This thread is for all the resources for learn Spanish. I had asked in Spanish http://polydog.org/index.php?threads/¿qué-puedo-hacer-para-mejorar-mi-español.103/ but Big Dog suggested to post in English about this. Pronuncation Tastyonions suggested this: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/# Grammar Listening Other
Intro Courses - pick 1 a) Pimsleur -grossly overpriced but widely available at libraries and "out there" b) Learning Spanish Like Crazy - reasonably priced, but watch out for the x-lite versions -and use a throwaway email account because you will get spammed hard every day for the rest of your life Beginners + Intermediate Course (referred to as "advanced" by course publishers) - pick 1 or more a) Destinos video course - available online and "out there" as far as vids, but need to buy book and workbooks which are cheap used -Nuevos Destinos streaming off Annenberg site for followup b) Assimil - either Without Toil or NSWE + Using Spanish - watch out for bad translations with latter c) Living Language Ultimate Beginner to Intermediate and Advanced (not current dumbed down offerings) d) FSI Spanish or Platiquemos e) Linguaphone + advanced course f) Colloquial 1 and 2 or Teach Yourself series if you like more grammar based methods Followup - pick several a) any reasonable grammar book or Practice Makes Perfect series +spanish.about.com b) extensive/intensive reading of news online with pop-up translator or google translate c) any cheesy telenovela of choice on Univision/Galvision/Telemundo available as part of cable subscription or online (La Reina Del Sur which is often touted is actually not good for everyday language unless you're a gangster) d) LingQ/RWT/etc. e) drill some Anki shared decks up to about 10K words f) start frequenting taquerias and mercados /attend religious services in Spanish /not that hard to meet Spanish speakers in US at least except in Alaska maybe
Excellent post by Peregrinus! I would suggest a very similar approach, using many of the same resources. These are all free and helped me get to where I currently am in Spanish: Absolute beginner: Pimsleur - it's free at most libraries in North America (maybe also in Europe?) and it's excellent for pronunciation, which is one of your goals Mi Vida Loca - 24-episode interactive video course on BBC. It's *not* very rigorous, but it's a nice confidence-builder, it's fun, and you'll get some exposure to spoken Spanish. bonus: full transcripts available. anki - I like making my own decks, adding new vocabulary as I go. I like to keep my decks manageable, under 15 minutes per day. Music - easy way to incorporate native materials right from the beginning. I started out with a new song every week, which I sang along to twice every day. * not a bad idea to start watching Spanish TV/movies with English subtitles. This will let you start getting used to the "music" of the language. It will also give you something to rewatch later, when you no longer need the subtitles, but benefit from a familiar story. Beginner/high beginner/low intermediate: carry on with music and building anki decks Duolingo - not perfect, and certainly not good enough as a standalone resource, but I found it very useful to use it for 15-20 minutes at a time, 3 or 4 times a week. It's good for drilling spelling, gender and sentence structure. FSI - it's not for everyone, but it's a very comprehensive course and it *will* help you develop a solid understanding (and rapid recall) of grammar. I used it while walking, as a purely audio course. Veinte Mundos - beautifully produced articles with full audio podcast and pop-up dictionary. Great resource! Destinos - pretty much the best thing that I did to improve my Spanish listening comprehension. I didn't use any of the books - just the free videos available online. Notes in Spanish - great podcast for Spanish learners. I started at the intermediate level, after finishing Destinos. I listened to each podcast three times during my commute. After the intermediate podcasts, the advanced ones are very good for natural spoken Spanish. Grammar resource - I used the Practice Makes Perfect Verb Tense book. I used a gift card - not free, but very affordable. Very US-centric, with lots of pop culture references. But it explains concepts well and moves along at a steady pace. You could also use the About Spanish site, which is free and comprehensive but absolutely plastered in obnoxious ads. language partners or tutors - opinions on speaking vary, but I like to start speaking very early. I find it very motivating, since my goal in language learning is to talk to people. A good partner or tutor is worth their weight in gold, but a bad one is worse than useless. I found my conversation partners on Conversation Exchange and Italki, and all of my tutors are through italki. (not free, but I offer limited French classes and use the credits that I earn) reading - I think that late beginner/early intermediate is the perfect time to try an easy novel. I started with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which I also owned in English, and then moved on to other Roald Dahl books and Despereaux. I also read articles in magazines or on news sites like BBC Mundo. writing - write and post texts on sites like italki or lang-8 to have them corrected by native speakers. Short texts get better corrections. solid intermediate on to advanced (where I currently am, in that hazy place somewhere between B2 and C1): Carry on with music, anki decks, conversation partners/tutors and *lots* of reading. Advanced Notes in Spanish is also very useful. At this level, you're ready to move from learning the language to *using* the language. You need lots of input at this level. Books, of course, but also movies and TV shows to get used to regular spoken Spanish. books - find something that you like. I'm a big fan of extensive reading - reading just for pleasure, using books that I can understand. I'm currently reading book 3 of the Percy Jackson series, and have read the first 2 Harry Potter books. articles/news/etc - BBC Mundo for articles, Voz de America (US-centric news radio show), Democracy Now (US-centric news report with full transcript). I'd like to find some less US-centric audio resources. TV shows - English shows/movies that you know well and that are dubbed into Spanish (I'm watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Simpsons), Spanish shows/movies with or without Spanish subtitles (I watch on DramaFever, but I don't think it's available in Europe. I loved Isabel, liked Desaparecida and liked-hated La Fuga. Currently watching Fragiles, which is a great show), nature documentaries like Planet Earth or Life. Learning Spanish is a lot of fun, because there are just so many resources to choose from! I'm using a much more traditional course-based approach to Tagalog, and while I like it a lot, I miss the variety that I found even as an absolute beginner in Spanish. I have a very sporadically-updated blog where I posted more in-depth reviews about a lot of the resources that I mentioned in this post.
