Sky's the limit

Just a quickie, and I'm sorry, but this one is UK-specific.
In fact, it's even more specific than that.
Don't bother reading any further, unless you happen to have access to Sky Anytime+

Still reading?
Good news!
There are currently three Spanish films, all with English subtitles, available to download and view on Anytime+.
The first is 'Rec' (more info at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038988/ )
Then there's the imaginatively titled 'Rec2' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245112/ )
 I've actually seen Rec2. Best decribed as a cross between Cloverfield, Crazies and The Exorcist.
Finally there's a crime thriller called 'The secret in their eyes' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305806/)

I don't know what the 'shelf life' is on Anytime+, but I seem to recall 'El Mariachi' was available for quite a while.

Enjoy.

Free Spanish books on your Kindle

The Amazon Kindle is everywhere, either as a physical device, or as an App.
I currently have the Kindle reader installed on my Android phone, my iPod touch and, most recently on my Windows Netbook.

Finding books for it in Spanish can be a bit of a challenge, especially if you don't want to spend much (or anything ;¬)

Well, here's a tip.
Go to http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Search-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=241582011&ref_=sv_b_0
and you'll find yourself on the Amazon.com Advanced Search page.
I have to admit, I found this link on a Kindlereader.blogspot.com page from 2009. I haven't been able to find the page via any of the menus on the Amazon.co or Amazon.co.uk sites.

Once on the page, you have the option to search for books in your chosen language.
It's much easier than using the normal search and typing in Spanish or Español.
If you're in the States, that's all there is to it. For us in the UK, it's a little more difficult.
Unlike hard copy books, Amazon.com won't let you buy from the UK. I'm afraid the only option is to make a note of the book's name and search on Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store.

Important Note!!
When searching for a book in Spanish, on the UK site, be sure to order the results by 'Price- low to high' or you might end up paying for a book which is listed as free on Amazon.com.

Reflexive verbs - a pain in the (d)arse?

There's a language learning site that I haven't mentioned before, called http://www.synergyspanish.com/ .
Quite some time ago, when I was still looking at courses, I signed up for free tips, and the site owner, Marcus Santamaria, is a persistent sort of bloke, and still sends me emails.
Unlike a lot of mailing lists, I don't have a rule which sends Marcus's emails to the Trash, as most of them usually contain a link to a page including a 'taster' lesson from the Synergy Spanish course.
Now, I can't begin to evaluate the course, as I've never taken it but, if all of the lessons are as good as the examples I've heard, it's got a lot going for it.

As an example, there's a lesson on the use of reflexive verbs. These can be a bit of a pain, which is probably why so many of them end in 'arse'
A lot of reflexive verbs are ordinary verbs, with the reflexive pronoun (don't get too hung up on the terminology) 'se' tacked on the end, which indicates that the verb acts on the do-er.

Quick Grammar refresh here.
In the sentence 'Sam washes the car', Sam is the 'Subject' of the verb (the one performing the action) and the car is the 'Object' of the verb (the thing on which the verb acts)
In the sentence 'Sam washes himself', Sam is both the Subject and the Object.
This is a typical example of a reflexive verb so, instead of using the verb 'lavar' on its own, as in 'Sam lava el coche', we would add 'se' and use 'lavarse', rearranged in the sentence as 'Sam se lava'.

That's one thing that always confused me. The 'se' is only tacked on the end when using the infinitive (that's the verb in its 'to' form - TO be, TO wash, TO wash one's-self etc)

Anyhow, the point Marcus makes is that the 'one's-self' interpretation works for certain verbs, like 'lavarse' - to wash one's-self, but for others, it just doesn't seem to make sense, or translates into rather stilted English, like 'levantarse' - 'to raise one's-self' or 'irse' - 'to go one's-self'
He offers a much more appropriate translation, comparing the pronoun 'se' to the English word 'get', so 'irse' becomes 'to GET going' and 'levantarse' becomes 'to GET up'.
It's not a literal translation, but it's the closest I've seen to the correct sense of the phrase, which is easy to remember, and makes sense of those reflexives which don't really work with 'one's-self'.

