Free Spanish Report V1a

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 1

How to Learn Spanish For Free Your Guide to the Best Free Learn Spanish Web Sites

By Michael Tipper Published By Waterford Green Ltd Registered in England and Wales Company Number 6208489 Registered Office: 2nd Floor, 145-157 St. John Street, London, EC1V 4PY © Michael Tipper 2007 All rights reserved. Nothing may be reproduced from this work or stored in any form of information retrieval system without the express written permission of the publisher. The opinions given are those of the author who is acting in good faith according to the extensive research undertaken by him and who confirms that he himself uses or has used the resources recommended in this report. The author takes no responsibility for any changes to the sites previewed in this document or for the material presented on those sites which may have changed since the production of this report. The author stresses that the opinions, comments and recommendations are his and his alone and may not necessarily reflect those of the owners and publishers of the material contained on those sites. If you find that links are broken or sites are no longer available then contact the author at http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 2

Contents 1. Introduction

Page 4

2. Online Dictionaries and Translation Services

Page 12

3. Free Spanish Audio Programs

Page 23

4. Interactive Multimedia Programs

Page 31

5. Free Video Lessons

Page 37

6. Some Great Grammar Sites

Page 43

7. Your Free Learn Spanish Resources Rolodex

Page 52

8. ++++ STOP PRESS ++++

Page 56

9. Please pass this on

Page 56

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 3

Introduction My name is Michael Tipper and like you I am a student of Spanish. That’s me on the right with my partner Pat on holiday in Spain earlier this year. I have been travelling abroad as part of my work for a number of years and have always been frustrated each time I visited a foreign country that I could not speak the local lingo. I failed languages miserably at school, partly because the lessons were boring, partly because I wasn’t interested in languages but mainly because I was a horrible teenager - Miss Littlejohns (My German and French teacher) if you ever read this I am very sorry for my behaviour back then! I have made several attempts to learn German over the years and can get by in a bar or café but anything beyond that (“2 mineral waters and my friend will pay please!”) and I am stuffed. This year I had a go at learning Russian for a trip to Ukraine and after 6 months of listening to tapes I thought I had enough to get by on my visit….but then faced with a real Russian speaking person my mind went to mush and all I could burble was “Sorry I only understand a little Russian”. 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.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 4

Then when I went to Spain this year with my partner and could only mumble “Sorry I don’t understand” in broken Spanish, I decided that I had had enough of not being able to speak someone else’s language when I visit their country. Now the ironic thing is that I am a specialist in learning and memory development, author or 3 books on memory and learning, have personally delivered speeches, seminars and workshops to over 80,000 people and have designed learning programs that have positively affected the lives of over half a million children and young people. Yet I didn’t even think about applying what I know about learning to studying a language! So after my trip to Spain and my experiences in Ukraine together with all of my back history of frustrations at not speaking another language to a level of competence I decided to do something about it. I did my research, got my thinking cap on and came up with a new system of how to learn a language based on my understanding of accelerated learning, advanced memory techniques and having the right mental approach. Now this system is not about the WHAT to learn (i.e. the phrases, vocabulary, grammar etc) because I don’t have that knowledge or expertise. This system is about the HOW to learn i.e. study methods, motivational strategies, memorisation techniques and comprehension/activation tools. So armed with that knowledge I decided to test my system to see whether my ideas and the learning tools I have used in other areas so well would work with learning a language. © Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 5

Now I had to choose what “Learn Spanish” program I was going to test my new system out on and here is where I faced my first problem. 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. Now I want to make learning another language accessible to all and while I was doing my research on the Spanish programs available on the internet, I kept coming across some really good free resources. It suddenly dawned on me that if I was to prove that my approach to learning a language was as good as I thought it was then I had to take the “WHAT” i.e. the presentation of the Spanish to me, out of the equation. So I decided that I would test my new system just using free resources that are available to everyone and anyone from the internet. By doing that I could take away any claim that one paid for learn Spanish product was better than another and isolate my success to the methods of learning rather than the way the language was presented. It also meant that when it worked, anyone could take my system and apply it to the same free stuff and then get the same results. © Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 6

