11 Books & Courses We Used to Learn Spanish
Despite Ecuador being a Spanish country, we are asked if it’s necessary to learn Spanish before moving. The short answer is: “No, you don’t have to learn before you move.” We didn’t and we got by fine. But if you do learn Spanish (even in a basic form) before you move, life will be much easier.
And certainly you’ll want to learn it once you arrive in Ecuador – or any other Spanish speaking country. It not only shows respect for your new host country, but it also makes your life easier and much more interesting.
Over the past 3 years we’ve spent over $1000 on Spanish books, cd’s, software and classroom courses to learn Spanish.
Really! Over $1000?! Just what did we spend all the money on? Aside from a Spanish course we took here in Cuenca, everything we purchased were materials that we could use at home.
The 11 Books & Courses We Used to Learn Spanish:
1. Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish
This book was referred to us by one of the first Ecuadorian friends we made, the first week we arrived in Ecuador. He actually had a copy in his house and he lent it to us (out of pity, I think). We didn’t even know how or when to say buenas tardes when we arrived. In the first few chapters, the book covers hundreds of Spanish words that you already know. Highly recommended.
Price: $12.00
Bottom line: Worth every penny
Where You Can Buy It: Amazon
2. Pimsleur Language Programs: Basic Spanish
This course came recommended to us, but because of the cost – and its lack of flashy marketing (sorry, I’m a sucker) – we waited to buy it. After struggling for a year here in Ecuador we purchased it online with Audible and it helped us the most of all the courses. Its slogan is: Learn to Speak and Understand Latin American Spanish. It’s best way to purchase the whole course and get the pain over with at once. Then settle in and start learning.
Price: Free lesson to $299
Bottom line: If you are serious about learning Spanish, and don’t want to buy 11 different books and courses, buy this one.
Where You Can Buy It: Amazon and Audible (get a free lesson with Audible)
3. Power-Glide Spanish Jr.
More than a year before we moved, we were looking for something help Drew learn Spanish. We wanted her to get a foundation in the language. We heard the two milestones of 5 years and 10 years of age are important in terms of language learning. She loved this program and when we moved she knew more Spanish than we did.
Price: $121
Bottom line: This is a great way to get your young kids involved in learning Spanish. The interactive story makes it more like entertainment than learning.
Where You Can Buy It: Amazon
4. 501 Spanish Verbs with CD-ROM and Audio CD
In terms of a reference book, we couldn’t find a better one. The introductory 40 pages or so goes into detail explaining the different verb tenses and how they work. While this isn’t recreational reading, it is an important key to properly understanding the language. And as a reference tool, it will serve you for years to come.
Price: $11.00
Bottom line: A great reference book with a detailed section on verb tenses.
Where You Can Buy It: Amazon
5. Spanish Verb Workbook
Similar to the 501 Spanish Verbs (above) the Spanish Verb Workbook is a great way to get the hang of the verbs. While I haven’t gotten around to using this on, Dena uses it and likes it.
Price: $10
Bottom line: It won’t get any more boring than this, but worth the time to learn the verb properly.
Where You Can Buy It: Amazon
6. Easy Spanish Phrase Book: Over 770 Basic Phrases for Everyday Use
This handy little book is worth having just to stick in your briefcase or backpack. It covers most of the basic things you’ll need to say – and you mix and match the rest. What I love about the book is its phonetic spelling of the Spanish words. It really helps to get the sounds under control and lose the harshness of the Gringo Accent.
Price: $2
Bottom line: At just two bucks, its hard to go wrong. It would be worth having one for every member of the family. We bought just one, and our new puppy went to town on it. You will learn from this little book.
Where You Can Buy It: Amazon
7. Rosetta Stone Spanish (Latin America)
The first big purchase we made to help us learn Spanish was the full set of Rosetta Stone. At the time, it cost over $600 with taxes and shipping. And it is a good tool. It makes you reason on sets of images – with no English used at all. While that sounds intimidating, it actually works pretty well. There are some drawbacks. For example, when a color is shown you’ll learn the Spanish word for that color – but depending on your screen settings, you might confuse purple with brown … as we did.
Price: $179-499 (depending on how many levels are purchased)
Bottom line: An effective way to build volcabulary. Lessons are broken into bite sized pieces.
