Online Spanish Lessons Guide: Tips To Help You Succeed

Online Spanish lessons can be a very effective way to learn Spanish, but as with everything else, you have got to be careful about what you are choosing. It is quite possible to waste your time if you choose the wrong online Spanish lessons, and you won’t be anywhere closer to achieving your Spanish language learning goals.

If you are going to teach yourself Spanish and learn it on your own, you had better be self-disciplined and self-motivated.

On the other hand, online Spanish lessons can be used to supplement other methods you are using, like traditional Spanish classes, or as part of language learning software.

Another thing is that there are free online Spanish lessons, but there are also paid lessons as well. Again, it depends on what you want to learn Spanish for, what your budget is like, and how serious and dedicated you are.

Just like with any other language learning method, you will find different methods and teaching philosophies. You don’t necessarily have to choose only one method, however. Using a variety of methods might help you quite a bit.

One free online resource is Memrise. They have devised a method whereby you learn 1,000 of the most common words of any language (Spanish in this case), using mneumonic techniques. That means you think of a striking, strange, or funny image to associate with the words and that will definitely trigger your memory. People have really found that to be helpful. Josh Foner, for example, claims that he was able to learn a language (Lingala, from the Congo area) in just 22 hours using this method. I’m a little sceptical about how fast he claims to have learned the language, but it is an interesting method nevertheless.

The BBC also has a Spanish learning site. Their site consists of memorising words as well. Each slide has 10 words, which you have to learn to pronounce in 20 minutes. You can't go on to the next slide until you complete your current slide. You have to complete 24 slides in 12 weeks. It is a helpful and motivating technique.

Another online source to learn Spanish is Study Spanish. This has full Spanish language learning resources to help you with the traditional methods of studying vocabulary, verb conjugations, etc. There are Spanish experts on hand to help you out and also forums so that you can interact with others in a Spanish learning community.

A new type of online method to learn Spanish is to get one-on-one instruction over Skype. This is a great way to find native Spanish speakers in Spanish speaking countries to help you learn how to speak Spanish.

However, a lot of these Skype lessons are based in the US, so you should check that out if that is a concern to you.

These lessons are not free, however, and can be expensive. Sometimes even more expensive than classes or live tutors. Prices range from US$9 to $15 per hour.

In a less structured format, you could go for the option of finding a Spanish friend online and learn to speak Spanish that way. The person may want to speak English, too, and so the two of you could help each other out. There are lots of sites online that offer language matching services for this purpose.

Another type of online Spanish lesson that you can get is through You Tube videos. There is a Guatemalan site, for example, that teaches you Spanish from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

Finally, my personal recommendation is to take online Spanish lessons as part of a language learning software package. That way you get both online and offline resources. There are lots of different types of programs, and they all have different philosophies.

Rosetta Stone is the most popular, but their teaching method is very particular and definitely not suited for everyone, since it leaves out written Spanish and grammar to a very large extent. Tell Me More Spanish and Fluenz are in the (very high) Rosetta Stone price range, but have very different language learning philosophies. Many people prefer them to Rosetta Stone.

Rocket Spanish, on the other hand, is a clear choice in terms of value for money, as the download only option is so much cheaper than the other popular programs, and you get full, premium features, though not as much as Tell Me More, which is really great for those who want a very full and thorough language learning course, and can afford to pay for it.

You can find reviews of these software programs at the Best Spanish Learning Software webpage, listed in the linkbox above.

So, whichever style, method, and purpose suits you best, I hope that this guide has helped you decide on the best online Spanish lessons for you.