Clicking the image takes you to the page that has the most information, but it is for the Spanish 1 and 2 set. To see the other sets once at Amazon, scroll down to "What Do Customers Ultimately Buy..."
Of course you know how paper flash cards work, for learning Spanish or anything. You turn them over and see if you had it right, then make piles of which ones you know and which ones you don’t. I thought I was pretty creative a few years ago when I started putting my homemade cardstock Spanish flash cards into three piles: I know, I kinda know, I don’t know.
The flash card software you can get online takes that simple idea of
Lesson Three in the Fluenz Spanish Software continues the theme of being in a restaurant, and it uses everything you have learned up till now. This is really good for your ability to recall, as research shows that frequent review helps us move new information from our short-term memory to our long-term memory.. AND stick once it’s there!
Lesson Three follows the format of previous lessons, with a conversation which Sonia Gil then analyzes word by word, adding explanations. I really am enjoying how seamlessly she works grammatical explanations into the program.
As we begin a new year, with fresh date books and calendars, it’s a great time to think about new projects. Most “resolutions” don’t last terribly long, but if you do a bit of planning and organizing to set things up, you can greatly improve your Spanish this year. Or in less than a year.
Obviously with this website named LearnSpanishRapidly.com, I am an advocate of learning Spanish fast. Let me explain a little what I think is involved…
When I was looking for a good Spanish flashcard program to use on my computer, I came across several recommendations for VTrain… that’s short for Vocabulary Trainer. You can download it and try it for 30 hours, after which the price is under $30; I paid about $24 US but am not sure if that was a brief special or not. They have the noteworthy comment, “If you honestly can’t afford the list price, contact us for a discount or a free license” and there is a part of the site where they describe what they will do, especially for people in poorer countries.
To practice at first, you can use some sample card decks that come with the program, but generally you will want to make your own decks, to have exactly the words or phrases you want to learn.
Here’s what the program looked like after I got it going: Click to read more >>>
Anki is a free language flash card program for Windows, Mac, Linux, and some mobile platforms which I turned to after exploring another one called Mnemosyne. For an overview of Spanish flash card programs, this link takes you to my first article in this series. I really liked Anki, but ended up myself with another program called VTrain, which I will review next.
After spending an hour or two with Mnemosyne, Anki was more complicated but I was able to ignore some of the advanced features to get started. I found its grading system easier to use than that of Mnemosyne, and I really liked that the program told you how long it would be till you saw the card again.
The series of short online videos — made by the creator of the program — got me up to speed right away. I like how the videos give you an explanation Click to read more >>>
I’m upgrading the Learn Spanish Rapidly blog to a new theme, which I think will be more useful and attractive when I’m done, but it may take me a few days when the blog may be pretty ugly or even disappear momentarily. (Hope not that.)
The main thing I don’t want visitors to miss out on is my useful and free ebook, 5 Keys to Learning Spanish Rapidly… the link takes you to a page that describes it and where you can sign up, since I expect my blurb about the ebook on the blog will disappear for a while.
This programming stuff can be a challenge, but hey, it’s the holidays and I expect readers will be fewer. As for me, it’s no hardship to play around with the design of the site. I have lots of fun doing it. Plus, I’ve got a CD on and just heard that classic Mexican tune, Santa Claus Llego a La Ciudad!
If you speak NO Spanish, I’ll give you the clue that the literal translation of this title would be Santa Claus Arrives at the City.
Lesson Two of Fluenz Spanish was actually what got me excited about this innovative software for learning Spanish. You can do it online for no charge at the Fluenz software demo, as I did. You don’t even have to give them your email address. Click to read more >>>
This month, most of my writing time has gone into creating my new ebook, Five Keys to Learning Spanish Rapidly. You can sign up for it from the top right corner of any page of this site. It isn’t grammar or vocabulary; it’s based on research on how people learn how to speak Spanish, or any language for that matter.
I’ve been happy to see quite a few people downloading it, and it occurred to me that readers might wonder if I walk my talk. Click to read more >>>
Mnemosyne is one of two free programs descended from a commercial flash card program called SuperMemo. SuperMemo exists but I found a number of references online to its being buggy and these two programs being better than it, so I didn’t pursue it. The other free program is Anki, which I will review in my next article in this series. See my overview of flash cards for some comments about why I think flash card programs are a really important part of learning Spanish.
So you want to learn how to speak Spanish! Is Fluenz Spanish the best choice for you? I was very impressed with the company’s website, and so I decided to work my way through the program. I speak enough Spanish that I figured I wouldn’t learn much, but I was curious how they would teach.
Lesson One begins with some remarks by tutor Sonia Gil. Then you listen to a dialogue three times, or of course more if you wish. The dialogue is presented in three ways: Click to read more >>>