Where You Can Buy It: Amazon
8. Rock N Learn Spanish Volume II CD Book Spanish
Don’t discount these sing-a-long cd’s as just for kids. While we did buy them for Drew, we can still remember the words and tunes to many of them. Days of the week, months of the year, the alphabet and names for family members are all taught here. There are a number of different disks. We bought two of them.
Price: $12
Bottom line: Worth it, whether you have kids or not.
Where You Can Buy It: Amazon
9. Standard Deviants: Habla Espanol?
This package includes 2 programs: 1) Learning Spanish The Basics and 2) Beyond the Basics. The actors can be a little over the top, but we found it actually helps us to remember the lessons better. Sometimes they are funny … other times just really corny.
Price: $36
Bottom line: Its a great way to learn the rules. The result of the corny skits is that we remembered the lessons really well.
Where You Can Buy It: Amazon
10. The Standard Deviants – Learn Advanced Spanish – Verbs
Verbs are the problem area for all gringos – right after pronunciation. A slightly different emphasis on a word can change the meaning from first-person present-tense to third-person past-tense. Believe me, that can really confuse a conversation!
Price: $18
Bottom line: I’m a fan of the Standard Deviants series. We have 5 of their programs – certainly worth the money.
Where You Can Buy It: Amazon
11. The Standard Deviants Super Spanish (4 pak)
My favorite video Spanish course comes in a 4 dvd pack. A total of 330 minutes on 4 discs. We have all of these and they are worth it, especially if you prefer visual learning to books.
Price: $63
Bottom line: These are some well produced training videos that make it easy to assimilate the Spanish lessons. Highly recommended.
Where You Can Buy It: Amazon
What about you? What is your favorite book or course to learn Spanish? Please share your thoughts in the comments below:
You may also like -
Related posts:
Hi Bryan
I think the best way to improve your spanish skills is to practice with spanish speakers, ecuadorian people. Try to make some friends, involve into our culture, Try this: ask something in spanish, listen the answer in english. help someone to get a better english and you get a better spanish too.
I agree. From personal experience, however, I can say that you will tend to have a preferred language, one that feels natural with any given friend/family member which tends to be the one that you built the relationship with that person on. You will keep sliding back into that language no matter how hard you try. This is especially true when you overlap on two or more languages with that person. This is why those exchanges (you teach me English I teach you Spanish or vice versa) end up benefiting one person more than the other, depending on which language ultimately becomes the natural one when you do casual activities with that person and when you stop actively thinking “have to learn the language”. That’s why it actually works best to hang out with people who do not speak a word of English or anything but Spanish (not for the other person though). In my family my Dad, my Mom, my wife and I are all nationals of different countries (when we travel together we are routinely stopped for hours at borders, same family 4 or 5 different passports, must be fishy). I speak English with my sister, German with my cousin, Spanish with my wife and Polish with my mom which corresponds to the language we were mainly speaking when my relationship to those people was built and I find it VERY hard to break out of that pattern for more than 5 minutes when they ask me to “teach” them a new language. However, when we are in a group it feels more natural to switch to English which is a common base for all of us. To practice a language you will, therefore, often have to trick your own psychology by creating the right situations.
By the way, and this is for Dena and Bryan, kids are more flexible in this point to the extent that when they spend a lot of time in activities away from home (school etc) they start bringing the language back home after a few years. This means that your daughter might start answering you in Spanish at home instead of English after 5 years or beyond, since it will become her more natural language and she will carry it home. If you then don’t insist on using English at home and tell her “say it again in English” her ability to express herself in English will diminish (while your ability to speak Spanish will improve). I have seen this many times in my family. Kids who switched countries at 5 years old almost lost their original language, if the change was at 10 years then the ability to speak diminished, but did not disappear. When parents insisted on speaking their native language at home then this effect was much less, but the parents learned slower.
Here’s a story about kids learning a language. We hosted at work a bunch of Swedes who came with their families to the US for 9 months.
At the beginning one lady’s daughter came home crying each night – she’d been placed in a 1st grade class, English speaking naturally. Couldn’t understand ANYTHING.
At the end of the school year, we had a party for everyone, kids included. This young girl’s English was perfect. Absolutely indistinguishable from the language of the other native speaking children who were running around screaming and playing.
