Podcasts are one of the most popular platforms to learn something new for a reason: They work! The opportunity to hear people talk about one topic for an extended time allows you to immerse yourself in the information. With SpanishPod101, you listen to short podcasts by native Spanish speakers.

Each Spanish podcast is only about 15 minutes long. Some cover specific grammar rules, while others explain cultural or conversational topics. You can choose what you listen to on a given day; there’s no set schedule for lessons. If you’d rather hear how two people handle bumping into each other at the market or the intricacies of conjugating a verb, you can find a podcast that fits your mood.

When you grow up speaking English, Spanish speakers talk notoriously fast. These podcasts help you adjust to hearing people use Spanish words and phrases in their natural voice. After these podcasts, Spanish-speaking destinations or moves without subtitles will feel less overwhelming.

SpanishPod101 offers three subscription levels. Each more expensive plan includes all of the benefits of the option before it.

Basic

With a basic subscription, you have access to all of the podcasts on the platform. There are currently 1,200 Spanish podcasts and counting. Additionally, you’ll find lesson notes and checklists for the essential information your podcasts cover.

Premium

For people who learn by writing or doing, the perks of the premium plan add significant value. You have access to in-app flashcards, a Spanish dictionary, verb conjugation sheets, quizzes to check how much you have learned, a pronunciation and accent review, and more. These tools reinforce the information acquired during the podcasts.

Premium Plus

If you want a professional instructor’s extra attention to help you learn more efficiently, consider the Premium Plus plan. An instructor will assess your Spanish level and send you a personalized lesson plan. The instructor also will provide personal instruction along the way.

Pimsleur is one of the most seasoned language learning methods. The only software more well-known is Rosetta Stone. This program uses a research-based methodology that has stood the test of time. Multiple academic disciplines combine to form this effective learning platform.

Dr. Paul Pimsleur created this platform in the 1960s. He spent years combining his linguistics and psychology degrees while researching how adults and children learned languages. Then, Dr. Pimsleur used his findings to create an effective program that remains popular today.

This teaching methodology builds upon four pillars of language acquisition:

Graduated Interval Recall

Graduated interval recall involves the use of the same words or phrases repeatedly throughout the program.

Core Vocabulary

In a related theme, core vocabulary emphasizes remembering and using the key foundational words in Spanish.

Principle of Anticipation

The principle of anticipation gives you the chance to answer a question before hearing the correct response.

Organic Learning

Finally, organic learning uses the core vocabulary and asks questions that provide context for the lesson instead of merely throwing grammar rules or vocabulary lists in your direction.

In 2019, Pimsleur underwent a redesign. It is now a subscription-based app instead of one expensive learning package. You not only listen and speak but also read and write. Users now experience a holistic path to learning the Spanish language.

Most lessons involve a call-and-response style of learning. You hear a Spanish phrase and what it means. Then, you repeat it out loud to practice pronunciation and help memorize the information. This formula uses all of your senses to cement the new words and concepts into your mind.

Because most of the lessons are audio-based, Pimsleur is one of the most accessible learning apps for busy people. You can learn Spanish while driving, working out, or waiting between meetings. You don't have to carve out yet another 30-minute, distraction-free window in your already hectic daily schedule.

As a busy person learning Spanish, you deserve a platform that is easy to use. With Babbel, you can access your course materials through a computer, smartphone app, or tablet. Your subscription will sync so that you open the next lesson in your course on your chosen device.

Babbel uses a quiz-based way to learn. Instead of repeating phrases or writing responses, you choose the best multiple-choice answer. Even though it’s not the most innovative program on the list, Babbel remains one of the best apps for learning Spanish.

Unlike other programs where you can set your own schedule, the Babbel app is exceptionally organized. The variety of program categories break down into individual courses. You might choose a course on beginner Spanish, grammar, special interests, or words and sentences, among other options. Each course has a series of 10- to 15-minute lessons inside.

The emphasis of each lesson is learning grammar and vocabulary basics quickly. That focus makes this program ideal for those wanting to pick up Spanish fast or trying to review the language you learned in school with a refresher course.

One of the best features of this app is the emphasis on grammar and foundational vocabulary. All of the grammar lessons include in-depth discussions in English. This emphasis guarantees that you will understand why specific sentences and phrases work the way they do. Similarly, the program emphasizes everyday words that are essential to normal conversations.

For extra practice, the review feature provides exercises and flashcards with words, phrases, and grammar rules from your previous lessons. If you take a break from your Spanish practice or need some refreshers, this is an excellent tool. You don’t have to waste time making flashcards or keeping track of your notes.

With a 20-day money-back guarantee, you can try the Babbel app risk-free. If you’re a beginner to intermediate Spanish student looking to improve your understanding of grammar or supplement your existing app for Spanish language learning, you won’t be disappointed.

