Saturday, December 14th
2024 Spanish Lesson Reviews
Preply
- Price: Average $13 for a 50-minute session
- Learn Spanish from tutors
- Caters to anyone, including children, business learners, and AP test takers
- Choose your price
- Choose your date and time
- Low-cost instruction
Created in 2012, Preply's online language tutoring company has the mission of caring enough to change the world. They empower tutors to provide an outstanding educational journey to inspire and empower learners. In theory, Preply continues to perfect the simplicity and smoothness of the tutoring experience.
Learn from a tutor
Once you fill out a brief profile with your purpose for learning Spanish and how much Spanish you already know, choose your Preply tutor from more than 7,000 available. Tutors are required to be native speakers of the language they're teaching, so you can choose from several Spanish-speaking countries. Read their bio to find out about their tutoring experience, teaching philosophy, their interests or specialties, their user ratings, and how much they charge for a $50-minute lesson.
Your tutor is a native Spanish speaker
Preply wants only native Spanish speakers for their tutors so that you'll feel immersed in the language, you can ask about slang, contextual insight, and how to live the Spanish language in your tutor's country.
Minimal qualifications
The tutors who work for Preply need to be native Spanish speakers, but they don't have to have any teaching or specific educational experience. That said, you'll find interesting info in their bios. For example, one tutor teaches Spanish as well as sign language, one's an industrial engineer, and we saw one who has had over 30 years experience teaching. We have our own questions about this approach (there are many non-native Spanish speakers who are excellent, trained teachers, and just knowing the language doesn't mean you're automatically skilled at teaching), but we still think you can find someone you seem to click with and book a trial lesson to see for yourself.
Narrow your choices to your reason for learning Spanish
When you select why you're learning Spanish, you can select if you are preparing for the SIELE or DELE which are tests for Spanish proficiency, if you're studying for the AP exam, if you want business Spanish, Spanish for children, conversational Spanish, literature, intensive lessons, or maybe you want to choose your Preply tutor by country.
They cater to diverse learners
When you select why you're learning Spanish - travel, Spanish literature, business - some of the choices are Spanish for ADHD students, dyslexic students, and students with Asperger's syndrome. This is a unique and welcomed feature of Preply.
Preply works with your schedule
You tell Preply which days of the week work for you and which times of day, and there will definitely be Spanish tutors available for you.
Learning plan tailored to your needs
Once you choose a Preply tutor for your Spanish lessons, talk with them so they can create a plan for you. Even if you're traveling, or as one person said, she wanted lessons while she was on the plane, the tutors are happy to create lessons that work best for you.
It takes 300 hours to become fluent in a language
Preply's research says it takes 300 hours for fluency. They add that if you take five hours of Preply's tutored lessons per week in immersive Spanish, you should be fluent in a year. Not bad, since many online Spanish lesson companies don't even mention how long for Spanish fluency using their program. We're not sure we agree with that number, but at least Preply offers a ballpark.
Price varies but is quite reasonable
When you are selecting why you want to learn Spanish, one of the questions they ask is how much money you want to spend per lesson. Because the Spanish tutors are mainly from Latin America where the currency may not be as strong as the US dollar, you'll find quite reasonable pricing. Preply tells us that the average price is $13 per session, and we've found that to be true. We saw that prices tend to range from $6 to about $25.
Free trial lesson
You get a free trial lesson in order to determine not only if you like Preply but to hopefully match up with the Spanish tutor you chose, with the goal that you continue with them for more lessons.
The downside of Preply's tutors
It's great that Preply lets you choose from more than 7,000 Spanish tutors. The downside is that you may not know if your tutor has a college or university degree, let alone if they have a degree in teaching or if they have a degree in Spanish. Like we said earlier, just because someone speaks a language doesn't mean they're an expert in it or teaching it.
The pressure put on the tutors
We've also heard some not-so-nice things about how Preply operates, especially from the tutors' standpoint. First, if you don't pay, the tutors don't get paid. Therefore, your first free Spanish lesson means that the tutor gives their time for free. In addition, because there are so many tutors and they know that the clients choose them based on fees, tutors are afraid to raise their prices. One article said that Preply can take up to 33% of the tutor's fee, which limits the tutor's income even more. And if the client cancels the lesson at the last minute and doesn't want to pay, not only would the tutor have already prepared and was waiting, but now he or she wouldn't be paid at all.
