Learning Spanish with Beeminder

[skorytnicki]

¡Hola!

In this topic we list resources we use to learn this beautiful language and how it’s going.

I beemind Duolingo, Anki and Memrise. On top of that I used to beemind podcasts (in minutes and in episodes, depends on the podcast). Listening to Hoy Hablamos became my default activity when driving or walking alone, so I no longer beemind it. I’m in top 2% of their audience on Spotify

I think it makes sense to beemind conjugated verbs - I use SpanishDict app for that, but I have to manually enter the data. SpanishDict has very simple grammar lessons. I completed this goal today at almost 400 lessons done.

Can I say I learned Spanish with Beeminder? Puede ser. I am able to have basic conversations, order a beer, I feel comfortable listening to simple podcasts like “hoy en el país”. Having spent exactly nothing on tutors and learning resources, it was worth it to give micro learning experiment a shot.

Some screenshots to invite you to sharing your stories.

[philip]

@skorytnicki

I feel comfortable listening to simple podcasts like “hoy en el país”.

For me this is the key to language learning. Get to the point of being able to comprehend something spoken or written by a native speaker, and then switch from ‘study’ mode into ‘enjoy’ mode.

Most fiction I read in the original language, because I realised that’s how I actually learned most of my English vocabulary — by seeing the word used in context, not by looking up new words in a dictionary. Similarly, I’ll watch Netflix shows with the native subtitles.

If you consume ‘news’, do it in your target languages and avoid native-language sources. Many countries have some kind of ‘news in simple x’ broadcast (as you’ve pointed out!). And the free online content in major newspapers is usually enough to get on with.