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Virtual Spanish Immersion: How I Became Fluent
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items In my late twenties I learned Spanish and became fluent while living in the US. I did it WITHOUT spending a lot of money. Here are the tools you need
Sections
6
Vocabulary
Talking
Listening
Reading
Grammar
Watch TV
Vocabulary
Spanish is a puzzle and words are the pieces. Don’t make the common mistake of thinking you’ll just absorb the vocab with time
The link is to the Apple Store but they have it for Android also. This is the most importantly app of all!!! This is what I used every morning for about twenty minutes to memorize 6000 words in nine months. If you know words you will know the languag...
ReWord
I use it all the time. You already know about it. Don’t make a big crutch of it
Google Translate
The king of accurate vocab and grammar reference. It is saved as a widget on my phone
SpanishDict
Talking
Talk to learn, not learn to talk
Hire tutors online. Legit love this. Because of currency conversion, you can pay very low rates to talk to cool normal people one on one. I did this 3-5 times a week for months and when I eventually went to Latin America, I visited two of my tutors, ...
italki
Tandem is a platform for finding a modern type of pen pal. I don’t recommend it for too much texting, find someone who wants to talk on the phone. A free way to speak Spanish with a Spanish speaker and the cost to you is that you speak English with t...
Tandem
Listening
Train your ears and along the way learn a lot about the cultures that speak Spanish
Los Favoritos Del Gringo - my playlist of Spanish music I’ve been compiling since 2018 when I first stumbled onto Bad Bunny and my life was never the same. Enjoy. Or don’t, find stuff you like though
Los Favoritos Del Gringo - my Spotify playlist of Spanish music
I love bachata music. This is a playlist I made. Muy sexy
Bachata playlist - also mine
Phenomenal podcast for beginners
Duolingo Spanish Podcast
A fun conversational podcast with increasingly challenging levels of comprehension. The two hosts should have gotten married. I don’t know if they did
Spanish Obsessed Podcast
TED talks in Spanish. Advanced stuff, good for a challenge
TED en Español
The dinkiest of Spanish apps but I actually found it really helpful when I was struggling with comprehending spoken numbers, as that is its sole purpose.
Numeranto
This is a great app in that it combines Latin music with learning. I love this. Whether it is Latin pop, reggaeton, or otherwise, there is so much good Latin music out there. This app takes those songs and breaks them down in a way that fits your lev...
Lirica - Learn Languages with music
Reading
Getting a cadence of reading is super important for learning vocab and grammar by osmosis
Harry Potter book 1, in Spanish. You already know the story, so reading in Spanish is a great way to practice it and relive the magic Hermione
Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal
I mean it’s news so it sucks, but it’s in Spanish and it’ll teach you a thing or two about the news that applies to the two thirds of the people in the Americas who don’t live in the US or Canada
BBC Mundo
Bilingual book app. Give it a go. It’s fun
Unuhi
World-renowned author in original language. Not exactly easy
La casa de los espíritus
All time classic novela, in Spanish
El Principito (The Little Prince)
A great source for graded readers which match levels of difficulty to the CEFR grading system. If you’re not familiar with it, CEFR is a simple way to organize proficiency into six tiers ranging from beginner to fluent.
Spanish Novels .net
Grammar
I personally can’t stand studying grammar as it kills the fun, but these are some apps I tried along the way. I definitely recommend only studying grammar to the extent that you want to until it becomes the only thing holding you back from progress
ConjuGato has an amazing name and that should be reason enough. No, in truth, this is good for the people who need a bit more structure to learning grammar. Flash Card focused app. It has a free and premium version. I like it
ConjuGato
The absolute best grammar app out there. Use it for reference. Save it on your phone as a widget
SpanishDict
I am not a fan of the all in one learning apps like Duolingo and Rosetta Stone, as they tend to give the illusion of learning more than reality, and they aren’t very efficient. Memrise is the exception. I used it in my early stage learning when I was...
Memrise
Watch TV
It’s fun and effective for learning both language and culture. There are many options, this is just brushing the surface
Formerly called Language Learning with Netflix, this app creates simultaneous English and Spanish subtitles, making it great for learning vocab early on
Language Reactor
Y’all know what it is. Get your telenovela on
Telemundo
A free sitcom on YouTube that is a Friends knockoff. Designed for beginners learning Spanish. It’s cute and fun
EXTR@ (Extra)
Very Mexican, very funny, very fast. YouTube comedy shorts
Backdoor Comedy
Modern telenovela type series based in Mexico City. Fun and not too complex
Rosario Tijeras
Hilarious Mexican comedy
Club de Cuervos
Phenomenal show about Colombian cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar. It might romanticize the violence quite a bit but it’s an awesome show and has about 25% English speaking
Narcos