Comments on: Spanish toolbox: 10 language-learning resources

By: Tricia

Tricia — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:57:44 +0000

My new favorite site is http://www.babbel.com, which has extensive theme-based sets of vocabulary to practice with various little “games”, and also writing assignments that you can then ask your “friends” (usually folks who are native speakers of the language you’re learning) or the “community” to correct your work. They are also building a library of tutorials to work on grammar, and there are other features such as a chat room, a forum for questions, etc.

Another fun little site that certainly won’t teach you to speak Spanish, but might help you practice some vocabulary, is http://www.freerice.com. Once you’re on the site, you can go into the section marked “subjects” and choose Spanish. It will then give you Spanish vocabulary quiz questions, and for each one you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice to the UN world food program. There are only 10 levels, so the vocabulary tends towards simpler words, but it’s still fun to do now and then (and you can help others at the same time!)

By: Ricardo

Ricardo — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:13:51 +0000

You are welcome! Thanks…

By: eleena

eleena — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:09:59 +0000

Ricardo,
I’m not at all familiar with Word Magic. Will have to take it out for a test drive. Thanks for the recommendation!

By: Ricardo

Ricardo — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:33:28 +0000

Great article! I agree with you with wordreference forum, very useful. But as far as the best online dictionary for Spanish and English, I think it is at Word Magic’s website: http://www.wordmagicsoft.com

They have a free online dictionary, and it is the most complete I’ve found so far.

Hope you enjoy it.

By: eleena

eleena — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 05:16:04 +0000

Thanks everyone for your comments. Happy to hear that Karen’s listing is helpful to all. (Gracias de nuevo, Karen)

Saludos.

By: Erwin Heiser

Erwin Heiser — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:08:05 +0000

I only recently discovered the site and podcast and both are excellent.
A good roundup this of useful resources, well done!
Enhorabuena!

By: Conor McCabe

Conor McCabe — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:28:27 +0000

This is great! Really helpful. Cheers.

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:31:34 +0000

Thanks for the comments and the links. I can’t wait to take a look at them.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:19:55 +0000

Hi,

I’m still in the process of writing the programs but I’ve created a web page for practicing verb conjugations and another for learning vocabulary. I’ve got about 18 verbs up with more each day. There are 3 vocab quizes so far. It’s all free. If anyone has any corrections, criticisms or ideas for quizes I’m all ears.

Thanks,
Tom
http://www.tomediger.com/spanish/

By: Wilmer

Wilmer — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:24:56 +0000

I think a very good complement to this kind of sites is to practise with a real teacher like in Linkua, live language tutoring. Classes are done via videoconference

By: suze

suze — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:33:54 +0000

Mundo: News in Spanish from the BBC: excellent excersize
Hablamos de cine: podcast for filmbuffs in spanish > hard work!
Tango city tour: For those who also like Tango and want to practice their argentinian spanish
Un idioma sin fronteras: Promotional podcast for the spanish language

All available through itunes !
Have fun.

And I am looking forward to ramses’ list

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:26:22 +0000

Hi, Karen – greetings from New Zealand. Thank you for such an interesting and helpful list. Like yourself, I am always looking out for programmes which make the ‘learning Spansh’ journey that much more fun – if it is fun it seems to ‘sink in’ more easily. I am 82 this year and am studying at university to achieve my BA – nearly there. I find that playing Spanish music for a few minutes before a study period gets both halves of my brain working in ‘sync’.
I have found a site called AUDIRIA invaluable with free transcripts, grammar exercises and interesting daily podcasts on a variety of subjects and one can choose the desired level and the subject of choice. Also music and games – with a particular appeal to children – http://portallanguageservices.com/ – partial payment here.

Un saludo,
Elizabeth

By: Ramses

Ramses — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:11:52 +0000

Oh my gosh, I was just working on a list like this. Yikes!

Good one though…

By: Jeff Atkinson

Jeff Atkinson — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:35:13 +0000

I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.