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.
Best Option
SpanishPod101 has been around for more than a decade and more than 1 billion lessons have been downloaded, helping thousands of people learn to speak Spanish. They believe that having exposure to many different speakers with different accents and speaking styles will help you communicate with almost anyone in the Spanish-speaking world. Lessons have new content each week, including pop culture and celebrities, so you can feel more in touch with the world about which you're learning to speak.
It's fun!
The lessons here have a variety of teaching and assessment methods, and it's fun because the animation doesn't overpower the learning focus. SpanishPod101 uses a podcast format for teaching, which helps your proficiency while you learn your vocabulary, grammar.
It's not all fun and games: you get quality lessons, too
Yes, it's fun to learn here, and we do like fun. We also like that you'll have not only the audio, video, and games: SpanishPod101 still gives you grammar explanations and vocabulary lists to help you process the information and relate it to English, which you clearly already know. The audio and video will also slow down for you, so you can catch the nuances in pronunciation. This will help you be more than just understood, but actually sound more fluent.
Lessons don't have to go in order
The units aren't exactly linear. Within each SpanishPod101 level, you can choose your topic of study. Jump around if you like and choose lessons that are interesting to you and still stay at your level until you complete all lessons, or choose to move on when you wish.
Lots of content in the beginning
For beginners, there's a ton of tools. You'll have so many audio, vocabulary, and English resources. But, just like most textbooks, once you become more advanced, the lessons aren't chock full of resources. We can't be too critical here, we realize, as SpanishPod101 actually does have authentic advanced courses, which most Spanish lessons on our list do not.
Gradually, they use less English
This is a wonderful feature. In the beginning, you want to rely on English for understanding. Once you become more advanced and are starting to think in Spanish and catch on to the nuances using your natural critical thinking, you won't need to heavily rely on English explanations. SpanishPod101 makes this transition quite well.
SpanishPod101 teaches advanced Spanish
Yes, this is a rarity. SpanishPod101 uses an internationally-recognized system for rating proficiency levels, CEFR, which does prove that when they say they give advanced courses, they do mean it. They teach up to C2, the most advanced level of proficiency, and that's unusual for an online Spanish program.
Limited feedback on your speaking
You are your own speech-recognition "technology" with SpanishPod101. You can record your voice and compare it to the fluent speaker, and that's that. It's extremely old technology and you do your own work. Especially when you're only starting to learn the language, it's not good that you yourself need to determine what you need to improve in order to be understood. SpanishPod101 would benefit from some upgraded technology in that regard.
Lifetime, free access
All you need to do is give SpanishPod101 your email address and you'll have free access for life. You'll get limited-time access to a new audio and video lesson each week, plus the first three lessons of each series, the Spanish Word of the Day lesson, Throwback Thursday lessons, and more. You won't get full whole access like you would with the paid subscription, but what you can get for free is decent. What can hold you back is that you only get the first three lessons in each unit. It's not enough to really grasp the language, but you can try.
You get all you need with Premium membership
You'll have access to all the lessons in SpanishPod101's audio and video library, in-depth notes, vocab lists, HD video, Spanish Core 2,000 words and phrases, your personal word bank, spaced-repetition flashcards, pronunciation tools, grammar explanations, multiple-choice quizzes, and more.
You'll get a live tutor with Premium + membership
You'll get everything that SpanishPod101's Premium membership offers plus one-on-one access to a teacher, guidance and personalized assessment, hand-graded assessments, and writing and pronunciation practice.
Read the fine print on pricing
So, what does it cost? Premium is $6 per month (equalling $72 annually), and Premium+ is $13.73 per month (equalling $164.76 annually). Just be aware that you'll see different payment structures in various places on the SpanishPod101 website, and the lowest prices are usually based on a 24-month subscription.
60-day refund policy
If you're not happy, for any reason, with either of the subscription plans that SpanishPod101 has to offer, email them within 60 days and you'll get your money back, no questions asked.
It's got something for everyone
SpanishPod101 has lessons for all levels of learners, they have a ton of material mostly at the lower levels, they reach even advanced learners, it's fun, the lessons vary in format keeping your attention and motivating you, and the audio/video will slow down to help you pronounce. There's limited lifetime free access, which is good, but not enough, and this might end up encouraging you to want to subscribe, and that's okay because the prices are fair. We would make one suggestion: they should upgrade the technology so you don't have to evaluate your own pronunciation. We'd also suggest they bring back a lifetime paid membership so you don't have to pay monthly for the rest of your life. In all other regards, though, SpanishPod101 earns our enthusiastic recommendation and the #1 spot on our list of Spanish lessons.
Continued from above...
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.
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 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!
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