So this report that you are now reading is the result of that research. I am now going to share with you all of the free learn Spanish stuff I have applied my system to. 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

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 7

And the result – well watch the day 33 video here (6 minutes in Spanish – with subtitles!). It is not pretty, I stumble a few times and now I realise I made a few mistakes, but I speak for about 6 minutes in Spanish. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCfupsIPRTw

So this report is about the free Spanish lessons and websites I used from the internet. By the way, before we get started, if you have been passed this report from a friend, colleague or family member and not directly from me then make sure you get yourself your copy of this Quick and Easy Guide to Learning Spanish. (If you have already been to my site then you will already have it) It is available for free from my site (http://www.learn-spanish-freeright-now.com/). I bought the rights to it and can either sell it for $27 or give it away – for now I am giving it away so this is your first free resource. Here is what it contains: © Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 8

Greetings and basic expressions – how to initiate conversations with Spanish speakers in exactly the right way, so that you get your communication off to a flying start. (Page 8) Getting the Pronunciation Right – understanding the letters of the alphabet and how words in the Spanish language sound so you will always understand and be understood. (Page 12) Forever stop Native Speakers from quietly sniggering at your mis-use of word genders by discovering what they are, what they mean and a very simple way of knowing the right gender for any Spanish Noun - I have not seen this in any other Spanish course so far. (Page 16) A simple, easy to remember formula to form questions and statements from your ever growing Spanish Vocabulary that will give you the correct word endings, verb conjugations and articles every time which will have the locals think you’ve been studying their language for years. (Page 22) The right way to address and refer to people, children, animals and objects, especially the well respected elderly and those in positions of authority so that you honour the culture and receive genuine appreciation for the effort you have made. (Page 25) Avoid appearing stupid to Spanish Speakers by discovering how to describe things in Spanish so that you create intelligent conversation and feel articulate and self-assured. (Page 28)

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 9

How to expand your sentence content with the right words to create more natural speech giving you the satisfaction of sounding more like a native (page 34 and page 36) 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. Understand how to provide facts in Spanish (Page 59), ask questions (Page 61) and give instructions and commands (Page 63) so that you will feel confident and assertive in any conversational situation 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/ Also by getting hold of this report at my site you will be automatically eligible for free updates to this report and I will send you links to new sites as I find them. Make sure you do this now because I am not sure how long I shall be giving this away for free. It has taken me far more work than I envisioned and my girlfriend is starting to get more and more expensive LOL so I may have to start charging for it (probably about $27) Now another site I am duty bound to share with you is my own personal blog which records my progress to become proficient in Spanish, links to more great resources and things I have learnt about Spanish.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 10

The first 33 entries are my daily thoughts from my experiment together with the YouTube videos (to save you searching through YouTube to find them) so you can see how I progressed. 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/

So after what was going to be a short introduction (☺), let’s get on with sharing with you the free resources I have been using.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 11

Online Dictionaries and Translation Facilities As you enter the magical world of another language, in our case Spanish, you are going to discover the wonder of new words and phrases to use on the unsuspecting Spanish speaking public. Likewise as you start to read Spanish and engage in conversation with other Spanish speakers, you will encounter new words and phrases that you don’t understand. Good learning practice will mean that as soon as this happens you should look it up immediately. This way you get to understand the word whilst the context of its use is still fresh in your memory. Traditionally, before the internet, you would be recommended to get hold of the best (and probably largest) dictionary you possibly could. That is still a good thing to do but as we are focussing on using the World Wide Web you want to get hold of the internet equivalent. 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. Now this sounds great because it means you can go to a Spanish web site that you are interested in, copy a chunk of text, paste it into the translation tool, press a button and bingo you know what it means.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 12