Click on over to http://www.synergyspanish.com/ and see what else you can pick up.

And the reference to 'darse' in the Post title?
'darse cuenta de que . . . ' means 'to realise that . . .'

You're having a laugh . . . . !

Well, you could be.
I previously recommended reading books and newspapers (or newspaper websites, at least. Did you read about the 'Fairy of Guadalajara' in El Universal? and I thought UK journalists were desperate;-) and still think they're a good way to pick up new vocabulary and, especially with books, get a feel for dialogue, and how the language is used in conversation.
But, if you want just a quick dip into something a little lighter, which only takes a few minutes, but still qualifies as 'practise', click on over to http://www.gocomics.com/explore/espanol and read some of the funnies in Español.
They have quite a few well-known cartoons, from Garfield and Heathcliffe, to Calvin and Hobbes, B.C. and the Wizard of ID, right through to Modesty Blaise. There are also some I've never heard of, but that's probably because they originate from the States.
Incidentally, just browsing one or two, I came across a word which I couldn't find in any of my electronic or online dictionaries, which eventually led me to http://www.wordmagicsoft.com/dictionary/tools/index.php
Word Magic is yet another online Spanish dictionary which seems to do quite a good line in colloquial expressions, in both English and Spanish.
The word ? Nalguitas . Look it up ;¬)

Men are from Madrid. Women are from Valencia

Or should that be Mars and Venus?
Whatever the case, one of the big stumbling blocks for new Spanish students is the idea of Gender.
How, exactly, do you remember whether a specific object is 'el' or 'la' ?
What about new words?

Often, hearing someone else using a word doesn't help. They might say 'voy a recoger mi traje' (I'm going to collect my suit) but that doesn't tell you whether the suit is masculine or feminine (it's 'el traje' by the way)

Well, there are some guidelines that can help. I'm not going to call them Rules because, to be honest, there are a lot of exceptions, but they can help.

First, good news Guys. U is N O R MA L
It might not look much, but this is a quick way to determine which objects are masculine (el, un) based on the last letter (or two). So, we get EL impetU (impetus),EL cinturóN (belt), EL gatO (cat), EL prograMA (program), and so  on.

Sorry, I couldn't come up with a handy mnemonic for the feminine nouns, but here's a list of endings for objects which are normally LA, or UNA.
a,d,cíon,síon,umbre,sis. So LA tapA (lid), LA ciudaD (city), LA naCION (nation), LA incertidUMBRE (uncertainty) etc.

Note: don't confuse masculine words, ending in MA, with feminine words ending in A. The MA ending usually indicates a word which has been 'imported' from Greek. There is, however, one notable exception - LA caMA (bed).

Well I did say these were not hard and fast rules!
Hopefully, though, you will still find them useful.

verBLING!!

The first thing that impressed me about Verbling (www.verbling.com) was how easy it was to sign up and get started.
The site checked my WebCam and microphone and, within minutes, I had a ringtone, indicating that I was about to start my first intercambio.
Firstly, I'll correct an error in my previous post, you actually begin by speaking Spanish then, after 5 minutes, a flashing bar across the screen announces 'Speak English now'
I was greeted with a cheerful 'Hola, David', which surprised me a little, as there was no indication of who I was speaking to, but they could obviously see my username.
My chat partner was a very nice lady, from Mexico City, whose name, I found out, was Lucia.
The sound quality was pretty good, although because I could hear my voice repeating from her speakers, I could tell there was a significant lag (up to 2 secs) which did make it rather too easy to talk over each other.

The beauty of Verbling is that the person you are talking to is also learning to speak a foreign language and understands, and shares the problems you might be having, with vocabulary, verb conjugations and confidence.

According to Lucia, although she is taking English classes, there are very few opportunities for her to actually practise conversation so there are, potentially, a lot of eager Spanish speakers just waiting for your call.

