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How to Learn Spanish Online for Free
A friend and relative of mine just asked me the other day, “How do I get started learning Spanish?” and just by doing a quick search online for “learn Spanish” I can see why she wouldn’t know what to do first: there are so many free online resources for learning Spanish that it can be overwhelming if you have no idea where to go. I know this feeling all to well when I walk into a library. I’m LOST! There is just so much to choose from that I don’t even know where to begin! So, in answering her question I outlined a SIMPLE plan to get you through your first year of learning Spanish all 100% for free!
Start Strong
When you begin studying Spanish you are going to have to have a lot of dedication! I suggest you start out studying Spanish NO less than three hours a week. Honestly, if you can’t devote three hours a week you won’t progress and as a result, you’ll end up hanging up the goal of learning Spanish. This is especially true the first few months of studying. You really need to get a solid foundation quick so that you will stay motivated and get rid of that “lost” feeling when learning a new language.
Spanish Pronunciation, Grammar, and Vocabulary
You will need to start out by dedicating an hour to pronunciation, an hour to grammar, and an hour to vocabulary for the first 3 months. StudySpanish.com is one of the best web sites out there for learning Spanish and they of course have a pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary learning section. The lessons at StudySpanish.com are in order and build upon themselves, so it’s VERY important to not jump around on the site. Once you finish the pronunciation section, replace it with grammar. So that will give you two grammar days and one vocabulary day per week. Study Spanish has a lot of free material and I don’t think it’s necessary to buy their CDs. If you get through all of the free material and want more, then you can consider the CDs. But first get through the free stuff since there is a whole lot of it.
Children’s Short Stories
Ok, so learning pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary is the first step. After you have been studying for a few months, I recommend replacing your vocabulary study day with listening to and reading short children’s stories in Spanish. You’ll learn lots of new vocabulary words just from the stories so you can pretty much stop memorizing long list of related vocabulary words. Use WordReference.com as your online dictionary and don’t be scared to ask in the forums if you can’t figure out what a word or sentence means.
Watch Cartoons in Spanish
Once you start to feel that you are understanding the children’s short stories in Spanish, I recommend you add watching cartoons in Spanish to your weekly study plan. You can replace one of your grammar days with a cartoon day or you can add a day to your study routine since watching cartoons in Spanish isn’t too strenuous. It’s not strenuous but you really do learn a lot without even realizing it!
Learn Spanish in a Year Outline
I divide each change into 3-month increments. But if you feel like you are ready to move on to the next step before 3 months, you should. Or if you don’t feel ready at 3 months to move on, then stay where you are. You be the judge.
- 3 months: Start out having a study day for pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.
- 3 months: Replace pronunciation with an extra grammar day. Therefore, you have two grammar days and one vocabulary day.
- 3 months: Replace vocabulary with listening to and reading short children’s stories in Spanish. Therefore, you have two grammar days and one story day.
- 3 months: Replace grammar with watching cartoons in Spanish. Therefore, you have one grammar day, one story day, and one cartoon day.
You’ve been studying Spanish for a year already and you know what, you can probably talk to and understand native speakers pretty well (at least when they are speaking to you). Congratulations! But don’t let it stop there and don’t EVER stop using what you have learned, because if you do, you know what will happen: you’ll lose so much of what you learned or maybe even forget Spanish completely. So, once you get to a level where you are happy with your Spanish abilities, then you can slack off the speed if you like and just start to really enjoy Spanish. Always try to do something in Spanish though: read a novel for teenagers, read magazines, read the health pamphlets in Spanish when you are at the doctor, try to speak 100% in Spanish at the Mexican restaurant, maybe even attend a Spanish speaking church, you get the idea.
And remember, if learning a foreign language were easy we would all be bilingual! It’s not easy. It’s hard and time-consuming and no program you buy will make you fluent! So, don’t get scammed into anything that tells you that you will be fluent in 4 months or something bogus like that. I personally have been studying Spanish for 7 years and received my B.A. in Spanish and I am still learning everyday! And just so you know, I started really communicating after 2 years of studying Spanish, but I only studied grammar so my formula wasn’t right. Once I added real Spanish speakers to the equation my Spanish speaking and comprehension abilities sky-rocketed! That’s why listening to and reading short stories and watching cartoons in Spanish is absolutely vital to your success!
Good luck!
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Comments
It’s good to learn Spanish, but is easier to use an online translator, like http://www.sms-translator.net
Also, watching cartoons in Spanish is great..
I have an MP3 audio course on my phone and I listen it all the time. When I need to translate something, I go to http://www.mobile-translator.net
Thank you for the advice! I agree, I know many guys at school that ended up lost trying to learn Spanish online. I will forward this post to them.