Learning Spanish online

July 29, 2006 4:06 AM

How and where to learn Spanish online

Of course I did the obligatory Google search - with mixed results.
So I am still looking for good (and free) online resources for learning Spanish.
Any Podcasts, Videopodcasts, Vocabulary lists, online tutorials that you have tried yourselves and can recommend?
Muchas gracias!

posted by ollsen to writing & language (8 comments total)

This is a long shot, but what worked best for me was to look at the online resources for my local library. They have a partnership with netlibrary.com, a website that allows you to "check out" audiobooks for free. They have all of the Pimsleur Spanish audiobooks and I'm working my way through them now...for free! They are really great, so I'd see if your local library has this kind of partnership going on, or something similar.
posted by bristolcat at 4:20 AM on July 29, 2006

I'm having a go at the BBC beginner's German - you might want to look at their Spanish here: bbc Spanish. The German beginner's course is quite good I think.
posted by handee at 5:18 AM on July 29, 2006

I haven't tried them myself, but there are a bunch of links to online courses here.

And you can find a Spanish-speaking penpal here.

In addition to Google, you can search the "spanish" and "language" tags on del.icio.us.
posted by booth at 5:54 AM on July 29, 2006

I have not actually tried the following sources, but have run across them in researching other language resources. These appear to be quite comprehensive for free resources--now if only every language had such good coverage!

Destinos--spanish telenovela style
podcasts--the one I was going to recommend appears to no longer be in date, but there are quite a few out there...
Netlibrary is now free, and you check out (expensive) audio learning courses online.
posted by sLevi at 6:28 AM on July 29, 2006

I found this website a brilliant help when I was learning Spanish. You can pay to get complete access to the site, but if you click on the 'free' link there's some really useful sections, such as a very comprehensive grammar section, mini-tests, pronunciation guide etc.
posted by schmoo at 6:33 AM on July 29, 2006

Dialang is a FREE tool developed by the European Commission to let citizens test themselves in 14 languages. Give a try and see how you fare, regularly.
posted by XiBe at 8:37 AM on July 29, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

There are sometimes rips of various 'teach yourself language x' CDs on bittorrent tracker sites.
posted by SenshiNeko at 11:45 AM on July 29, 2006

Thanks to everyone for their input - there is a bunch of interesting links that I will give a closer look.
posted by ollsen at 4:36 AM on July 30, 2006