10 minutes passed surprisingly quickly, so much so that we exchanged Skype names, and switched to Skype to chat for another half-hour, mixing English and Spanish in fairly equal measure. I have to say that the sound quality, and lack of lag are much better on Skype.

Another small quibble I have with Verbling is that my call with Lucia had no sooner ended than there was half a second of ringtone, and a new face appeared in the Verbling window (Lucia had not had a webcam connected, so I had no video feed during her call) As I was about to initiate a Skype call with Lucia, I quickly closed the window. Apologies to the unknown student of English, it was nothing personal.
At the end of each call you are prompted to give the call a rating. Presumably this will allow Verbling classify users and perhaps create a list of 'preferred connections' or drop users who consistently upset others?

As far as doing what it sets out to do, Verbling is a success. It's the speed dating of intercambios. 10 minutes and you're done, unless you decide to exchange details and continue the chat elsewhere. I was just lucky ;¬)
As a no-commitment,anonymous and secure, way to have a quick chat with a new face, who understands that you are still learning too, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Mo . . men . . . tum . . . .

The Oxford English dictionary defines it as 'the force or energy with which a body moves'.
However you describe it, it's all too easy to lose it, when studying Spanish, especially if you're doing it alone, with an Audio, Video or PC/Internet-based program.
There are countless distractions, and excuses not to do it Today.
You take a holiday, then come back and find you can't quite fit it back into your schedule.
You might begin to feel as if you're not making much progress, or you come across a subject which you're struggling with.
Whatever the reason, we all have times where we lose momentum and, if you don't take steps to correct it, you could end up never getting around to picking it up again, and all the work you've done will be wasted.
First, remind yourself why you decided to learn Spanish in the first place. If those reasons are still valid, you still have motivation to carry on.
Remind yourself of how much you're already learned. Dig out some of your old exercises, or redo some of the early tests and exams you completed when you were just beginning. How easy are they now?
Rather than having a break from Spanish, just have a break from the track you're currently following (before it becomes a rut ;¬)
Experiment with some other learning sources, try out some of the free online content I've mentioned in previous posts. Watch Dora the Explorer, or Handy Manny with your kids (or, if you're feeling adventurous, you can watch Dora in Spanish! Just search YouTube)
Speaking of kids, if yours are learning Spanish at school, and aren't yet at that age where any inetraction with Parents is taboo, why not join in when they're doing their homework, or try and engage them in a chat?
The best cure for a stall in your Spanish learning is to find opportunities to speak it.
SecondLife I've mentioned before, is a great place to meet Spanish speakers whether you're typing, or actually using voice.
You can find chat partners at busuu.com,there's a forum at spanishdict.com, and I've just heard about an 'intercambio' site at http://www.verbling.com/, where the idea is to speak 5 minutes in English with a native Spanish speaker, then switch to Spanish for another 5 minutes (thanks to Ben at http://www.notesinspanish.com/, for the link)
Of course the best boost would be a week or two on holiday in Spain (I wish)
If,after all that, you're still wondering whether it's worth pressing on, I can only draw on personal experience. I have always found that the Spanish are delighted to find out that you have taken the time to learn their language. They don't take it for granted like we English do, and will go out of their way to be supportive and patient.
I remember sitting in a beachside cafe in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, and I asked the waiter, in Spanish, if we could possibly have one serving of Tiramisu, with two spoons, as we weren't too hungry. He grinned, from ear to ear and said 'Hombre, por supuesto!' ('course you can, Mate!) and fetched us a portion that would have served three, but charged us for one!
A strange coincidence is that, sitting in the same restaurant were a couple who we had once met through mutual friends, who had been trying to decide whether to approach us but, when they heard me conversing in Spanish decided that they were mistaken, we must be locals, and didn't bother! We didn't find out until we were back in the UK.
Right, that's enough for tonight, I'm off to sign up for an intercambio, at verbling. I'll let you know how it goes. ¡Hasta pronto!

