Learn Spanish Travel Spanish Blog

Whew!  There’s a lot of stuff on this site.  And I mean a lot of stuff.  Some of it’s free (Yea!), some of it’s moderately priced and some of it is “muy caro” (very expensive).  But to be fair, there is so much more in the “caro” version that IF you can afford it, and IF you will actually spend a lot of time on the site, then it’s probably worth it.  Those are big IFs that only you know the aswer to.

And so many categories…. Here are the subscription categories:   Free (mostly a podcast, with a few other things thrown in; Basic (lots of PDFs on things like cultural insights, grammar points, vocabulary, formal Spanish, etc); and Premium ( transcripts of the lessons and podcasts, flashcards, vocabulary lists for all the lessons, something called the grammar bank, etc).

The lessons have categories like –  Newby, Beginner, Intermediate (lower and upper), a Regional Series, A Phonetic Series, Advanced Audio Blogs, a Verb Conjugation Series, and more, including a news program.  A lot. So much so that the site can be a little confusing at first. For instance, what I thought was the beginning of the lessons was actually a description of all the various levels.  It wasn’t until I got to #8 that the lessons began, although it was clearly labeled once I got there.  But it doesn’t take long to find your way around.

When I clicked audio, it actually downloaded the lessons to my computer, which could be a problem if you’re concerned about space.  But you could always download them to a cd from the start or wait until you get quite a few on your computer and THEN download them to a cd.  It’s nice to have a permanent collection of them, especially since the pricing is by the month.

But before I tell you about the pricing, I want to mention two things.  One is this strange, but “que padre” (cool) contest (sort of).   Once SpanishPod101 reaches 1 million TOTAL subcribers for Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, they’re going to give all of those subscribers a free 6 months subscription.  Cool.  And you can follow on all three mediums to get three entries.  Does that mean you get 18 months free?   I doubt it, but I’m not sure.

The other thing is that you can get a free 7 day subscription to everything on the site, including Premium.  You have to sign up but you don’t have to give them a credit card number or anything like that, so it’s not a trick or anything.  And remember, there is a free subscription as well as the paid ones, so you get to compare all the different subscriptions.

All in all, I like this site.  I mean, there’s so much here, what’s not to like.  The lessons, once I figured them out, were clear, useful and entertaining.  If the Newby is too slow for you at the beginning, just skip ahead to find your level (that’s what you always do anyway, right?).

So… How Much?   The Free version is… yes… Free.  There don’t seem to be any catches that I could find.  Basic is $8 per month, with discounts for the more months you sign up for (12 for the price of 6 for example).  And Premium is …. drum roll please….. $25 per month, also with prorated discounted (12 months gets you a 60% discount).  And although I think $25 a month is a little steep, if you subscribe for a year and get the 60% discount, that works out to $10 per month, which isn’t bad, really. But, if you want to take it for a test ride first, check out the free 7 day trial to make up your mind.  You could always get one month to see if you would use it enough to justify the cost, then continue with more months.

But wait, there’s more.  You can also get a DVD with 80 lessons, lesson notes, video vocabulary files, dialog only tracks, a user guide, 10 bonus video lessons and “a personal inspiring letter” from the Spanish101.com team (I’m sorry, but I laughed out loud when I read that).  For $9.99.  Not bad.  So you could do pretty well just getting the DVD and the free subscription and podcasts.  Or you could go further.   Check it out and let me know what you think.

Just click on the banner below to go to their site.  Please note that I am a member of their affiliate program.  That hasn’t influenced my opinion.   And hey,  you’re not stupid.  Check out their website.  If you don’t like it, don’t go any further.  I think you’ll like it.  If I didn’t like it, I’d say so.

Tags:   Learn Spanish · Learning Spanish · Online lessons · SpanishPod101 · speak SpanishNo Comments