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Why do I say that Spanish is easy to learn? For two main
reasons. Firstly, its spelling is phonetic, i.e., it reads
the same as it sounds. So when you read a word in Spanish,
you know exactly what it will sound like when spoken, which
is a tremendous advantage for independent learners. And secondly,
as a Romance language like French and Italian, in many ways
it is a dialect of Latin, so for Westerners at least, much
of the vocabulary is familiar. ¿Me explico?
EsHablar.com
I must declare that Spain and Portugal for Visitors
is an affiliate of this company, so I have a vested
interest in promoting it. That said, the online courses offered
at this site are designed by Espasa-Calpe, a major Spanish-language
publisher (probably the most important publisher of Spanish
text books and reference works), with a curriculum which matches
"the specifications of the Instituto Cervantes"
(see below). Learners of all levels are catered for, from
beginners to advanced. The heart of the courses is the virtual
classroom with online teachers and live conversational classes,
and there are a number of attractive additional features:
workshops, dictionaries, games... To be frank, it is not cheap,
but looks like reasonable value for money, and they are currently
offering a two-week free trial. If you are really serious
about learning Spanish, I think eshablar.com
could be the way to go.
BBC
Spanish
The BBC's online courses include the beginners' course "Spanish
Steps," "Talk Spanish," the Internet support
for the TV series for beginners; and "Sueños Online,"
a series of multimedia activities for, you guessed it, beginners.
Quite a lot of good material, as you would expect from the
BBC, though I suspect the real intention is to persuade you
to buy the books and videos, which is fair enough.
Biblioteca
Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
This online collection maintained by the University of Alicante,
sponsored by various institutions and chaired by Mario Vargas
Llosa, no less, is an essential resource for Spanish literature
students. So, considering its importance, usefulness and all-round
praiseworthiness, it is a pity that I must dedicate most of
this annotation to a reproach. For the Biblioteca Cervantes
is joining in the new, silly-but-sinister insanity of prohibiting
deep linking. Even more ridiculously, they insist that
I must formally apply for permission just to link to their
homepage. Who on earth do they think they are and what kind
of gobshite lawyers advise them that they have the right to
make such claims? In protest, therefore, and for your convenience,
here are links to "Don
Quijote de la Mancha", "La
Celestina", "La
Regenta,"and "Escenas
Andaluces."
BusinessSpanish.com
This is a great online resource, with heaps of free lessons
and audio. Do remember, though that this is American rather
than Spanish Spanish.
El
Castellano
A long-establihsed Brazilian website calling itself "La
página del idioma español." News, forums,
dictionaries, and a "palabra del día."
LearnPlus
An English company offering online courses, with Shockwave
lessons and optional tuition (more expensive, naturally).
I quite enjoyed the games in the demo, but then I do have
an infantile streak.
Centro
Virtual Cervantes
The Instituto
Cervantes has the mission of exporting Spanish language
and culture to the rest of the world, as the British Institute
does with English. This is its Internet version, which announces
that its online courses will be available "soon,"and
has been saying the same thing for over a year.
Lingolex
Granada-based teachers, translators and web designers Sarah
and John have put together a great collection of resources
for Spanish learners. Vocabulary lists and glossaries, useful
phrases, web links, software, even an automatic verb conjugator.
Really impressive. And what is more, they indefatigably run
an online chatroom at espanglish.com
where you can practice your Spanish.
Spanish
Language at About.com
I have reasons to be less than happy with About.com, but Gerald
Erichsen has been actively running this site for years, so
it has boatloads of good material and resources for learners
and teachers. You could do a lot worse than begin with Gerald's
own beginners'
or intermediate
courses, though they are a wee bit too schoolroomy for my
taste: lessons like "prepositional pronouns" or
"conjugation of the subjunctive mood" don't fill
you with the burning urge to read Lope de Vega in the original
language. But that approach (it is called "metalanguage"
in language teaching jargon) is tremendously useful once you
as a learner have got over the hurdle. And there is enough
other good stuff here to keep you busy for months, not the
least interesting of which are the forums, including an entertaining
Spanish-only area for you to practice in.
StudySpanish.com
This site offers many features for free, as an enticement
to persuade you to sign up for what it calls its "Premium
Services." The free stuff is good, and I imagine the
rest is as well. Again, American rather than Spanish Spanish.
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