What are you doing . . . right now?

Here's an exercise I find very useful, whether it's while I'm driving to work, wandering around the shops or waiting in a queue at a favourite takeaway.
Talk to yourself.
It doesn't have to out loud, but it's probably more effective that way.
Now, I'm not referring to tables of verb conjugations, or anything else that you might be trying to crowbar into your brain, ready for your next lesson.
I'm talking about description.
Think about what you're doing at this exact moment, and try and figure out how you would describe it in Spanish. Or if you're in a situation where you're not actually doing much, like sitting on a train, look out of the window, and try and describe what you can see. Alternatively, if you've progressed to where you're using the past tense, imagine you're telling someone what you did last night, last week, or during your holidays.

I find that, apart from the practise of composing sentences,it's a great diagnostic tool for identifying words that you might use in normal daily life, that you don't actually know the Spanish equivalents for, so have your dictionary ready, or at least a notepad, so you can look the words up later.

You'll probably also find that this encourages you to find ways around words you don't know. Some of your constructions might be a little clumsy, or outlandish, to begin with, but we're talking about communication,not works of literature, so don't be afraid to be creative ;¬)

The iPod strikes back

Well, it wouldn't be fair to heap praise on Android Spanish learning Apps, without mentioning a couple I also have on my iPod.
Ever bought a pocket Spanish dictionary. Be honest. Wasn't it a waste of money? How about the pocket electronic Spanish English dictionary? Never found a word I needed in mine.
I have a pretty good paperback dictionary but it's way too big to go in my pocket, and takes up too much of my luggage allowance, if I take it on holiday.
My solution was to buy the Collins Spanish-English translation dictionary by Ultralingua.
It claims over 100,000 words, translates from English to Spanish, or vice-versa, and has a superb conjugation section covering 19 tenses, plus Gerunds and Participles.
I use it more than you could imagine, simply because it's so quick to find the word you want.
As you begin to type, it offers potential words,based on what you've typed so far, so it's rare you have to type in a complete word.
My only gripe, and it's mentioned, by a number of posters on the website (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/collins-pro-spanish-english/id292239107?mt=8) is that reflexive verbs aren't handled seperately. If you wanted, say, 'equivocarse' (to be mistaken, which I frequently am) you'd need to select  'equivocar', then look at the entry below.
It's not cheap, either. I seem to remember paying about £12, but that's on a par with a physical dictionary with the same number of words, and I haven't regretted a penny.

If, however, you don't have a lot of cash to play with, might I recommend the iPod App from SpanishDict.com, a site I have mentioned before. This FREE app, features a Word Game (just a multi-choice vocabulary tester/builder), a list of useful phrases, grouped by type such as 'weather', 'shopping','restaurant','airport' etc. and a surprisingly useful dictionary.
Like the Collins, it translates both ways, attempts to autocomplete as you type, but doesn't feature verb conjugations. What do expect for nothing?  If connected to the Internet, you will also get an updated 'Word of the day'.
Like the Collins, again, it is totally portable and doesn't need a connection the SpanishDict website, once you've installed it. As a replacement for the pocket dictionary, it's certainly worth a look.
http://www.spanishdict.com/iphone
Hmm, it seems there's also an Android app, but I'm not able to download it on my little HTC Wildfire.
It's at http://www.spanishdict.com/android . If you manage to download it to your phone, let us know how well it works.

What DO androids dream of ?

