Learn Spanish On Your Own » spanish online http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog Spanish learning tips, lessons, product reviews, and more Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:05:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 Learn Spanish For Free http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/2009/01/13/learn-spanish-for-free/ http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/2009/01/13/learn-spanish-for-free/#comments Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:15:18 +0000 Kyle http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/?p=83 Okay, so “learn Spanish for free” may be a little ambitious.  You’ll probably need at least a basic grammar workbook and vocabulary list, but you could get all you need for $20 or less (see my post:  Learn Spanish For Under $50 for the essentials) assuming you’re willing to get creative and perhaps make your own vocabulary cards.  Not everybody can afford to spend hundreds of dollars on a good Spanish audio program and supplementary Spanish grammar workbooks.  These tools are great and will certainly help you learn more quickly, but they aren’t 100% necessary.   Here are a few tips to help you learn as cheaply as possible, if not free.

Borrow Spanish Books And Movies From The Library

Most larger libraries will have a Spanish language section, and many of them will include movies.  Just this afternoon, I saw two of my three favorite Spanish movies available to check out in my own local library.  Watching Spanish movies is one of the best ways to practice your listening ability outside an actual conversation with native speakers.  It goes without saying that reading Spanish literature with the help of a good Spanish dictionary is a great way to build your Spanish vocabulary.  You can start in the children’s section and work your way up.

Best of all, borrowing from the library is free!  You’d be crazy not to take advantage of this great learning resource.

NB:  I found out earlier today that my library actually has a copy of Rosetta Stone Spanish you can use for free for as long as you want right in the library.  That’s a $500 piece of software!  If you’re lucky, your library might have something similar.

Practice Spanish For Free Online

In addition to the free Spanish tutorials I’ve posted on this site, there are a wealth of free online resources available.  Perhaps one of the best places to start is at the BBC Spanish website.  They have a variety of free lessons online ranging from beginner to upper-intermediate in difficulty.  Once you get the hang of it, you might want to graduate to a Spanish-level chat room (chat.yahoo.com) to practice your Spanish in the real world.

Practice Speaking

The best way to practice your Spanish, of course, is to get out in the real world and have a conversation.  Mexican restaurants, Latin American clubs, language exchanges, and even the local Hispanic district of your city are all great places to learn.  Don’t be afraid:  most Spanish speakers will be delighted to help you with your Spanish if you are friendly and outgoing.

]]> http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/2009/01/13/learn-spanish-for-free/feed/ 1 Best Online Resources To Practice Reading Spanish http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/2009/01/08/best-online-resources-to-practice-reading-spanish/ http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/2009/01/08/best-online-resources-to-practice-reading-spanish/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:25:24 +0000 Kyle http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/?p=174 Practice makes perfect when it comes to learning a language. In addition to working through your various workbooks and audio programs, you should be reading the language at every opportunity. Sure, you could buy Harry Potter in Spanish and struggle through that, but there are plenty of free resources online to do the trick.

Spanish News Online

Reading the news is an ideal way of basic and intermediate learners to practice reading Spanish because journalists tend to avoid using big words of complex grammatical expressions. Even beginners with just a month or so of study under their belt should have no trouble reading most news stories with the help of a good dictionary.

Two of my favorite Spanish news sources are:

CNN en Español

and

BBC Mundo

Even just 10 or 15 minutes per day reading the news, dictionary in hand, will yield dramatic improvements in your Spanish reading comprehension. Once you’re comfortable reading the news without a dictionary, feel free to make the jump to literature. But I think the news offers a relatively straightforward and free way for most learners to get their start.

]]> http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/2009/01/08/best-online-resources-to-practice-reading-spanish/feed/ 0