Of course the reality of it is that even though technology is amazing (and getting better all the time) the translation of text is not perfect – may be 80-90% accurate. The translation may not take into account true meanings of literal translations. For example you might innocently want to translate “I am hot” (meaning the temperature for you is too high) and the literal translation of that in several languages has a sexual connotation which is not what you meant. Here is an example of why the translation facilities should not be truly relied on for 100% accuracy. I went to one of the translation facilities and translated this sentence into Spanish: “Please can you tell me how I can get to nearest police station” As a translation it gave me: “Puedele por favor me dice cómo puedo llegar a más cercana comisaría” 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: “You be able please tells me how can I arrive at more nearby precinct” Of course one of the things you should understand about learning a language is that things more often than not DO NOT translate literally i.e. word for word. Therefore there will always be a bit of © Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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Issue 1 Page 13

disparity. This is why sometimes when you hear someone struggling with their English they often say strange things (to us anyway) because they have used the word order and syntax of their own language which is often different to ours. So in this particular case if I put this English translation back into the tool I should get the Spanish it gave me originally. Here is what I got: “Usted puede dice por favor mí cómo puedo llego en zona más cercana” And if we compare it to the Spanish I first got: “Puedele por favor me dice cómo puedo llegar a más cercana comisaría” We can see that there are some similarities but it is a different sentence. The point I am trying to make is that you should not rely on the translation facilities completely but be wary of what they give you. They will give you a starting point but that is all it really is. You may have to do a bit of detective work to get a completely accurate translation I had a similar experience with the dictionaries I used. I wanted to find out what the translation of “silverware” (meaning knives, forks, spoons etc at a dinner table) was. Here are the different translations I got (I have also showed the results I got from translation facilities):

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 14

Translation facility1 - vajilla de plata Dictionary 1 vajilla de plata Translation facility 2 – Platería Dictionary 2 - plata labrada Translation facility 3 - los cubiertos Translation facility 4 - vajilla de plata Dictionary 3 - vajilla de plata, cubiertos 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: Dictionary – translates single words from Spanish-English and vice versa. The thing I like about dictionaries is that some have audio files to help you with your developing pronunciation. Translation facility – translates a body of text from Spanish-English and vice versa. Can be used like a dictionary if you just input single words. So just be careful when using these services because you may not be getting exactly what you think when you use them. Below I have listed several examples of both dictionaries and translation facilities I have used and continue to use. I generally use at least 3 at any one time because I have found that if I cross reference between at least 3 I can generally find the meaning of the word I am looking for because remember where there are synonyms for a word (eg eat, consume) you might get both but from different tools. © Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 15

Online Dictionaries http://www.spanishdict.com/

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 SpanishEnglish on same page without selecting an option

Negative

•

Has a word of the day

•

Small number of entries

•

Google ads thrust in your face on audio translations

Rating



© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 16

http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-Spanish-Dictionary/

URL

http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-SpanishDictionary/

No Entries

Not Specified

Dedicated to

Yes

Spanish? Audio

No

Positive

•

Can translate English-Spanish and SpanishEnglish 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

Negative

•

Not overwhelmed with google ads

•

Gives synonyms of words

•

Has a linked but relatively inactive forum but it is only about Ectaco’s translation products

• Rating

No audio



© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 17

http://www.wordreference.com/

URL

http://www.wordreference.com/

No Entries

120,000 words with more than 250,000 translations.

Dedicated to Spanish?

Has French and Italian dictionaries in addition 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



© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 18

Online Translation Tools http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

URL

http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

Dedicated to

No – this has 23 different language translation

Spanish? Positive

facilities, many of them in BETA form •

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



© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 19

http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr

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

Negative

•

My favourite for quick translations

•

Need to select an option to choose between English-Spanish or Spanish-English

• Rating

Basic design and layout



© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 20

http://translation2.paralink.com/

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

Rating

•

Confusing design and layout

•

500 character limit to text translation

•

Bombarded with ads every few translations



© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 21

http://www.freetranslation.com/

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)

