Friday 1 July 2011

Everyone loves a freebie!

Nobody wants to spend a lot of money on something which might not suit their needs.
Language learning is no exception but, thanks to the Internet, it's easy to get an introduction to learning Spanish for FREE.

One of the best learning sites I have come across is http://www.spanishdict.com/ . Apart from the excellent online dictionary and translator ,and the supportive user community, the online video lessons are excellent, and you can download them to your iPod or mp4 player and carry them with you.

Another language site, which supports several languages, including Spanish, is http://www.busuu.com/

Not forgetting good old Auntie Beeb at http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/ which even includes a multi-part mystery series, with commentary and quizzes related to the videos.

If all you want is a dictionary, and one which can be used offline too, look no further than www.freelang.net/dictionary/spanish.php . OK, it doesn't contain as many words as some commercial offerings, but it's pretty good on slang and clloquial expressions and is portable.
These guys actually produce dozens of dictionaries, for languages from Afrikaans to Zulu, including oddities like Old Norse along the way.

Speaking of portable, http://www.spanishpodcast.org/ , http://www.newsinslowspanish.com/ and http://www.voicesenespanol.com/ all support excellent podcasts and, while not all of the content on the last two is free, the podcasts cost nothing and are full of interesting and informative content, aimed at improving your listening comprehension, and expanding your vocabulary, and the voice of Mercedes Leon at spanishpodcast (recorded in Barcelona) is so relaxing, you could listen to it all day.

You want more?
Personally, I start the day catching the headlines on http://www.20minutos.es/http://www.canarias7.es/ and, for something a little more exotic, http://www.eluniversal.mx/ and there are dozens of other Spanish language newspaper sites. Just Google them.
http://www.muyinteresante.es/ is more of a magazine, but well worth a look.

Finally, if you want some Spanish TV (and you don't happen to have a non-Sky satellite receiver ) try http://www.veocine.es/. I'm not certain of the legality of the site, but it appears to virus-free and allows you to watch films and TV series online, in Spanish. 

If you come across any more free content you think would be useful to other Estudiantes, post a reply, and let us know.

No comments:

Post a Comment