Spanish

Like all Americans, I studied Spanish in both grade school and high school. In total, I studied six years of formal and Colombian Spanish. I reached a Spanish level 4 class, equivalent to a C1 fluency. However, one reason I was able to maintain my Spanish is because I volunteered with refugees from Central and South America. So, not only was I studying in school, but I was also using what I was learning on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis. Spanish has probably been the easiest language to maintain due to the ample practice opportunities in the United States. So, when I traveled to six Central and South American countries in autumn 2023, using Spanish was incredibly easy. In addition to practicing with language exchange groups, I used a variety of other resources to work on listening, grammar, and vocabulary acquisition.

Spanish Language Resources

Online:

Mango
- Cost: free
- Details: different dialect courses, focus on vocab & not so much on grammar, helpful for beginners & learning useful phrases
Lingopie
- Cost: $12 per month
- Details: Watch TV shows & movies with the subtitles in the target language (French, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, German) & click on the words to view the translation & add to vocab
Pimsleur
- Cost: $20 per month
- Details: different dialects, focus on vocab & not so much on grammar
Mondly (free French app)

Books:

Exprésate! Levels 1-3 books & workbooks ($12-$37)
Barron’s 501 Spanish Verbs ($10)
Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish ($15-$30)
Spanish for Dummies
Complete Spanish All-In-One ($18-$30)

Instagrams:

@hola.spanish ; Spanish language learning
@speakspanishwithpaula ; Spanish language learning
@learnspanishwithsusana ; Spanish language
@michaelharperspanish ; Spanish teacher
@spanishonline_ ; Spanish learning
@martainspanish ; Spanish learning

Youtube:

Spanish Pod 101
Hola Spanish
Easy Spanish

Podcasts (Spotify)

Tenemos Que Hablar
Biografias
TED En Español
Coffee Break Spanish
El Mundo al día

Music

Shakira
Bad Bunny
Ozuna
Maluma
Marc Anthony
J Balvin
Rosalia

Movies & TV Shows

Money Heist (TV Show)
I Am Georgina (TV Show)
Velvet (TV Show)
Cable Girls (TV Show)
El Chapo (TV Show)
Volver (movie)
The Invisible Guest (movie)
Everybody Knows (movie)
El Fotógrafo de Mauthausen (movie)