The title of the short story, by Philip K.Dick, on which the film 'Bladerunner' was based, asks if androids dream of electric sheep.
My android phone dreams of Spanish verb conjugations!
I recently downloaded a brilliant App called Spanish Verb Trainer Pro, by Robert Muth.
The most succinct description would be that it is a set of electronic flashcards, to help you memorise verb conjugations, but its real beauty lies in the level of configuration available.
There are a  number of built in 'drills', and you can try some of these by downloading the free version from Android Market Place, but once you begin to create custom 'drills', basically cardsets, the fun really begins.
With a selection of 322 verbs, regular and irregular, and 23 tenses (that's what it says, and there are enough for me) including Present(Indicative), Preterite, Imperfect, Future, Subjunctive, Imperative, Gerunds, Participles, Present and Future Perfect, to name but a scary few, you can tailor drills to exactly suit your current needs.
Want to practice irregular verbs in the the Imperfect and Preterite?
Regular verbs in the Future?
All verbs in the Present?
Just the verb 'estar' in Preterite, Imperfect and Present Perfect?
No problem! Just invent a Title for your drill, select the verbs you want to practice, select the tenses you want to practice, you can even select the 'persons' or nouns you want to practice (he,she,I,they etc.)
I find this especially useful, as I'm studying South American Spanish which, for those of you who have studied a little already, does not use the 'vosotros' form, as used in mainland Spain (it's like a plural version of 'tu', replaced in Latin America with 'usted'), so  just leave it out of all my drills.
Once you've attempted a flashcard, you're given a chance to grade your response, based on confidence, and the App keeps track of your weaknesses, and will test you on them again, next time you try the drill.
I love it because it's always with me, and you can fit in a quick practice any time, waiting for a train, on the bus, coffee break, what ever.
Oops, nearly forgot the price for all this Android Spanishness . . .  a cool £1.82. Hardly going to break the Bank, is it?

You must remember this, an 's' is just an 's',an 'i' is just an 'i' . . .

Some things never change and, thankfully, when learning Spanish, it's useful to know that one of life's constants is the pronunciation of the Spanish alphabet.
Unlike English, each letter has one sound and, irrespective of where it appears in a word, that does not change.
I'm not even going to attempt to give examples, as the words I might choose to illustrate a particular sound might be pronounced quite differently by a Southerner, a Scot, or someone from Liverpool, Birmingham, or Dublin.
Suffice it to say that, unlike a poor European, trying to determine how to pronounce 'cough', 'rough','through','bough' or 'though', once you have mastered the pronunciation of the letters, you will be able to pronounce any Spanish word, just by reading it. Anyone remember 'Catchprase'? Just 'say what you see!'

There are a couple of extra letters thrown in, just to make things a little more exotic, like 'll' and 'ñ' but they, too only have one sound each.

Obviously, there are regional differences, as there are in the UK, but they won't affect the way you speak, just the way you listen.
Notably, in northern Spain, 'c', in the middle of a word, before a vowel, tends to be pronounced as 'th' e.g. 'Barthelona' for Barcelona.
In parts of South America you may hear 'll' and 'y' pronounced as a slurred 'j', so 'yo llegué' (I arrived) becomes 'zjo zjegué'.
There is also a tendency, in Argentina for example, for the letter 's' to morph into a barely perceptible, nasal 'h', or disappear altogether, so 'lo mismo' (the same) becomes 'lo mihmo', and 'los lobos' (the wolves) are reduced to 'lo lobo'.

Don't worry about it, at this stage. Your initial aim is to be able to pronounce words clearly and be understandable.

If you'd like to experiment with some Spanish words, and find out how they will sound, here's a great text-to-speech site, which will read your input and speak to you with correct Spanish pronunciation.
http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php
Not only does it include a range of langages but also, at least in the case of Spanish, a variety of voices and regional differences.
Try typing 'lo mismo', for instance, and listen to the difference between voices of Rosa (Lat. Am) and  Francisca (Chilean), or listen how Violeta and Carmen differ with 'yo te llamo' (I [will] call you)
Apart from the multitude of voices, the application also recognises the extra Spanish characters, like ' ñ ', so it pronounces 'manana' differently to 'mañana'.

Obviously that's not a deal of use to you, if you can't type the special characters.
'LetslearntospeakSpanish' to the rescue! Just click over http://www.onehourprogramming.com/spanish-accents/ and download the brilliant little App which uses your CapsLock key as a 'shift' key to type Spanish characters like ñ á é í ó , and it's free! If you're submitting any typewritten classwork, it's a lifesaver.
Almost forgot, it also does the inverted exclamation and question marks.
¿Muy bien, no?  ¡Saludos!

