5 Best websites and apps to learn Spanish
In today’s world, everyone should know how to speak at least two languages. The reasons to do that, are many. If you want to know them, check our post about all the reasons to learn a language online. But it doesn't matter why you end up here. Every reason is valid. Every language learner has personal reasons as to why they want to expand their horizons.
Let’s be honest, accepting a challenge like that requires courage. But it’s a sacrifice worth making. And if you’ve set your mind to it, if you’ve decided to learn a new language, why not Spanish? As the second most spoken language, Spanish is the favorite choice for many. It's useful for studies, work, and entertainment. It's amazing how far you can go if you are able to speak Spanish. If you want to know how to start, check our post about how to learn Spanish Online.
Having said that, in this article we’ve chosen the best websites to learn Spanish online. From beginners to advanced students, these websites offer the perfect courses to study and learn Spanish in a fun and didactic way. They provide the best material or tutors available so that you get the best education possible:
Audio learning: Coffee Break Spanish
Coffee Break Spanish is a great initiative from Radio Lingua to learn Spanish differently. The website offers two things: a podcast and online courses. The archive of podcasts episodes is free but for the online courses, you will have to pay a fee for a season of 40 lessons.
Each season of the podcast is a different academic level. Season 1 is for “absolute beginners”, season 2 is for “intermediate”, season 3 is for “Upper Intermediate” and season 4 is for “advanced” students. They have a lot of free content available, mostly as audio podcasts. However, if you want to expand and deepen your understanding of the language you may want to take up the online courses.
This is a great choice if you want to learn a language on your own time or even complement your study plan. It works great for autonomous students with free time and thirst for knowledge. However, there are no teachers to guide you or solve doubts along the way. Although it’s a great option, it lacks the figure of a tutor who can act as a crutch when you are limping.
Community learning: Memrise
Memrise is a platform to learn languages in a fun and unconventional way. The website offers a variety of courses to get a personalized experience according to your skills. These courses use a very interesting technique to help you learn vocabulary and grammatical structures: elaborate encoding. It helps you remember concepts by creating an association between the translation and the words you are already familiar with.
They also have videos, audios, and a community of users at your service to improve your experience as a student. Almost all their resources are free and there are several courses for both beginners and advanced Spanish students. Some features, though, require a paid membership.
It is a great option if you are looking for useful resources for free. Again, though, it doesn’t have a tutor or a teacher to help you when you get stuck. That is unless you have the subscription, in which case you have access to chatbots.
Game Learning: Duolingo
Duolingo is a very popular platform to learn languages. Its motto is a quick, easy, and free way to learn a Language. It is a well-known idea for students who don’t have much time to spend in a classroom and prefer a free option.
They offer a wide variety of courses in languages such as Spanish, French, Italian… And their app allows you to access them from anywhere you want. The interface of the app is really easy to use and the methodology is simple. It also tracks your progress so you don’t fall behind and lose your skills.
Overall it is a great choice to complement more in-depth studies but on its own, it’s not enough. It requires tons and tons of self-discipline and even if you reach the “expert” level, there is no human interaction. Some skills such as speaking need someone else.
On the way: Babel
Babel is very similar to Duolingo because it’s a very popular platform that allows you to learn on-the-go through any device. It offers the essential tools to learn the basics of the language. It creates levels to build your vocabulary and acquire new grammatical structures. Unlike Duolingo, Babel is a paying platform with high-quality material and a more complete archive of resources.
Babel is cost-effective and the price is fairly low in comparison with other websites. As we’ve said, the user has access to a lot of material. Spanish has a lot of good and reliable content because of its popularity.
The learning techniques are similar to those of Duolingo. It has a few other advantages but in the end, it suffers the same ailments too. It lacks human interaction and an open communication channel to ask questions and solve doubts.
Online learning platform: Classgap
The Classgap is an online learning platform that acts as a bridge between teachers and students. It’s not the machine vs the student. It relies on human interaction to build a better online educational experience and also tracks individual progress in a more personal manner.
Besides a very wide selection of teachers, Classgap also offers all the tools needed to offer the environment to study and learn. From a virtual whiteboard to customer service, the student will feel the essence of the classroom. It also has an app to book or manage all your classes easily.
There are many teachers from which to choose and you can even book a quick 15-minute interview with your favorite for free. Now you don’t have any excuse to start learning a language anymore. Check Classgap now!