, news and drams videos. Completely in Spanish. There are subtitles in Spanish and English below the video. You have the option of hiding one or both languages and just listening. The video player has the regular pause, back and forward controls and seems to load fairly quick.

One of the cool features of the video player is the built in translator complete with definition. You can input any word and get a translation in either direction or click on a word in the caption area and get the translation while the video is playing. There’s even a “Slow” button do put the video and the conversation in slow motion.

This is real Spanish at real speed. It’s better than just watching Telemundo because you have the translation captions below the video and you can go back, listen again, translate and learn each word.

Lomastv.com at $9.95 a month is only for the serious students, there’s a couple of free videos to check it out and a one week money back trial to really check it out.

I completed Level one of Learning Spanish Like Crazy in the last post. Thirty, approximately 30 minute long lessons covering a lot of vocabulary, verb conjugations, present tense, past tense, preterite tense, imperfect tense, reflexive verbs and much more with conversations at what seems like normal speed with different actors throughout so you get used to hearing different people instead of the same one or two instructors. A very in depth course for being called Level 1.

Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 2 is definitely the next level. You will not be able to listen and repeat and completely know a lesson after one try. It will take a few listens to get through a lesson at this level. Some complain there isn’t any grammar explanations so you know why something is said the way it is. There are a few, but mostly, it’s listen to the english, then listen to the Spanish.

Level 2 is more than just listen and repeat. It’s more like listen to the English, pause for your answer / translation in Spanish, listen to the Spanish instructors answer, pause so you can repeat the right answer, listen again to the Spanish instructor. So, you have to listen, think, say it, listen to the answer and repeat to make sure you have it along with the right accent.

Personally, If I’m listening in my car and there is traffic or distractions, I have to go back and start over. This is not a casual easy listen, at least for me. For instance the same English phrase may be said in different ways, but they are still looking for the same Spanish answer. Level 2 of Learning Spanish Like Crazy is very indepth with new verbs, new verb conjugations and new nouns all in one lesson.

The eight bonus lesson, plus two bonus lessons for slang, an hours worth of video lessons for more vocabulary and downloadable transcripts make this a great program if you’re really serious about learning Spanish, especially with Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 3 coming out this year.

I still like Learning Spanish Like Crazy. I’m kind of done with level 1. Kind of, meaning I need to go back and listen a few more times to the last five lessons to get more comfortable and quicker with my responses. Every lesson has the same format a conversation at the beginning, then smaller phrases along with new nouns and verbs are introduced. In the beginning only the present tense is introduced with new verbs. Later lessons introduce not only the present tense, but past tenses and other tenses of the verbs are not only introduced but interspersed throughout the lesson.

Usually at the end of the lesson there may be a little quiz, where you are asked a question in Spanish and told what to say in English and your response is to be in Spanish. Then the instructor repeats the answer and hopefully you were right.

There are 30 approximately 30 minute lessons. Plus several bonus lessons which include a couple of lessons from level 2. So, in level 1 you have a couple lessons from level 2 plus the insult lessons, a non-vulgar and a very vulgar insults lesson along with Spanish Idioms. Sayings that don’t really have a direct translation. With level 2 you get about the same format but more advanced of course and the bonus lessons include a couple of slang lessons and about five more regular lessons above and beyond the 30 normal lessons. Plus all of the video lessons, the user forums, pdf transcripts and weekly teleconferences. Learning Spanish Like Crazy is the best program out there.

The only lacking part is that I think there isn’t a review lesson. About every 5 or even 10 lessons I wish there was a review of the previous lessons without having to go through the entire 30 minutes of each lesson. If you only need a review going back the entire course is a much to listen to. To fix that I’ve started making my own review lessons. So far, I’m only taking the conversation at the beginning of the lesson and the little quiz at the end. In the later lessons I may go through and get some of the smaller phrases that are learned and worked on.

Get your free trial lessons, which are the real first 5 lessons to try it for yourself. Learning Spanish Like Crazy. If you can fully and easily understand the little snippet from lesson 30, you may want to go straight to Level 2, but there is still a lot of stuff in Level 1, especially in the later lessons, probably after lesson 13 it starts getting harder and it’s not just a matter of responding, it’s a matter of having to think and come up with your responses a lot quicker. Since they are on Mp3’s it’s easy to go back and even repeat the lessons several times, which most people have to do.
lesson30snippet

Spanish Pod celebrated their 100th lesson awhile back. Their website has had a makeover and they’ve added grammar and their “comments” (forums) have been expanded. A personal RSS Feed, audio quizzes, transcripts and more. Plus Spanish Pod has been doing a lot more Spanish slang. No swear words yet, but you can get Spanish swear words here.