Negative

•

Simple to use

•

Good help and FAQ section

•

No google ads

•

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



© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 22

Free Spanish Audio Programs Apart from my miserable French and German lessons at school, most of my attempts at learning a language have been with audio programs. In the dim and distant past this was with audio cassettes (remember them!), then CDs and more recently with MP3s. If you think about it, it makes sense to learn a language using audios because it is an oral/audio form of communication. You can learn it from a book but it is far easier to become discouraged, it takes much longer and is far harder to grasp and master the correct pronunciation of the words and phrases you are learning. So I am sure you can imagine my delight when I discovered that on the internet you can get hold of some extremely high quality audio programs for free. 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. I began my search for stuff like this as I began my 33 day challenge that I mentioned earlier and I really wish I had discovered these free audios earlier because I probably would have set my goals for that experiment much higher.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 23

Now before I get on to sharing with you these audios I need to explain what a podcast is because these audio programs are delivered as podcasts. Essentially a podcast is a term coined for the delivery of MP3 files (an audio format) to users. The “pod” bit comes from the Apple iPod but you don’t need to have an iPod to receive and play a podcast. All you need is a computer and an internet connection. If you have an MP3 player then you can download the popdcast files onto it but you don’t need to. You can listen to them from your PC or laptop once you have downloaded them. 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 ☺.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 24

http://www.coffeebreakspanish.com/

Name

Coffee Break Spanish – Language Learning with your Latte

URL

http://www.coffeebreakspanish.com/

Format

Spanish Teacher Mark teaches student Kara how to speak Spanish. Typical situations discussed, vocabulary explained and dialogues given. Mark testing Kara on what she has learnt. Nice explanations of grammar and pronunciation given

Characters

Both Mark and Kara are Scottish and broadcast from Glasgow in Scotland. Mark is an authoritative teacher with a great teaching style and a great voice for radio. Kara is an enthusiastic student who is willing to make mistakes. Both are extremely likeable characters and you get the impression it is a genuine lesson and not a scripted exchange.

Forum

Yes – recently changed over to a new system because of Spam but it was active before the changeover.

Strengths

•

Ideal beginners podcast

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 25

•

Practical Spanish in bite size chunks (15-20 minutes)

Weaknesses

•

Uses music and songs frequently

•

Enjoyable to listen to

•

Makes the language extremely accessible

None – this is an ideal beginners podcast – recommend you start with lesson 1 and work your way through from the beginning.

Podcast

http://tinyurl.com/2x5e9z or look for “podcast

Downloads page WIIFT –

There is a premium service with a monthly charge

what’s in it for them

episodes” at http://www.coffeebreakspanish.com/

(currently £8.50) where you get a bonus podcast, downloadable pdfs, flashcards and ipod notes. Mark and Kara regularly encourage you to sign up (but not in an aggressive way)

Rating



© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 26

http://www.edufone.com/

Name

Finally Learn Spanish

URL

http://www.edufone.com/

Format

Jade (American) and Carla (Mexican) discuss various aspects of Spanish. They will introduce the vocabulary, explain the dialogue in English and Spanish, give the dialogue in just Spanish and then will test you again on the vocabulary. You will hear the dialogue 4 or 5 times.

Characters

Jade is a Spanish teacher (amongst other things) as is Carla. Jade explains the lesson, calls on Carla for the dialogues and for “Spanish Insider” points and also acts as the student herself, ably demonstrating that learning a language is an ongoing process whatever the level. Easy to listen to – obviously enthusiastic about sharing what they know.

Forum

Yes with some activity

Strengths

•

Excellent format

•

Knowledgeable teachers

•

Native (Latin American) Spanish Speaker

•

Basic and intermediate dialogue

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 27

•

PDFs available with some of the dialogue in most episodes (full transcriptions are charged for)

•

Episodes focused around a particular theme

•

Amazing membership (which is free) benefit of registering your Skype handle to get in touch with native Spanish speakers to practice with – it works! I have used it myself!