Learn on the move . . .

A couple of years ago, the organisation I work for relocated me 35 miles further up the M1. My daily commute went from 15 minutes each way, to almost an hour in each direction.
I complained bitterly, to anyone who'd listen but, if it hadn't happened, I wouldn't be speaking Spanish now.
My car became my classroom, and I used the extra travelling time to my advantage.
There are a number of audio courses available. Some of you may remember the old Linguaphone cassettes, popular in the 70's and 80's, but most modern courses are in CD format, and easily transferable to mp3.

Obviously I can only comment on the courses I've tried.
I started looking on ebay, and bought a trial CD of the Pimsleur language course. It contained the first 10 half-hour lessons,and cost me around £20. I've since listened to some sample Pimsleur lessons, in other languages, and they all take the same format.
Rather than blowing your mind with grammatical jargon and verb conjugations, they start off with a few basic phrases, and show how you can switch bits around to make new ones. You are speaking from the very first lesson, and the sense of achievement you can get, early on, encourages you to continue. Each lesson begins with you listening to a conversation in Spanish and ends with the same exercise only,hopefully, the second time around, you can actually understand it all.
The lessons are designed to be undertaken one-per-day, and are based on a spaced repetition and recurrence of key phrases, for maximum reinforcement.
It certainly worked for me.
Now the bad news, buying the whole Pimsleur Spanish course, even  on ebay, could cost you between £200 and £300. Spread over three proficiency levels, available seperately, there are nearly 50 audio CDs. Note, however, that some of the other Learn Spanish Quickly courses sold on ebay are actually pirated copies of the Pimsleur system  in mp3 format, on one CD, typically for around a fiver. The choice is yours. If you'd like to try a free sample lesson, go to http://www.pimsleur.com/Learn-Spanish and click the 'Free Sample Lesson' button.

My second experience of Spanish audio lessons was the offering from Michel Thomas. It struck me, initially, as a little bizarre, learning Spanish from a Frenchman, but he is a very good teacher.
The format is quite different. You effectively become the third student in Michel's class. It works quite well, but some of the mistakes made by the other students can become a little irritating,and there is always the risk that what will stick in your mind are their errors, as opposed to Michel's corrections.
The pace is quite rapid,and you soon move from the simple present to other tenses, and Michel begins to introduce elements of grammar. He avoids using formal terms for the various tenses, explaining, instead, when they should be used, but he does explain the differences between the 'persons' (you, me, he etc).
I found it followed naturally on from the Pimsleur system as it explained WHY I had been doing some of the things the Pimsleur course had introduced me to. Michel places great emphasis on understanding how the language is constructed, encouraging you to think before you speak. The basic and advanced courses, along with a couple of ancillary CDs(around 20 in total) can normally be picked up on ebay for under £50, for the genuine article.

My most recent acquisition was the 11CD 'Learn in your car' course, for under £20 on ebay.
This one is definitely NOT for beginners, as it offers virtually no guidance on learning the language, apart from the little fold-out instruction book, but it does introduce some new vocabulary and phrases not found in the other two courses, although I have used it primarily as a self-testing resource. I can't really recommend this one.

Finally, you may see books with tempting titles like 'Speak Spanish in 8 hours (complete with CD/DVD)'
As you can tell from the number of CDs in the other courses, any course which purports to teach you anything more advanced than 'dos cervezas, por favor' (two beers please)  followed  by '¿donde está el baño?' (where's the bathroom?) on one or two CDs, is rather over-optimistic!

Is this thing on?