Just amazing! Nine months of immersion and being 6 years old did it. Her English was so much better than the workers who’d come to the US and had studied English in Sweden for years and years, college and secondary school. Nothing like learning a language at the right time.
Hi Bryan,
I have been struggling with Spanish and have also spent a considerable amount of money. Pimsleur and Rocket Spanish were somewhat helpful, I did not care for Rosetta Stone, but have found that FLUENZ has been the best program I have used. My friends in Cuenca were surprised in the improvement in my Spanish during my visit this year.
Bill Riordan
Thanks for a helpful comment Bill. Glad to hear that you’re Spanish is progressing!
All the best,
Bryan
Bill, I am happy to hear your comments on FLUENZ. I am curious to know if you used their Spanish For Latin America or their Spanish For Spain? I was checking out the Spanish For Latin America on their YouTube video and got the impression that she was speaking the Spanish that is spoken in Buenos Aires. For example, she was pronouncing the word for ‘I’, which is ‘yo’, with a ‘j’ as in ‘jo’. According to my Spanish teacher, the Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires is quite different from the Spanish spoken in the rest of Latin America and Spain due to the Italian influence of that city. He said that he learned Spanish in Costa Rica. Then, when he moved to Buenos Aires, he had to learn to speak Spanish all over again, the difference there is so pronounced.
So Bill, if your Ecuadorian friends think your Spanish pronunciation is good, I wonder which FLUENZ Spanish course you learned from? Hope you see my post and can answer my question.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Elizabeth,
I did use Spanish for Latin America. They do, indeed, emphasize the “jo”, which I initially found to be a little off-putting. There are a few other variations here and there that I noticed,e.g.: “Quisiera un cafe.” as opposed to “Me gustaria un cafe.”, which I was more used to. Overall, however, I like the learning style in FLUENZ and use the Flashcard exercises a LOT, reviewing what I have already learned.
I had been in Costa Rica many times and this was my second trip to Ecuador. I found that from drivers, to shoe shine guys at the airport, to conversations with my friends in Cuenca, my comprehension of what they were saying had improved vastly. As I mentioned above, my friends were impressed with my increased ability to respond. Always 100% correctly? No, but I feel that I have made great progress and will only increase my proficiency when I am in Cuenca for an extended period. I hope this answers your question.
Bill Riordan
I’ll be in Cuenca the first few weeks of April for a full-time immersion course at a school there…which is how I ended up finding your excellent site.
Aside from what’s already been mentioned here, I would highly recommend the book “Breaking Out of Beginner’s Spanish” by Joseph Keenan (available on Amazon for ~$10-12). It’s not structured like a text book but a bit more whimsically, and really nails some of the biggest obstacles that native English speakers face when trying to get beyond rudimentary Spanish. It’s also quite an entertaining read.
Hi Bryan,
Do you recall if there was an option through Audible to purchase the entire course as one package?
Thanks
Jim
There is, and it is much cheaper. Audible is a great option and it was cheaper than buying directly from Pimsleurs.
Thanks for sharing this list of books you used to learn Spanish.
Even though you don;t HAVE to learn, it’s still better to do it.
thanks for all the suggestions. any idea where i can pick up Barron’s 501 Verbs in Cuenca? i tried special ordering from librimundi but they couldn’t get it for me
Hi Tom – you might consider signing up for Club Correos and ordering directly off of Amazon. It works great and is inexpensive. Or you might check Carolina Bookstore – they might have a used copy there.
Brian… That’s some serious money you spent on the materials. When learning languages everybody’s style is different. Some people are self learners, others need assisted learning. I for myself did not have any money to spend on learning a language, so I had to find a way to do it for free for Spanish AND for English as well. I was raised bilingually Polish/German. I now teach system administration classes across North and South America for my employer, that’s 40 hours of continuous speaking Spanish in front of a class a week. Here is a list of what you can do based on my experience. This list is based on the experience of a young (20 something) person, but many ideas are universally applicable.
1. When you are in university there are scholarships you can apply for that send you to Spain or Latin America for a semester or two. Use them, there won’t be a lot of competition. I spent 2 semesters studying Computer Science at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid in Spain all expenses paid. I did not understand much at first, but after a few months I had the technical vocabulary down even though I still could not support a conversation about the weather. 13 years later this experience is key to my current job.
