Learn Spanish - A guide to mostly free online Spanish resources

In September 2010 I moved to Spain and not wanting to be another Brit living on the Costa and just getting along with “dos beers ” it became obvious that I was going to need to speak Spanish. As someone who considers themselves to not the best language learner, having learnt French until the age of 16 and pretty much getting nowhere, this seemed like a daunting task. At first I thought that just immersing myself in the language would do the job and by some miracle I would end up one day being able to speak as if possessed. I soon realised that there would be a lot of hard work and perseverance if I was going to get anywhere.

The first port of call was the internet, seemingly the only place to look for anything these days where I was bombarded with “about 365,000,000 results(0.19 seconds)” . A pretty big pile of information by anyone’s standards. Where was I going to start? I was pretty adamant that I was not going to have lessons ( I say adamant, I think broke is probably a better way of putting it) and also didn’t want to end up buying several expensive books on Amazon, quenching any guilt of not putting in any real effort, to have them fizzle off in to nothingness.

Having been an English teacher on and off for several years I was aware of what I needed to know in terms of grammar or vocabulary but finding where I could learn that information and most importantly how to do that pretty much for free was another thing. Below is a guide to the resources I have used and continue to use in my quest to learn Spanish. Am I there yet? Well I can have a pretty good conversation, do my tax return, get my car serviced and have recently started to understand the radio while doing something else, which sounds easier than it is.

So I live in Spain and get to speak Spanish all the time. Well after ordering cafe con leche (a white coffee) I realised that if I wanted to speak more Spanish I would need to get out there. Getting a language exchange helped me do exactly that. I now have several intercambios a week where we spend half the time speaking English and half the time speaking Spanish. Above everything else I’ve done, this has been the biggest help to my confidence. I put an advert in the local online free ads and was swamped with replies.

Learning a language takes time and patience. Just keep going, you will get there. If something is getting boring or isn’t working for you don’t be afraid to change it and find something else. These links work for me but I do find myself going through phases which keeps it interesting and keeps me motivated. Also try getting into your hobbies in Spanish; I’ve been getting into Spanish photography blogs. If you are interested in what you are reading you will get more out of it. There is no right way or definitive list find what works for you and hopefully some of the above will help. If you have got any to add to the list get them in the comment section below. Keep learning...if I can do it, so can you.