I tried out SpanishPod101 to see if it lives up to its promise to fix this problem.
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SpanishPod101 offers a wealth of useful audio and video resources for Spanish learners. The choice between dialects and the focus on audio with variable speeds makes it unique. There are fewer interactive features than in other similar programs out there, but the lessons are thorough and have supporting resources like downloadable notes, dialogue replays, flashcards and more.
User friendliness - 7/10
7/10
Delivers on promises - 9/10
9/10
Authenticity - 8/10
8/10
Value for price - 7/10
7/10
Pros
Uses high-quality native speech
Lessons are very flexible
Grammar and culture notes are included with each lesson
You can study different dialects of Spanish
Cons
Assessments for the Premium membership are only writing-based
Lesson pathways are not very user-friendly to navigate
Choose between five skill levels or “learning paths”
The program had me first pick my skill level, referred to as a “Learning Path.” You can pick one of five paths: Absolute Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate or Advanced.
If you aren’t sure about your level, don’t worry too much about which one to pick. You can change your learning path at any time. And you can take lessons from any learning path, regardless of which one you have set.
Lesson library sorted by type and difficulty
The lessons are organized into pathways that are grouped as either series or playlists, and you can filter the list so you only see pathways in your level.
You should be assigned a curated lesson pathway when you pick your level. For example, if you selected the beginner level, you might be assigned the Level 2 Mexican Spanish course.
Something I love about SpanishPod101 is that you can start as many pathways as you want. And there are tons of them. You can click the “Lessons” tab to find them all and sort them according to level, audio, video and category. The categories include Conversation, Reading & Writing, Vocabulary, Grammar and Culture.
Each pathway consists of about 10-20 lessons grouped around a common theme.
For example, the “Classic SPod101 Absolute Beginner” pathway will cover broad fundamentals while more focused pathways include “Before You Travel: Mexican Survival Phrases” and “Speaking Perfect Spanish at a Restaurant.”
Audio and video lessons
When you enter a pathway’s playlist, you see the audio or video lessons listed in a suggested order. But you can listen to or watch them in any order you’d like.
The audio lessons are a lot like podcasts. They contain a dialogue in Spanish with English used to introduce the scene and its context.
The dialogues I listened to were demonstrated by native speakers, then repeated slowly and then repeated again at normal speed with English translations.
The presenters then give grammar explanations and cultural notes in English, and then review the vocabulary and translate it.
The video lessons benefitted from also having visual aids and optional subtitles. I found that they tended to be a bit more interactive and engaging, using visual prompts to encourage interaction with the material.
Each audio and video track lets you slow down the speed or speed it up. This was a big help to me as an intermediate learner whose comprehension skills have usually lagged well behind my reading and speaking ability.
Also, the speed-up feature can help more knowledgeable learners move quickly through explanations of grammar or vocabulary.
Lessons include helpful text and interactive resources
The audio and video lessons are all accompanied by resources like a lesson transcript, vocab list, lesson notes and a line-by-line run-through of the dialogue in both Spanish and English.
You can also download the lessons for later, making it great for on-the-go learning. This lets you incorporate SpanishPod101’s lessons into your daily commute or listen to them anywhere else you might want to get in a bit of language learning.
Includes assessments to measure your progress
In addition to the diagnostic test at the start, the curated learning pathways have multiple-choice assessments. The tests appear on the playlist once every three to four lessons and let you review what you’ve learned so far.
The assessments in SpanishPod101 are all text-based, without any listening-based exercises. This might feel a bit strange given the program’s teaching method, but it can be a good way to make sure you’re retaining vocabulary and grammar.
When you complete one of these tests, you can go back through the questions to review which ones you got right and wrong, with the correct answers revealed.
Cultural lessons
Almost all of SpanishPod101’s lessons—even from the Absolute Beginner level—feature native speakers talking about cultural and social practices in their home countries.
As users progress into more advanced pathways, they can learn about Spanish holidays, festivals, local music, art and history in a variety of Spanish-speaking cultures.
This is helpful for travelers looking to understand the customs where they’re going, as well as anyone who interacts with Spanish speakers in their daily life and wants to understand their cultures better.
I tried out the “Advanced Audio Blog 2: Mexico” pathway, which offers lessons on aspects of Mexican culture such as Day of the Dead, Quinceañeras, tianguis (markets) and riding the Mexico City subway.
I was able to work through grammar and cultural pathways simultaneously, which made it easier to balance grammar with cultural learning.
There are also cultural notes in the audio and video lessons themselves. These help give cultural context to the bits of language you are hearing, so you understand politeness rules and why certain things are said in certain situations.
Study different dialects of Spanish
Even in their first Absolute Beginner lessons, SpanishPod101 emphasizes the variety of dialectsthat exist across the Spanish-speaking world.
While different Spanish dialects are all mutually intelligible for native speakers, the differences between dialects (especially between European and Latin American varieties) can be significant enough to confuse learners.
For that reason, I’ve found that being able to study specific dialects is a very important and welcome feature in Spanish resources.
For example, there are video clusters for Mexican Spanish, Peruvian Spanish, Iberian Spanish and more. As students progress into the more advanced pathways, they can choose to hone in on even more specific regional dialects.
This makes SpanishPod101 a great way to prepare if you’re traveling to one specific region since you can focus on its typical slang, vocabulary and accent.
