Spanish

Getting Started with Self-Study*

*A very basic guide for my nephew and any others wondering where to start.

For Very Beginners

In the beginning it is good to focus on lots of listening to train your ears to hear the sounds. If you can't first hear the sounds, you won't be able to pronounce them correctly.

If you like things to be a bit structured, spanishlistening.org is a nice website with lots of free videos lessons and practice.
YouTube Channels: Spanish Playground & Comprehensible Spanish,
- You can also just start searching for beginner content. Try: easy Spanish, comprehensible input Spanish, or español comprensible.

Super Simple Español YouTube Channel

This channel is nice place to start for children.

Baby Shark

Peekaboo, I Love You

Do you Like Lasagna Milkshakes?

Chatbots

I created this chatbot on Character.ai to help with Spanish conversation practice. You can write to it in Spanish or English and it will first offer a translation or corrections before responding.

It will respond with Spanish followed by an English translation. Don't forget to enable the character voice in the upper right menu for maximum benefit.

I also created a Spanish-only version for intermediate and advanced learners.

Bilingual Books

These are books in both Spanish and English. There is debate around the value of these books. It is probably more efficient to read or watch material that is at your level and work out the meaning from context, but some learners have a low tolerance for ambiguity. Learners with a high tolerance for ambiguity are able to enjoy immersing themselves in a story without needing to understand 100% of the words. If you have a low tolerance for ambiguity and get frustrated or bored by Spanish-only content, you may want to try some of these. (Bilingual books are also useful for less popular languages were content at your level is hard to find.)

Preciosa / Lovely

The First Well

Note: Bookbox has a mobile app if you are concerned about your child getting distracted on Youtube.

I Want My Hat Back

Podcasts

Podcasts cater to all levels of Spanish proficiency. I recommend finding one that matches your interests, but I would steer clear of podcasts that devote too much time to explanations in English.

Use Your Spanish: This series employs an effective approach to language learning. It presents a short engaging story that is initially read slowly with Spanish transcriptions, followed by some questions and explanations, and then it plays the story again at full speed. The entire lesson lasts about 20 minutes and allows the learner to repeat the segments as needed.

The Next Steps

Listening and Lots of It:

Once you get a little further along a Netflix or Disney+ subscription is very useful so that you can immerse yourself in enjoyable content for hours at a time. If you are watching more difficult content that requires English subtitles, I highly recommend watching the show at least twice, leaving the English subtitles off at least one time.

Pluto TV and Vix have numerous streaming channels with Spanish programming for adults and children. They are available subscription free on most Smart TVs and phones.

Reading: Leveled or graded readers are very easy to find in both English and Spanish. StoryWeaver has a free collection of children's stories. Amazon has a huge selection of Spanish ebooks. Also, LingQ and LanguageCrush are well worth the money at this stage too.

Writing:

Writing was one of the most challenging things to receive feedback on, especially for those unable to afford private tutors. However, this has changed with the advent of AI. Now, you can simply write something in Spanish and ask ChatGPT or Bing to check your grammar and provide feedback.

Speaking:

There are lots of apps for finding language exchange partners, such as HelloTalk and Tandem. However, be aware of users who treat these as dating apps. If you want to pay a tutor to speak with you, check out iTalki.

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