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Free Spanish Report V1a
Free Spanish Report V1a
Free Spanish Report V1a
http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/
How to Learn
Spanish For
Free
Your Guide to the Best Free
Learn Spanish Web Sites
By Michael Tipper
Published By
So even with some great information (the audios I was using cost
over $700) I still struggled to hold even a basic conversation after
6 months of listening to them over and over again.
The whole point of the exercise was to prove just how simple and
effective my new approach to learning a language was. I wanted
the experiment to be impartial and I realised that if I picked one of
the many paid for programs out on the market and used it with
that then I would have people potentially claiming that it was the
program I used and not my system that had the most impact.
But I suppose the first thing you might want to know is whether
the free resources (and I suppose my as yet unpublished secret
approach) worked.
Well I decided I would see how much Spanish I could learn in just
33 days only using free stuff off the internet and my new system
to learning a language. I kept a daily video diary on YouTube. If
you click on the screen or the link below you can see the first
video on day 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2Pu6q6__eg
How to talk about things that have happened in the past (Page
51), the present (Page 43) and the future (page 56) making your
speech more colourful and you interesting.
So to get your free copy of this great guide that I have found vital
as I started my Spanish journey then just go to:
http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/
Those videos are well worth watching because I also share some
snippets of my new approach to learning a language. So please
do come over and visit me, browse the posts and maybe drop me
a comment on how you are getting on and what you think of this
report. You can find the site at:
http://www.youcanlearnspanishtoo.com/
Of course the beauty of the internet is that not only are there
dictionaries out but the marvels of technology mean that there are
also translation facilities. Type in a body of text in Spanish and
press a button and you immediately get the English version and
of course vice versa.
“Please can you tell me how I can get to nearest police station”
Now to check this I then typed this Spanish back into the same
tool and translated it back into English. You’d expect that I
should get exactly the same as what I typed in originally. Here is
what I got:
“Usted puede dice por favor mí cómo puedo llego en zona más
cercana”
As you can see there is some consistency but from the 7 different
tools I used I got 4 different translations. I suppose at this point I
should make it clear what I mean between a pure dictionary and a
translation facility:
URL http://www.spanishdict.com/
No Entries 56,508 entries
Dedicated to Yes
Spanish?
Audio Over 10,369 audio pronunciations.
Positive • Has a linked active learn Spanish forum
• Can translate English-Spanish and Spanish-
English on same page without selecting an
option
• Has a word of the day
Negative • Small number of entries
• Google ads thrust in your face on audio
translations
Rating
URL http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-Spanish-
Dictionary/
No Entries Not Specified
Dedicated to Yes
Spanish?
Audio No
Positive • Can translate English-Spanish and Spanish-
English on same page without selecting an
option
• If you don’t know how a word is spelt you
can enter the first few letters and it gives you
alternatives
• Not overwhelmed with google ads
• Gives synonyms of words
Negative • Has a linked but relatively inactive forum but
it is only about Ectaco’s translation products
• No audio
Rating
URL
http://www.wordreference.com/
No Entries 120,000 words with more than 250,000
translations.
Dedicated to Has French and Italian dictionaries in addition
Spanish?
to the Spanish one but they appear to be driven
by separate parts of the site
Audio Yes
Positive • Very active learn Spanish forum
• Links the words you want to translate to
areas of the forum where they are discussed
• Does have google ads but they are not in
your face
• Gives examples of the context that the word
might appear in
Negative • Need to select an option to choose between
English-Spanish or Spanish-English
Rating
URL http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en
Dedicated to No – this has 23 different language translation
Spanish?
facilities, many of them in BETA form
Positive • Includes a facility to search the web by
country or by language
• Has a facility to allow you to translate a
particular web page (need the URL)
• No google ads on this google page!!
• Allows you to suggest a better translation
• Has a very good FAQ that explains the tools
capabilities and limitations
Negative • Need to select an option to choose between
English-Spanish or Spanish-English
• Basic design and layout gives little
confidence and relies on Google’s reputation
for credibility about its effectiveness (see
FAQ)
Rating
URL http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr
Dedicated to No – this has 36 different language translations
Spanish?
Positive • Simple to use
• You can search the internet for the text you
have chosen to translate
• My favourite for quick translations
Negative • Need to select an option to choose between
English-Spanish or Spanish-English
• Basic design and layout
Rating
URL http://translation2.paralink.com/
Dedicated to No – this has 19 different language translations
Spanish?
Positive • It translates and can be used to verify the
translations from other tools
Negative • Need to select an option to choose between
English-Spanish or Spanish-English
• Confusing design and layout
• 500 character limit to text translation
• Bombarded with ads every few translations
Rating
URL http://www.freetranslation.com/
Dedicated to No – this has 19 different language translations
Spanish?
Positive • Has tool to allow you to choose the variants
of Spanish letters when translating into
English.
• Credible site because it is the front piece for
a professional translation service
• Option to have your translation done by
human (a fee is charged for this)
• Simple to use
• Good help and FAQ section
• No google ads
Negative • Need to select an option to choose between
English-Spanish or Spanish-English
• Depending on screen resolution, you have
to keep scrolling down the page when you
input text to then find the “translate” button
Rating
I was amazed at just how professional and well thought out these
programs were and just how comparably they stood against even
the best (and usually the most expensive) paid for language
systems.