Apparently one of the things that sets us apart from most animals (chimps and dolphins excepted) is the ability to recognise our own reflection in a mirror. But how many of us, watching a video recording, and hearing our own voices, have said "it sounds nothing like me"
Imagine if that voice were speaking Spanish!
Here's a tip to help with the task of memorising lists, whether it be of verb conjugations, or new vocabulary, or whatever.
Sure, you could just read it over and over from a list, or copy it over and over in a book, but both of these methods require that you have hands and eyes free.
Most of you will have some method of recording your voice, whether it be via your PC microphone, a digital voice recorder (my old mp3 player has one built in), or a mobile phone.
Just record yourself, reading your list, in your best Spanish accent, then play it back, as often as you like.
You might talk along with it, try to anticipate it, or just follow quietly,in your head, but you can do it anywhere, any time, with no books or PC.
I've been using this method for the past two weeks, to learn a list of verbs which trigger the subjunctive.
I have a lesson in a couple of hours, so we'll see how I did.

Visit Colombia, Mexico, Peru or Barcelona for free!

Well maybe not quite, but all of these places are represented in the virtual world of Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com/)
Joining SL is free and, providing your PC and Internet conection are up to the task ( it doesn't require as much processor power as you might think) you could soon be wandering around a virtual Spanish speaking country.
While a microphone and headset are required if you want to engage in voice chat, conversing via keyboard is just as common and you can still hear the voice conversations around you.

SL is now one of my primary resources for Spanish learning.
I go to school there!

I have weekly lessons with a Spanish teacher, based in Mexico, in a virtual classroom, complete with slideshows (which I can snapshot and print off later), one-to-one voice chat, regular homework, and all for under £4.50 per hour!

Mi profesora (my teacher) is Ximena Modotti Carami, a native Spanish speaker, with over 20 years of experience teaching Spanish as a second language, in real life schools in Mexico.
I have been learning with her for around a year, and the progress I have made in both comprehension, expression and confidence, is extraordinary.
Ximena teaches all levels, from beginner to advanced, and my first taster lesson was free.
You can find her SL profile at  https://my.secondlife.com/ximenamodotti.carami and she has a blog at http://ximenamodotticarami.blogspot.com/.
Once you sign up for SL, you can visit the schoolhouse at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sede%20di%20Marte/214/71/39 but do me a favour and don't just wander in, if I'm having a lesson :-p

Last but not least, those exotic locations I mentioned
Colombia http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/COLOMBIAMOR/129/127/67
Mexico http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mexico%20Lindo/127/81/37
Peru http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/USMP%203D/204/2/32
Barcelona http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Barcelona%20Virtual/208/223/90

See you there!

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.

Getting started

So, where do you go to learn to speak Spanish?
Often, it will depend on your location, your budget, and the time you have available.

The Internet is always a good starting point, and there are many online resources, some free, some not, to help you along. From podcasts, to online courses, from newspapers to online movies, I'll be covering some of these options in future postings.

Local colleges often have courses, at varying cost. Usually aimed at beginners, these can be just what a novice learmer needs to get them started. The only problem is that you might need to make a financial commitment before getting a chance to find out if this method really suits you. You will also have to commit to a set lesson timetable, and may have to travel some distance to a suitable centre.

 PC CD-Rom based learning is an option that will suit many people, as you can time your 'lessons' to suit your own calendar, and retake lessons as often as you like, but you are restricted to sitting in front of your PC. This goes for online courses as well.

Audio courses on CD are the most portable learning method, and the one I started with. Easily converted to mp3, so you can take them anywhere on your iPod or mp3 player, there are a variety of suppliers, again of varying quality. Along with podcasts from the Internet, they are another learning method that allows you to set the timing and pace of your learning.

As you can see, there's plenty of choice, when it comes to beginning to learn.
Next time, I'll examine some of the options in more detail.

Welcome!

Welcome to 'Let's learn to speak Spanish'

I've never created a Blog before, so bear with me, while I find my feet.

I suppose I'd best start with a note on what this Blog's about.

What I don't pretend to do is to teach anyone to speak Spanish (I'm still a learner myself) but what I can do is to offer support and advice, point out some resources I've found useful and interesting, and help new 'estudiantes' avoid some of the mistakes I've made. 
I hope you will find it useful.