@Stella: Excellent and more detailed list of resources. As you note, there is a rich variety of resources for Spanish. The holy grail of resources for me would be a large repository of telenovela scripts. In the past I have searched far and wide on the net (searching in Spanish) and I don't remember that I could even find one. I did find a short article that said someone proposed to make such a repository for the use of writers, but I never found any followup to indicate the proposal was put into practice. While files of Spanish subtitles are findable, I don't trust them to be fully accurate.
Great stuff! A link to the films thread (http://polydog.org/index.php?threads/spanish-language-films.184/) would be useful too. Since people are always mentioning series/telenovelas, what would be really helpful would be to build up some sort of list of them with a very brief description of the plot/theme, where they're from, and where to watch them (in terms of legal sites/channels/services etc. of course). Or if there's already such a list somewhere then I'd like to know. Personally I've almost finished Assimil and Destinos so I'm keen to move onto some authentic material, but there are so many of them that I've no idea where to start or what would appeal to me and I'm sure others are in the same situation! I suppose I'm looking for something that's preferably from Spain and has lots of everyday language, but is a bit more interesting than a soap opera.
All of these shows are from Spain and are available for free on Dramafever.com (not sure if the site is available outside of North America). DramaFever is an amazing resource for Spanish shows. It includes optional English subtitles, but no Spanish subtitles…too bad! I'm currently watching - and loving - Fragiles / Fragile. It's a sometimes-funny drama about a physiotherapist who uses unconventional methods to heal his patients - but all the while he's struggling with his own personal issues. It's a very, very good show. There are two 8-episode seasons of the show, but only season one is available on DramaFever. I also enjoyed Desaparecida / Missing, a crime drama about a young girl who disappears on her 18th birthday. The show follows her family as they try to cope with her disappearance, the police officers as they try to find her, and her father as he carries out an investigation of his own. The story definitely sucks you in! The whole story lasts 13 episodes. I started out loving La Fuga / The Escape, a dystopian prison-break story set in a near-future maximum security jail on an old oil rig. It was really compelling, and I'm an absolute sucker for dark near-future stories. But the last three episodes were sooooooo baaaaaaaad that it almost made me regret watching it. Almost, but not quite. I'm still glad I watched it. The whole story lasts 12 episodes. And I'm absolutely addicted to Isabel, a period drama about Queen Isabel and King Fernando. If you like historical dramas, then you'll love it! There's a lot of talking, and it can be a bit hard to keep the side stories straight, what with all the plots and scheming. It does use the "vos" construction, I guess to be more authentic to old Spanish. There are two 13-episode seasons available on DramaFever. I think that season three will air next year…can't wait!!! Next on my list is Aguila Roja / Red Eagle, another story set centuries ago. Except that I think it's less historical and more ridiculous. From the blurb on DramaFever, it appears that the main character is a 17th century Spanish ninja out to avenge his wife's death and fight injustice. How amazing does that sound? I haven't watched it yet…I'll start when I'm finished with Fragiles. There are 5 seasons on DramaFever, so if I enjoy it, I'll have a lot of TV waiting for me.
One of the best series I saw on TVE was "Piratas. El tesoro perdido de Yáñez el sanguinario". It's a sitcom about a guy who accidentally ends up as a pirate, and starts looking for said treasure. It was bloody good, but it got cancelled. The series ended well, but was definitely designed to have a sequel, but having not got picked up for a second run, they wound it up in documentary style with text on the screen about what all the main characters did after filming ended. The other good one was "Plutón BRB Nero", a series by Álex de la Iglesias (Acción Mutante, 800 Balas). It's a sitcom in space, and a perfect parody of the good old tropes of science fiction -- whether it's androids falling in love, god/the devil in space, cabin fever... it's all in there, in two glorious series. Apparently it wasn't hugely popular, hence no third series, but I wouldn't have wanted to see it run out of steam anyway, so it's maybe a good thing that it wound up when it did. If this was in English, it would be a worldwide smash hit.
A few more resources for listening (aimed at natives): TV Shows Drama Fever is now streaming El Tiempo Entre Costuras, a period drama that takes place during the Spanish Civil War and which got *a lot* of attention in Spain. It's based on the bestselling Spanish novel by the same name. I watched the first episode, and so far it's promising! (English subtitles that can be turned off) My tutor recommended a Spanish comedy called Aqui no Hay Quien Viva. The whole series seems to be available on youtube. She said that it was funny, that it was very popular in Spain a few years ago and that it uses colloquial language at different registers. It's about the various people living in an apartment building. I haven't watched it yet, but I plan to give it a try soon. Episode one. (no subtitles) And my new love: Podcasts!!!! I can't get enough of podcasts lately. Here are some of my favourites from Spanish Public Radio: Nomadas - travel Fallo de Sistema - geek culture (video games, science fiction, comics, novels, fantasy) Futuro Abierto - current issues facing society A Hombros de Gigantes - science I also like this half-hour daily news show for my daily dose of Latin American Spanish: Buenos dias America (longer descriptions of each of these podcasts are available on this blog post)
It's an obvious one but not mentioned yet: RTVE A la carta. Lots of Spanish TV, including a few of the series mentioned above which I'm not able to access on Drama Fever as I'm not in North America. No subtitles though, which is a shame since at my level they'd be useful. There's also streaming radio.