A friend of mine was allowed to do the thesis for his Master’s degree in Chemistry at a partner university in Brazil. He is fluent in Portuguese now.
We were sponsored through German institutions. I do not know of any corresponding programs in the US, but ask around, universities cooperate around the world.
2. Roommates… while in university I took care to only live with Spanish speaking roommates. In other words I discriminated against everybody else including my own kind when it came to finding a place to live, but that way Spanish was the most frequently spoken language around me during my university years. While I was doing my semesters abroad at the university in Spain there was a French girl who explicitly avoided making friends with international students for that purpose, especially other French. She ended up speaking better Spanish than the rest of us.
3. Get that Spanish novel from your local library and just start reading, even though you do not speak the language much. Have a good dictionary and a computer at hand. I used wordreference.com as my online dictionary and language forum and Google to search for grammatical constructs that I did not understand. The logic behind the google search is that you get thousands of hits using that expression in different contexts, so you immediately capture all possible meanings.
This will seem like an uphill battle at first, you will need a long time to read through that first page. After 200 pages it will become more fluent. After one book you will be able to read another book from the same author fairly well. When you switch authors you will feel like reset to the starting point a bit. Each different author has a distinct style and a set of words and expressions they use over and over again, so every new author is a new world.
4. Internet… The internet is full of resources in any language you want, for free. I read universo.com every day. There are also free online dictionaries out there that say a word or expression for you, so you can learn pronounciation as well. Not to mention online radio from around the world.
5. Chat (MSN messenger, ICQ, Yahoo messenger, Facebook etc)… Try to make online friends who speak Spanish, but don’t speak English. You will have to chat in Spanish with them. Find people who are willing to do so every day. I have made quite a few virtual friends like this and over the years visited most of them personally in Mexico, Panama and Ecuador (a few are still outstanding in Peru and Venezuela). Once you get to know them better do voice chat once in a while to practice your speech. This is easier when you are young and spend a lot of time in front of the computer due to your job or study. The rule is that the older you get the more difficult this becomes since people marry, get jobs, have children and refocus on family rather than new contacts in different parts of the world. It has been true for me as well.
6. Job. One of my first full time jobs was Technical Support for an global company. If you already have a fair level of Spanish and work for a global company you can make it a point to service customers in their native language, even if it is not contractually required. Start with email first, since you can think about every word. In no time colleagues will forward you more and more customer requests in Spanish. That will get you to fluency. In my case my Canadian employer even added a clause to a customer’s support contract explicitly entitling them to service in Spanish just based on the fact that I was part of the team. If you put yourself out there, you create opportunity.
7. Radio and television… turn on that news show on Ecuavisa or Tele Amazonas and try to repeat every word and every sepntence aloud that the news speaker says while he or she is saying it. Have a recorder running at the same time. After the show listen to yourself and hear how you sound. This has two advantages. The first is that you actually fluently repeat whole sentences the way they are supposed to be said, since you are hearing them at the same time, so you do not have to think about them. The second is that you unconsciously imitate the accent of the speaker since you are hearing it at the same time.
In summary, I do not believe in courses or expensive materials. I believe that in order to learn a language you have to surround yourself by it in every aspect of your life. You will first learn to use the language in terms of speaking, reading and writing. After another while of self discipline you will also learn to feel the language which is what happens when you don’t only understand the literal meaning, but also the implied meaning of what is being said… some call it reading between the lines.
Wow – thanks for all the suggestions Jakob. What we didn’t cover in this post (but have in others) is that immersion is one of the best ways to learn. These courses really are supplements to immersion, but are great for people planning to move. They can get some background in the language before they arrive.
The problem we’ve noticed with immersion (we watch TV and movies in Spanish and spend almost all social time with Spanish friends) is that we don’t learn the rules or spelling. Learning based on context is great, but it really needs to be mixed with textbooks to properly learn the depth and detail of the language.
Thanks for sharing – these are some practical suggestions.
Bryan
BTW: I’m not proud of the money we’ve spent. But we were buying for two adults with different learning styles and a young child. So it isn’t that unreasonable when that is taken into account.