•

This is a truly bilingual podcast because Spanish Speakers also listen to it to help them learn English

Weaknesses

Nothing significant as this is a great podcast but perhaps might put some beginners off because it does have some intermediate level dialogues right from episode 1. However even beginners (like you and I) can benefit from this as I discovered using them – go on stretch yourself!!!

Podcast

http://www.edufone.com/podcasts.php

Downloads page WIIFT –

The site is promoting their mobile phone technology

what’s in it for them Rating

to help you learn to speak Spanish



© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 28

http://www.notesinspanish.com/

Name

Notes In Spanish – Inspired Beginners

URL

http://www.notesinspanish.com/

Format

Vocabulary explained followed by dialogue in Spanish. Often two sets of dialogue in one lesson. Good conversation between a native Spanish Speaker and an English speaker fluent in Spanish

Characters

Ben is English and has lived and worked in Madrid for 9 years. Marina is a Spanish teacher native to Madrid. Ben’s authoritative and clear approach compliments Marina’s playful and often flirtatious style. This is a great combination and Ben offers some great insights having already travelled the path we are looking tread ourselves. Ben and Marina already have advanced and intermediate level podcasts and have now branched out to the beginners level.

Forum

Yes - a great community of Spanish Learners

Strengths

•

Streetwise Spanish as well as the basics and essentials

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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Issue 1 Page 29

•

Real and relevant dialogue between fluent Spanish speakers

Weaknesses

•

Native (European) Spanish Speaker

•

Basic and intermediate dialogue

•

Spanish Videos on their site too

Dialogues only spoken once so rewinding is necessary. Would like to have them repeated within the lesson.

Podcast

http://tinyurl.com/3aoxx4 or look for “Inspired

Downloads page WIIFT –

Good quality PDF transcripts of the dialogues

what’s in it for them

Beginners” at http://www.notesinspanish.com/

together with further explanations not covered in the podcast are available for a small (and quite reasonable rate). The first podcast comes with the PDF for free so you can see the quality and relevance.

Rating



© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 30

Free Multimedia Programs I’ve have been continuously amazed by just how much great stuff is available on the internet and I thought when I found the podcasts that nothing could really top them. That was until I started looking at some of the multimedia sites 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. The BBC is the public service broadcaster in the UK and as such the quality of free output it provides to those resident in the UK in return for our TV license fee is quite remarkable. Of course with the internet some of this output is now available to the world. And so it is with their language learning facilities.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 31

The beginners program is called “Spanish Steps” and features Kevin Duala in a number of different everyday circumstances. Now depending upon your internet connection, you can either watch a short video clip of the dialogue (optional) or just follow the lesson as it is portrayed in photographs.

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. Then you go through a series of activities to activate what you have learnt. 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.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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Issue 1 Page 32

Other exercises include memorisation tests and written problems (usually filling in letters). All in all a completely interactive approach in nice bite-sized. 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. There are other things on this site too – a video series, intermediate level Spanish and other interactive games. If you are just starting out and want to see whether Spanish is for you then do visit this site. This gets a definite 5 heart rating 

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Issue 1 Page 33

http://www.spanishspanish.com/

I think if I was to have a favourite Spanish site then this must be it for a couple of reasons: 1. It is an extremely useful resource with some amazing Flash lessons on it 2. It is amazing fun and very enjoyable to use. This site doesn’t appear to have much organisation to it. It just appears to be a collection of Flash driven flash cards to help with specific aspects of 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.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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Another lesson helps you with telling the time. All you do is put in the time and it will show you the clock face and a voice will tell you in Spanish what that time is for morning and evening.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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Yet another will help you with expressions to do with the weather. Simply put your cursor on the English phrase and you will hear the Spanish translation and see a picture of that aspect of weather – powerful stuff!