• audios
• visuals
• text with speaking practice
• discussion
• exercises
• flashcards
• concentration game
• and more

Materials are organized into 3 subscription levels. You select the level that suits you according to your budget and schedule.

If you really want to go above and beyond you can sign up for the Guided or Executive levels and get SpanishPod’s new Guided service, you’ll chat with an expert to tailor your studies, and then meet once a month for testing and feedback.

The site and the program have been upgraded and is worth checking out and worth checking out again if you passed them up before. Spanish Pod! Sign up with only your email here and get a free 7 day Premium trial.

Flashcard Exchange is a great site for not only building your own flashcards but you can use and share the flashcards other people have made. There are literally thousands of flashcards already available for Spanish. People have made flashcards to help with certain CD programs, flashcards that are related by a certain subject or you’ll see flashcard sets made to help in a language class in school.

The basic membership is free and allows you to build a flashcard set and share it, use other’s flashcard sets and study online. With a on time fee of $19.95 you get to print out your flash cards, export them to excel and use flash cards with images.

Not only is there Spanish, but almost any language in the world. And not only languages but many different subjects like Pharmacology, Anatomy, Chemistry, Nursing and almost any subject imaginable.

There are a zillion different places on the internet to find stuff to help you learn how to speak Spanish. The most common and well known is Amazon.com. I’ve got a “Store” setup on the Products page that has a bunch of learning Spanish products in one place. Full disclosure – It’s an “affiliate” store, if you buy something or even click through to Amazon, I’ll get a very small commission. I mainly put it there to see how it would look and another was so everything would be in one place. There are books, dictionaries, and I even started going to Amazon for downloading of some Latin music MP3’s. So, it’s convienent for me. I like Amazon for the reviews, but I try and be careful of the reviews too. I take out the highest (could be an agenda) and the lowest (could be an ax to grind) and believe more of the ones in the middle ground. And I’ve still boughten things that weren’t really right for me.

Did you know there are Spanish Learning Products on Ebay? (Click here) Tons and tons of Spanish learning stuff. Ebay isn’t just about auctions. Most products have a “Buy it Now” symbol. Instead of waiting for the auction to end, just buy it. Usually for a lot cheaper than anywhere else on the net. A lot of people have regular stores setup on Ebay and are carrying more than one item or more than one copy so what’s the point of an auction? You may still get it cheaper, but probably not by much. If you’ve never done Ebay, it’s easy to sign up, most take credit cards or Paypal and your purchases are completely secure and any customer service issues are usually handled quickly because people don’t want bad reviews or their rating to drop. And yes, that’s an affiliate link also.

Either the Amazon or the Ebay listings are there mainly as reference for myself and my own shopping. Plus it was a nice programming exercise. With the commissions either of these pay, I’d have to get tens of thousands of visitors here a month to quit my day job and that’s not going to happen. If you’d like to support the site, I’d appreciate it, especially since it doesn’t raise or affect your costs at all.

I’m about two thirds through level one of Learning Spanish Like Crazy. It’s getting harder, but not impossible. It is getting more challenging. Now when a new verb is learned, the past tense and the present tense is learned along with whatever other tense they can throw in. It takes me a little longer to think about which tense is suppose to be and what the answer is. They’re not really “trick” questions, but the questions definitely make you think. It’s not just a hear and translate mode. I’ve noticed the English part being said in different ways for the same Spanish answer.

I’m still listening to Spanish Pod. Newbie lessons are too easy, Elementary is good, Intermediate is about right. There’s still some English at Intermediate about half and half. One instructor will be speaking totally Spanish and the other will be speaking mostly English while explaining the grammar. Spanish Pod is a good listen and learn. They don’t give the listener any time to respond so any responding or practicing has to be done while the program is in progress. One thing I like about Spanish Pod is it’s very practical, very every day and modern. You can learn modern terms for using cellphones, texting and computers which is pretty cool.

I actually do my best studying while working. Since I haven’t been driving much I don’t get the study time I was getting before. And between another job and trying to find other jobs while I’m not working at my real job takes away from study time also. Plus, being really sick for about a week and trying to work through it didn’t put me in a studying mood.

These things happen. Life gets in the way of studying and fun stuff. A few days is easy, but this time a few days turned into a lot of days. One bad thing about Learning Spanish Like Crazy is there is no review. There is a ton of stuff that is learned but no little quizzes or review chapters. For myself, I can’t stand going through the entire half hour lesson for just a review. I’ve done podcasts and I actually became moderately good at using Audacity, an open source sound file editor. I’ve got the mp3’s, all I need to do is go through and take out the repetition. Easier said than done. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m not going to post it so forget about that idea. I will let you know how it turns out.