Bryan… Of course, you have to find what suits you best, every person’s learning style is unique in at least one way. I got the correct spelling from my countless Google searches, review of news pages, dictionaries online etc. and learned how to write through Internet chat at first. Sometimes I would hear a word or expression somewhere, then remember it until I got home and Google it the minute I got home, then look in online dictionaries and on language forums what contexts it could be used in. The problem with that style was that it did not teach me how to write proper business letters, so when I first had to, I actually Googled that, too. All I needed by that time was how do I start it, how do I end it, and what is the general level of politeness.
Another very productive exercise that taught me judicial Spanish (very different) was when I had to translate my wife’s Spanish documents (birth certificate, educational documents, marriage certificate etc) into English for Canadian authorities. I found there were useful professional translation forums where pros would help you for free. I spent a lot of time on those forums and my translations were eventually accepted by multiple authorities in Canada. I saved thousands of dollars in translation fees on that one and learned a lot.
I agree that Jakob’s ideas are really terrific, many that I would never have thought of and a couple I’ve tried: television and reading (boy, is that tough!)
I guess I would just add two thoughts that make learning a new language, esp. Spanish in Cuenca, easier: first is failing, really important to try and try and try again, failing over and over. Much better teacher than the occasional success, IMO.
Second is to get into one of the Spanish language schools. It’s great fun and teaches you about the culture of the country in a way that a general book cannot.
Third would be to get involved in volunteer work or clubs where Spanish (or whatever) is being spoken. Like that novel that Jakob mentions, it’s going to be very tough but poco a poco…
Great blob, btw!
I won’t be going on my scouting trip until September, but I have started working (very slow) on Spanish. My daughter already had the beginning Rosetta Stone course, and the library had all the levels of Pimsleur. Still on Level 1, but I can take out the CD’s for up to 6 weeks with renewals, so I will be able to work my way through the whole thing.
I’m also thinking about taking a 2-week course with the Simon Bolivar school, especially because they have other activities for students, like cooking lessons. Bryan, I think you wrote that you attended there. How did you like it?
Hi Mary Jo, its great to hear that you are starting on your Spanish. It will help so much once you arrive!
We did take a course at Simon Bolivar in the center and its very good. We found they went too fast for our old minds… but its a professional and good quality course.
Thanks for the information Bryan. It is useful certainly to have at least a basic understanding and skills to communicate if you are going to live in a foreign country. Thankfully, my first language is Spanish; so, when I am ready to retire to Cuenca, I will only have to learn the local slang, but not the whole language. I am sure it will be a good thing.
I enjoy your blog very much, and when I see the beautiful pictures and read the articles, I only can think that I am every day a little closer to my dream retirement in beautiful and friendly Cuenca, Ecuador.
Best regards,
I’m so jealous! You won’t have any trouble then, the local slang is fun. For us, we can’t tell what is a local expression or standard until someone from another Spanish country mentions it. Spanish is very clearly spoken in Cuenca.
All the best on your plans and thanks for the great feedback (we always love that).
Bryan
I like Marcus Santamaria’s approach to learning Spanish.
And I also like Visual Link Spanish as well:
For books with CDs I like Spanish for Gringos Level 1 with 3 Audio CDs (Barron’s Educational Series) [Paperback]
William C. Harvey M.S. (Author) and Spanish for Gringos, Level 2 with Audio CDs [Paperback]
William C. Harvey M.S. (Author)
Thanks for the additions Victor – they look good. The combination of printed book and audio cds is very helpful.
Once you begin to get your head around things, I found it essential to have a review book laying around for those grammatical questions that linger in your head – the ones that just don’t get answered if you’re learning Spanish in an all-Spanish setting (like with a tutor). My fav, hands down: The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice, published by Passport Books and available at Amazon, new or used. Keep at it everybody – it IS worth the struggle!!
Thanks Diana – we’ll check it out. Really appreciate the addition.
Bryan
There are 2 good FREE websites that I have found VERY helpful:
spanishdict.com and 123teachme.com
Thanks Sue – SpanishDict does have some great video podcasts and the dictionary is really good too. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Brian,
Would you say Pimsleur would be the best purchase if you only wanted to purchase on resource for now.
Jim
Hi Jim, I certainly prefer Pimsleur over Rosetta Stone – and it can be purchased online and downloaded.
[...] Gringos Abroad – Bryan is often asked by prospective Xpadorians if it is necessary to learn Spanish before the big move. (No, but your life down in Ecuador will be easier if you do.) He gives us a list of books and courses that they used. [...]