This site is another one that definitely gets a 5 heart rating

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© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

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Free Spanish Video Lessons In this video dominated society of ours, the massive explosion of web-based video and the increasing availability of broadband connections to the internet, I am sure it will not surprise you to know that there is a tremendous amount of information available to you on video online. This is especially true if you want to learn to speak Spanish and if you know where to look you can find some very high quality resources to help you become more proficient. http://www.expertvillage.com/interviews/spanish.htm

I stumbled across this first set of videos quite by accident when I was searching for weather reports in Spanish. Expert village is supposedly the worlds largest dedicated “how-to” video site and has videos on a wide range of topics. © Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

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As you’d probably expect there is a series on helping people like you and me learn to become more proficient in Spanish. And the great thing about these videos is that they are free! At the time of writing there are 39 videos on topics ranging from the weather, days of the week, dealing with emergencies, and phrases in sport to name a few. The teacher is a Spanish Linguist (not native just very good!) called Mixitxu Etxeberria (no I don’t know how to say that either but she does introduce herself on each video).

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. Each video is about 4-5 minutes long (about 3 hours of total lessons) and if you can suffer the ads (you have to click to shut © Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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off an ad that gets in the way of the sub-titles) they are well worth using. Were it not for the in your face ads, this would get the full 5 heart rating but for now it gets just 4 

http://www.youtube.com/

Any discussion about online video would not be complete without mentioning You Tube. This of course is the ultimate video site and despite many pretenders to its crown, I am sure will dominate online video for years to come. 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.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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You really need to know what you are looking for when it comes to finding good videos on how to learn Spanish. A general search on “learn Spanish” will give you general results but if you put in “count in Spanish” you will get more targeted videos. Most videos tend to fall into 3 categories: 1. companies promoting their own Spanish program 2. Well meaning people sharing what they know about Spanish 3. Mom and Pops sharing clips of 2 day old Johnny gurgling in Spanish 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 

The last two sites in this category I have already mentioned in other areas of this report but I shall include them here too for completeness.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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http://www.notesinspanish.com/category/videoblogging/

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. You should consider doing a video of you speaking Spanish. It really focuses the mind and gives you great experience. I know I certainly benefited from doing it.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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http://www.youcanlearnspanishtoo.com/

And then of course there is my blog which I am using to track my progress and gather all of the great stuff I am learning about how to speak Spanish. Already there are 33 videos of me charting my progress to learn Spanish during my experiment and if I do say so myself, there are some great tips on how to learn a language. Over the coming weeks and months I shall be adding more of my own videos but I shall also be sharing the videos I find that help me. Modesty aside I shall give me a  rating because I am only going to share with you information and videos that warrant that sort of rating. I am sure you will tell me if they don’t come up to scratch.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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Some Great Grammar Sites Now I know what you are thinking – “AHHHHHRRRRRGH” – because that is what I thought when I started this project. I did not even imagine that there would be any reason to start studying grammar. I mean I just want to have a simple conversation in Spanish; I don’t want a qualification in it!! 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”. So I had to go looking for some online grammar help. As I am sure you’d expect there are literally thousands of sites out there with Spanish Grammar advice and much of it is either hard to understand, irrelevant or downright incorrect. However there are a few gems on the web that you really should know about to assist you in your Spanish development.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

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http://spanish.about.com/

About.com is recognised as one of the top 10 content sites on the internet and is renowned for regularly updated quality content. It has over 600 experts who regularly contribute to the site pushing it to the top or near to it of all of the major search engines for many, may search terms. The Spanish pages of About.com are put together by Gerald Erichsen, an avid Spanish speaker and someone else who has gone before us and wants to help us learn Spanish. The content on the site is extremely comprehensive with nearly 450 articles on parts of speech and nearly 50 on sentence structure (just to give you an idea of the scale of this resource). If you have a question about Spanish grammar then this is a great place to go for the answer and because of that About.com deserves 5 hearts 

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_grammar

Another site that has to be on our list of places to visit must be Wikipedia. This is not as comprehensive as the About.com site (which can be a little overwhelming because of its vastness!) but does have a good introduction to the basics. A good thing about Wikipedia is that if there is a word you don’t understand and it is important to the topic, there will invariably be a link to a related page explaining what the word means. Whilst this can be an advantage it can also work against you if you suddenly find yourself 8 or 9 clicks away from where you originally started. Wikipedia can be edited by anyone so beware of the information on the site and do verify anything from another source before you take it as “the answer”. For that reason it only gets 3 hearts