Pricing for SpanishPod101
You can use SpanishPod101 with a free membership. But there are lots of limitations, so I recommend opting for one of three membership tiers if you’re serious about using it as a resource.
Each tier lets you either pay for one, three, six, 12 or 24 months at a time. There’s a Basic, Premium and Premium Plus plan.
The Basic plan costs $8 for one month, $21 for three months, $36 for six months, $60 for 12 months or $84 for 24 months.
The Premium plan costs $25 for one month, $66 for three months, $120 for six months, $180 for 12 months or $209 for 24 months.
The Premium Plus plan costs $47 for one month, $125 for three months, $220 for six months, $316 for 12 months or $399 for 24 months.
The two Premium plans come with extra features like a 2,000 most common words list, personal word banks, SRS flashcards, etc. The Premium Plus also includes 1-on-1 access to a teacher, hand-graded assignments, personalized assessments and guidance, and writing and pronunciation practice.
Pros of SpanishPod101
High-quality native speech
The recording and performance quality of the audio lessons in SpanishPod101 is at a high level. And the lessons feel like authentic conversations, especially the more advanced you get.
I’ve found that extremely slow, exaggerated or unnatural Spanish doesn’t help much when trying to learn to understand native speakers in everyday conversation.
SpanishPod101’s audio is mostly very natural and sounds like a native speaker more often than not. Sometimes the performers do speak a bit more clearly than they would in everyday speech, but this is mostly in the easier levels.
Flexibility with the lesson plan
SpanishPod101 doesn’t lock you into a single linear learning track. This is a useful feature for anyone who’s learning Spanish for a very specific purpose (like travel or work).
It’s also very helpful for anyone who’s picking up their learning where they left off years ago since you can follow learning paths at multiple skill levels. In my case, I found I preferred following learning paths at both the upper beginner and intermediate levels since my Spanish knowledge is uneven and I remember some grammar rules better than others.
Grammar and culture explanations are incorporated into the lessons
Grammar and culture are built into the lessons. And on top of that, there are extra lessons and materials dedicated just to those topics. This I found especially valuable because grammar explanations can sometimes be missing from audio immersion programs.
While immersion is sometimes focused on teaching by example only, explanations are important when working with rules that don’t exist in your native language.
And cultural notes help you understand politeness rules and similar practical information about using Spanish effectively with native speakers.
Cons of SpanishPod101
Assessments are entirely text-based
The assessments are a feature only offered with a Premium membership and above, but after trying them, I think they seem somewhat disconnected from how the program works. Despite the lessons being audio and video-based, the assessments don’t really test you on comprehension or anything other than reading skills.
The different pathways and lessons could be easier to navigate
The mobile app and website let you sort the playlists and lessons by difficulty and whether they are audio or video-based. But there aren’t really any other ways to sort the pathways other than searching specific terms. Most of the time, looking for new lessons means browsing a large list to find what you’re looking for.
The audio lessons contain a lot of English
If you’re looking for a fully immersive video and audio experience in Spanish, the SpanishPod101 program might not be exactly what you had in mind.
While explanations for the grammar and culture are useful for learners (especially if you’re a beginner), the English in the lessons sometimes feels excessive and it’s a while before your listening skills are really challenged.
Pimsleur is an audio-only course that takes a more extreme immersion approach than SpanishPod101.
There are five levels total with 30 lessons each. Each lesson is meant to be completed daily and is 30 minutes long. The lessons start with a conversation. At the beginning, you can’t understand everything. Then, the native speakers prompt you to repeat after them to learn the new words and prompt you to respond to their questions and make your own sentences.
By the end of the lesson, you’re able to understand the entire conversation that was in the beginning.
Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the Spanish language and culture over time. You’ll learn Spanish as it’s actually spoken by real people.
FluentU has a wide variety of videos topics, as you can see here:
FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used.
Plus, if you see an interesting word you don’t know, you can add it to a vocab list.
Review a complete interactive transcript under the Dialogue tab, and find words and phrases listed under Vocab.
Learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU’s robust learning engine. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.
The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re studying with the same video.
Rocket Language is an audio-based program, but like SpanishPod101, it uses lots of English instruction to explain grammar concepts and vocabulary in-depth.
There are three levels, and each one has a large library of lessons. There’s a structured order you follow and “Language & Culture” lessons are thrown into every module.
Each module starts with an audio lesson, which is given in podcast format with a native speaker and non-native speaker host. They go back and forth having conversations and explaining the new vocabulary and grammar, and each lesson lasts about 15 to 30 minutes.
After completing the audio lesson, you practice what you’ve learned with lots of exercises, including quizzes, writing drills, speaking drills, listening drills and flashcards.
Overall, I recommend SpanishPod101. It’s a well-rounded program with lots of high-quality, thorough lessons and is suitable for all levels. You can choose the dialect you want to learn and there’s a variety of learning tools.
In my opinion, the Basic membership is likely not worth it—you get all of the lessons but none of the valuable resources like line-by-line audio replay and practice tests. If you plan to upgrade, the Premium membership will get you the most bang for your buck.
The extensive English explanation means that it’s not a fully immersive method, so the audio lessons are more helpful if you’re at a beginner or intermediate level of Spanish.
All in all, SpanishPod101 is an excellent learning method for building your skills while learning about the Spanish language and the different cultures that speak it.