You can find the podcasts from a variety of places like Apple’s
itunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/) store (they are free but you
need to have the itunes software on your PC) or any of the other
podcast delivery sites like Podcast Alley
(http://www.podcastalley.com/). However I am just going to point
you in the direction of the source website rather than complicate
things by have you subscribe to podcast feeds. At the source
website you will be able to download the audio files just like you
download any other file.
Now you will have noticed that I have rated the other sites I have
recommended. The three podcasts I am about to share with you
all get because their quality is so good. Each has
their own strengths and you will choose one to use depending
where you are and the style of teaching most suited to your
learning approach. I myself use all three but then I am a bit eager
to become as proficient as quick as I can ☺.
These are sites that have text, audio and video to assist with the
learning and I was quite lucky to have stumbled across what I
think must be the free granddaddy of them all.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/
In each part you can see the English translation, the Spanish text
or just listen to the dialogue in Spanish.
At the end of the dialogue (which usually has about 5-6 steps)
you get a summary of the conversation both spoken and written
in Spanish.
This one below is a drag and drop exercise where you have to tie
up the relevant piece of the dialogue with the right picture.
It might be a little simplistic here and there, but if you like doing
things to keep you involved and can’t stand the thought of sitting
through hours of audio, then this is a great place to start learning
Spanish.
For example there is a lesson to help you learn the alphabet with
audio – simply put your cursor over the letter and you a hear a
voice saying it in Spanish.
http://www.expertvillage.com/interviews/spanish.htm
She introduces the lesson, says the English phrase, says the
Spanish translation and then repeats it slowly. I like the format
very much because the Spanish text comes up on the screen and
appears later down the page that the video is on so you can copy
it and print it off.
Were it not for the in your face ads, this would get the full 5 heart
http://www.youtube.com/
You Tube has some amazing stuff on it with literally millions and
millions of short video clips. Most are limited to 10 minutes or
100MB and so you are treated to bite sized clips. However
because it is so easy to put stuff up on You Tube there is so
much crap on there too.
If you can put up with some blatant promos you will get some
good stuff from the first category. The second category does
have some good stuff too but beware that they might be 100%
accurate if they are just passing on something they have just
learnt. I am a prime example of that because on my day 33 video
on You Tube I made a few mistakes.
So despite the occasional dross you will find on You Tube, its
sheer scale of videos means that You Tube must get a full 5 heart
rating
Ben and Marina at Notes In Spanish not only do their own video
blogging but they encourage members of their online community
to share their videos too. Now this is great for a number reasons,
not least because you get to see how others are getting on with
their Spanish so you can track your own progress too.
If you watch any of the videos from people other than Ben and
Marina you will see different standards of Spanish. We all have
to go through a faltering stage (I am still in mine!) and it is really
encouraging to see and hear others in the same position. It is
also inspiring to know that if others can do it then so can you.
Well I must admit that the urge to explore at least a little bit of
grammar sort of crept up on me unannounced. I found that after
a while I started to spot patterns in the Spanish I was learning
and I started to get curious what the patterns were and why they
were there.
I also found that there were a few things that confused me. For
example there were two words for “I am” – “soy” and “estoy” and I
couldn’t understand why one was used in one instance and the
other elsewhere when the translation was the same simple “I am”.
One of the really good things about this site is that some of the
lessons have an audio component to them too. One feature of
this that I really liked was that you hear words spoken by a native
http://www.jvlnet.com/~liliana/Spanish_Numbers.html
This is a really special site that will help you learn how to say the
numbers from 1-999 using some very effective Flash animation.
By running your mouse over a number you can hear its correct
pronunciation and then there is an interactive test where you
translate the number that is spoken to you in Spanish. The
system keeps score and tells you when you have got it right. It is
a great site but only gets 3 hearts because some of the
number groups don’t have the test facilities that others have.
This site is one of those resources where you are really glad that
someone else has done the work for you because you can’t
imagine ever doing it all for yourself.
Well some industrious chap has put together literally pages and
pages of conjugations of hundreds of verbs. Judging by the
amount of verb conjugations there are on this site, if it isn’t here
then the verb is not worth conjugating.
This site lists literally hundreds of Spanish radio stations that you
can tune in to any time of the day. There are radio stations from
just about every Spanish speaking nation which means you will
be able to find good talk radio in Spanish at just about anytime of
the day.
Try out a few stations until you find a couple you like. Nice site
It is all there for you so all I can do is share with you the sites that
I have used and encourage you to try them out.
If you do find that any of the links I have given you are broken,
then please do let me know by dropping me a comment at my
blog at http://www.youcanlearnspanishtoo.com/ .
Alternatively if you have a site that you have used that is not in
this report and you think would be valuable to others who are also
learning to speak Spanish then once again, drop me a line at my
blog.
So good luck with the Spanish and do let me know how you get
on and what you think of this report.
Regards
http://www.spanishdict.com/
http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-Spanish-
Dictionary/
http://www.wordreference.com/
http://translation2.paralink.com/
http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en
http://www.freetranslation.com/
http://www.coffeebreakspanish.com/
http://www.edufone.com/
http://www.notesinspanish.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/
http://www.expertvillage.com/interviews/spanish.htm
http://www.youtube.com/
http://www.notesinspanish.com/category/videoblogging/
http://www.youcanlearnspanishtoo.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_grammar
http://www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm
http://users.ipfw.edu/JEHLE/VERBLIST.HTM
http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-radio-spanish.html
http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/