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© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

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http://www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm

This last grammar site I want to recommend to you is a commercial site. They are selling a Study Spanish Program and the main thrust of the site is to encourage you to buy it. However in drawing your attention to them they have a very comprehensive 9 part section on grammar. It covers an amazing amount of information with over 100 separate written lessons that you can either view on the screen or download the pdf version. Each lesson has an interactive quiz of at least 10 questions although you will find that if you buy their program you can get at least another hundred questions. However I think the free questions you get are enough to keep you going and get the grammatical muscles moving. 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

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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Latin American speaker as well as by a European Spanish speaker.

This site deserves its 5 heart rating

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© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

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Miscellaneous Spanish Sites There are a number of other sites that I have found really useful over my short time learning to Speak Spanish that don’t really neatly fit into any of the categories I have put the others into. Here are some of the best: 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.

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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http://users.ipfw.edu/JEHLE/VERBLIST.HTM

I suppose this site should really be under the grammar section of this report but as it is so quirky and detailed I thought I’d put it in the miscellaneous section. 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. A big challenge in learning any language is understanding and remembering how all of the verbs are conjugated across the different uses they have with the various tenses, genders etc. But before you can remember them you have to work out what they are. 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. I Am impressed with this as a resource and it deserves a respectful 4 hearts for sheer industry alone . © Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

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http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-radio-spanish.html

One of the things I strongly recommend you do as you learn to speak Spanish is to start listening to native speakers as often as you possibly can. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand what is being said, the important thing is that you are starting to tune your mind into the language and getting used to its “music”. This will be invaluable as you progress in developing your proficiency and if you don’t do it, it will probably be the thing that holds you back the most. 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 that gets 3 hearts 

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

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Final Words So that is it for now. I hope that this report will be of value to you. It is my belief that you can become fluent in Spanish just using the free resources that are available to us all on the internet. I have shared with you the resources that I am currently using and have used to develop my proficiency in Spanish in just 33 days (check out the You Tube video of Day 33 for proof!). 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

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

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Your Free Learn Spanish Resources Rolodex Online Dictionaries http://www.spanishdict.com/

 http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-SpanishDictionary/

 http://www.wordreference.com/

 Online Translation Tools http://translation2.paralink.com/

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http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

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© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr

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http://www.freetranslation.com/

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Free Audio Programs (Podcasts)

http://www.coffeebreakspanish.com/

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http://www.edufone.com/

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http://www.notesinspanish.com/

 Free Multimedia Programs http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/

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© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

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http://www.spanishspanish.com/

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Free Spanish Video Lessons http://www.expertvillage.com/interviews/spanish.htm

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http://www.youtube.com/

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http://www.notesinspanish.com/category/videoblogging/

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http://www.youcanlearnspanishtoo.com/

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© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

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Great Grammar Sites http://spanish.about.com/

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_grammar

 http://www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm

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Miscellaneous Spanish Sites http://www.jvlnet.com/~liliana/Spanish_Numbers.html

 http://users.ipfw.edu/JEHLE/VERBLIST.HTM

 http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-radio-spanish.html

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© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

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++++STOP PRESS++++STOP PRESS++++STOP PRESS++++ Remember if you are not already signed up to receive this report from me directly, you may not have the most up to date copy. In addition you will be missing out on special free video reports I will only be making available people have received this from me directly. To make sure that you have the latest version of this report and get a free copy of Quick and Easy Spanish (a 72 page “How-To” Spanish Course) then just visit this site:

http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/ ++++STOP PRESS++++STOP PRESS++++STOP PRESS++++ PLEASE PASS THIS ON If you have a friend, colleague or family member who is learning to speak Spanish then please do pass this on to them or anyone else you think would benefit from knowing about these free resources.

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