Rocket Spanish is a part of the language-learning platform Rocket Languages. It's their best selling course--and rightfully so. It's the perfect tool for those wanting to learn natural, conversational Spanish. Rocket Spanish starts you out mastering things like essential grammar and vocabulary and gradually immerses you in more complex lessons.

Rocket Languages isn't as glossy as corporate language giants Rosetta Stone or Duolingo, but it still fares quite well against competitors.

Some of its critical features include:

Interactive Audio Lessons

The first thing Rocket Spanish sets you up with is its interactive audio lessons. You can download these courses onto your smartphone or computer, and they're perfect if you want to learn while driving or walking.

This part of the Rocket Spanish course includes 31 interactive audio sessions, each averaging around 20 minutes long. The lessons focus on conversational Spanish. You listen to a conversation, and then the instructor will break it down and explain the meaning and pronunciation of the content.

The initial conversations are extremely basic, such as "Hi, how are you?" and "My name is..."--but the conversations get more challenging as you advance through the course.

Rocket Spanish takes a context-based approach to learning grammar and vocabulary. This method is a far more natural way to learn Spanish since it helps you build a casual tone. With patience and a will to learn Spanish fast, you'll benefit significantly from these interactive audio lessons.

Language & Culture Lessons

Rocket Spanish goes beyond the learning-by-ear method. Its language and culture lessons provide textbook-style content to supplement the interactive audio lessons.

Though this section isn't the lifeblood of learning Spanish on the Rocket platform, it's still helpful. You might get bored after the first couple of lessons, but we recommend that you stick with it.

Rocket Reinforcement Tools

Who doesn't love a pop quiz? The Rocket Reinforcement tools are there to test what you learn in the core lessons regarding reading, writing, speaking, and memory. The purpose of these game-like tests is to help pace yourself through the course. One of the worst things you can do when learning a language is to move too quickly.

Rocket Spanish is a great resource if you want to start learning Spanish right away. The platform is especially useful for teenagers and people already taking formal lessons. Results come quickly, and the functionality of the site and app is adequate. If you're about to travel in a Spanish-speaking country, download the app for a fast introduction to the local language.

Many users claim that Rocket Spanish helped them with better pronunciation and more confidence.

Spanishpod101 is a quick and interactive way to start speaking one of the most romantic languages in the world. It has one of the most sizeable collections of audio-learning sessions on the internet. You also get a 7-day free trial, so you can start learning Spanish risk-free.

After that, Spanishpod 101 works on a "freemium" pricing model: it's free to sign up, but you'll need to pay if you desire to access the more advanced content.

Spanishpod 101 organizes its lessons according to level, and each level contains roughly 25 sessions. This equates to hundreds of lessons, making it one of the most extensive Spanish-learning programs on the market.

Here are some of the critical features of Spanishpod 101:

Learning Paths

All the lessons may overwhelm you in the beginning. That's why Spanishpod 101 offers unique learning paths to help get the ball rolling. For example, you can choose “Going Shopping (Mexican Spanish),” “Traveling Around (Latin America),” or “The Ultimate Guide For Brand New Spanish Learners.” This is an effective way to learn Spanish with podcasts that precisely aligns with your goals.

Large Lesson Library

You'll never run out of lessons with Spanishpod 101. Overall, the entire course contains hundreds of hours of video and audio sessions, covering a broad range of topics. It's tough to find a lesson library this vast on any other course.

Spanishpod 101 breaks down each lesson into three parts:

Full Lesson Audio

Review

Dialogue Only

The host provides an English translation of the dialogue, along with cultural insights about the tones or sentence structure. In each lesson, you're learning new vocabulary and essential grammar rules. Users say the large lesson library is one of the major benefits of the course.

Minimal English Used

One cool feature of Spanishpod101 is the way the use of English decreases as you advance through the course material. This engages you in the lessons and makes Spanish increasingly more natural to you. The host gradually makes Spanish the primary language during explanations.

The gradual phasing out of English is the best way to go about language learning. It gets you out of your comfort zone and allows you to break through the beginner's barrier as you're learning the language and move you one step closer to fluency.

Additional Learning Tools

Other than the extensive audio and video courses, Spanishpod101 provides you with useful learning tools such as flashcards, vocabulary lists, pronunciation reviews, and lesson notes.

The flashcards are a fun way to expand your vocabulary, an excellent tool for training your brain. Pronunciation reviews are there, too, to help you master the right accent and cadence. The proper pronunciation is everything if you want to speak Spanish casually

We won't sugar coat it; the Pimsleur learning method isn't for everyone. However, although a few users find it boring, they attest that it does work. So if you have the discipline to complete the Pimsleur course, you'll be able to speak and use Spanish at a more advanced level. This course is beneficial for people who are beginners that want to take their Spanish language abilities to the next level.