Possible lack of communication
Because of the communication system Preply uses, the message of confirmation or cancellation of your Spanish lesson may not get to the receiver, making both of you wonder if the lesson will take place or not. When this happens, the class is virtually canceled due to the confusion, and the client may end up having to pay, or the tutor may not get paid even though they were waiting.
People either love it or hate it
There's not much in between with Preply. People either love their tutor and the Preply system, or they don't. The complaints are that customer service can be challenging to contact. Others complain that the tutor didn't show up for the lesson. We don't know how much is a no-show on the part of the tutor or the low quality appointment-setting system on Preply's part.
One-on-one tutoring is great, but there need to be more filters
Preply's one-on-one tutoring for learning or mastering Spanish is an excellent idea. We also love that there are 7,000 tutors to choose from and that you get to see their bios, fees, and ratings. We wish there were a filter for those who had degrees in Spanish, and degrees in education, especially language education. The fees are so reasonable, in fact, if you ask us, almost too reasonable. When you take out Preply's fees, most of the tutors are taking home very little pay. We also wish they would update their scheduling software so that there would be no question if you're really scheduled for a class. All of this combines to earn Preply the lowest spot on our list: it's a great idea, but we're not thrilled with the way the company operates.
More Spanish Lesson Reviews
The 12 Best Spanish Lessons
Who Offers the Best Spanish Lessons Online?
Have you ever wanted to learn Spanish? Maybe you would like to interact with native speakers while traveling. Or perhaps you would like to speak Spanish with your contractor or other people you do business with.
Here are some fun facts for you to consider. According to a recent US census, Spanish is the most common non-English language spoken in US homes, 12x greater than the next four most common languages. The US is the world's fourth-largest Spanish-speaking country. And, as such, jobs in the US are always looking for bilingual (English-Spanish) speakers.
Spanish Lesson FAQ
Continued from above...
No matter why you want to learn Spanish, the real question is which online Spanish lessons are right for you. With so much of our life being digital and using apps regularly if not daily, it's only natural to want to explore apps or online methods for learning Spanish. There are many to choose from, and we can help you sift through the options.
The first thing to consider is how much Spanish you already know. If you're just getting started, your choices are almost endless, as many programs have an abundance of material for beginners. In fact, some of these programs focus so much on the beginners that they seem to run out of steam when creating material for the intermediate students, and then there's none if you want to hone your advanced Spanish with them. There are those who cater to all levels of proficiency, but it's certainly not all, and you have to know which is which. No worries - wherever you are on your Spanish-learning journey, we have excellent online programs and apps to recommend for your needs.
Another consideration is your learning style and preferences. Some learners need motivation through lessons with animation, gamification, and prizes. Others find animation and gamification overwhelming and would rather get straight to business, preferring the old-school grammar lessons and vocabulary flashcards. Consider if you want your Spanish curriculum to tell you where to start and then follow those lessons in a linear fashion. If you do, great. However, other people want to choose their own path and select lessons where the theme is of interest to them. Either way, there are plenty of online Spanish lessons that will suit you.
Once you're more aware of why you're learning Spanish and how you want to learn it, there are a few more aspects you should consider as you choose where to take lessons:
- The right fit. Consider a trial period or the money-back guarantee period of time to try out the Spanish lessons to see if it delivers for you. Maybe you thought you were self-motivated, but instead you actually want animation and gamification to give you that little push. The trial period can shed some light on your fit with the program.
- Live tutor. Some online Spanish-learning programs offer a live tutor so you can learn all on your own with the tutor, or at least can be in a small class setting of 6 students or fewer. Or you can get a tutor to help you when you're stuck with the material you're learning. Sometimes it's nice to have a live person to help out.
- Value. Once you give a free trial a chance, believe it or not, sometimes the month-to-month price can be more expensive in a year's payments than the whole lifetime one-time-payment option.
- Refund policy. Once you've committed to an online Spanish program, is there a money-back guarantee? If so, how long do you have to decide? Some offer 60 days, 30 days, and some offer only 7 days to try it out and get your money back.
The experts at Top Consumer Reviews have evaluated, rated, and ranked the best choices for online Spanish lessons. We're sure that with this information, you'll have what you need to make the right choice for your goals in learning and becoming fluent in Spanish. ¡Ya vamos!
Compare Spanish Lessons
Select any 2 Spanish Lessons to compare them head to head
Trending Spanish Lessons News
Related Spanish Lesson Reviews
Since you're interested in Spanish Lessons, here are some other reviews you might find interesting.
Newest Reviews