Pimsleur is a household name in the language-learning industry. Applied linguistics scholar Paul Pimsleur created the Pimsleur method to revolutionize the way we learn languages. His approach relies entirely on audio learning, but it's much different than traditional "listen and remember" techniques (Which is also great for practicing Spanish in the car).

The Pimsleur method focuses on responses. For example, you listen to a phrase in the target language, then the translation, and finally, you repeat back the sentence. The phrases use spaced intervals to help with memory drilling.

What makes this course useful is that it forces you to recall bits and pieces of each lesson in order to advance further. That's why we only recommend the Pimsleur method for people who are serious. If you're a spatial-visual learner, you might be better off with another language-learning method.

Rocket Spanish is part of the Rocket family of language-learning apps and online courses. It's their most popular offering, especially with people who want to learn conversational Latin American Spanish.

The core philosophy behind Rocket Spanish is to focus on useful terms and phrases first without intimidating you with unnecessary terminology you don't need. Instead of teaching you the word for 'stapler,' you'll learn how to ask 'How do you say this?'

The program itself is a mix of 31 interactive audio lessons and 33 'Language and Culture' lessons. The audio sessions are around 20 minutes long and focus on realistic conversations between two people. They include both vocab and technical lessons that blend in naturally with the rest of the dialogue.

The audio lessons are very educational and offer an excellent baseline for conversational-level Spanish. If you want to dive deeper and learn to speak Spanish fluently, you'll also appreciate the language and culture lessons that focus more on the grammar once you've mastered the vocab section.

A critical aspect of Rocket Spanish is the way they address the issue of pronunciation. Their 'Rocket Record' feature allows you to record your pronunciation of a particular segment, and the program will score you based on how well you did. The program highlights the parts that were off, giving you the feedback you need to perfect your pronunciation.

Rocket Spanish has several features that make it an excellent way to learn Spanish for beginners. It focuses on the essential parts of language learning first, giving you the tools to master necessary conversational language skills. The additional written courses will ensure that you also get a great introduction to Spanish grammar to take your language skills to the next level.

SpanishPod 101 uses a range of audio podcasts to teach Spanish. Many learners find this bite-size approach one of the best ways to learn Spanish at various proficiency levels.

SpanishPod 101 allows you to sign up for free and get access to early lessons, though you'll need to pay a subscription to access the good stuff. The service only has annual subscriptions, which may incentivize some people to stick with their lessons for at least a year.

They divide their podcast-like lessons into different seasons, aimed at varying levels of Spanish proficiency. Beginners can choose seasons like 'The Ultimate Guide for Brand New Spanish Learners', which contains 13 lessons and has a runtime of around two hours.

Each lesson has an audio file, along with a review track and dialogue-only track. The full audio file contains several sections, including the dialogue in Spanish, an English translation, discussion of the story, introducing new words and new grammar.

What makes these lessons so valuable is the added interactive component. You can choose to hear a specific line of audio again, or switch between English and Spanish text on the fly. You can also focus on the dialogue only, which is perfect for picking up new words. The program also allows you to export new words onto flashcards to help expand your vocabulary.

We found that the flashcard functionality makes SpanishPod 101 the best way to learn Spanish or supplement the formal lesson plan. We also really liked that early lessons have a strong English component, which gradually gets replaced by Spanish speakers as you advance through the course.

The main drawback of SpanishPod 101 is the lack of pronunciation tools. You can speak along with the dialogue and record yourself, but you can't get objective feedback on how well you're doing.

SpanishPod 101 is an excellent resource if you want to learn conversational Spanish in a structured and easy-to-use format. The program has a vast selection of lessons from which to choose. It has a proper balance of vocab to grammar lessons, but the lack of pronunciation and extra resources limits the program's usefulness in promoting fluency.

The Pimsleur Method of language learning claims to be one of the best ways of learning a new language. Despite suspicious marketing claims like suggesting that you'll learn the Spanish language in 30 days, the approach may work for people who prefer learning by listening.

The Pimsleur Method is largely audio-based, which means that it's not ideal for visually-based learners (but it is great for learning Spanish in the car).

One strength of Pimsleur Spanish is their unique approach to vocabulary instruction and grammar education. The program focuses on teaching language as naturally as possible by involving you in the lesson. Since both vocab and syntax are essential foundations for sounding like a native speaker, having these elements goes a long to helping the learner.

Overall, the Pimsleur spaced repetition language learning method is a useful, introduction to Spanish. How much you get out of it depends on the additional investment you put into understanding the structure of the language and how much time you spend learning new words.