Spanish with TV and movie clips
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Many people find listening comprehension the most difficult aspect of language learning. Our online Spanish courses focus on colloquial language, to help you to understand what native speakers are saying. You will hear Spanish at normal native-speaker speed, and you’ll learn many expressions that you can use in order to sound more natural. Our virtual teachers explain the vocabulary, the expressions and some points of grammar that come up in the lessons. They also explain the historical and cultural content, which is just as important as the linguistic content when you participate in conversation with native speakers.
What will I learn?
Improve your comprehension of colloquial Spanish spoken at normal native-speaker speed
Learn useful new words and expressions
Become familiar with various Spanish accents
Improve your command of several grammar points that come up in the lesson
Deepen your understanding of the history and culture of Spain and the Spanish-speaking world
About these courses
Each lesson lasts 1-2 hours or more, depending on how much you apply yourself to the study: for example, if you repeat some things again another day, and if you use transcription by reading and listening or repeating with the speaker. Remember that repetition is the key to learning a language.
What’s included in each Spanish lesson?
Each lesson consists of the following components:
The videos (5)
You don’t need to take notes while watching the videos. You can download a complete transcription afterwards.
Teacher presentation (animated video):
The virtual teacher provides information that will help you to understand the clips. This is followed by a quick quiz based on 5 items introduced in the presentation.
Clip from the movie, subtitled in English:
This version will help you get a general idea of what’s going on. But if you prefer, you can skip this step.
Clip subtitled in Spanish:
This version will help to improve your listening comprehension. The subtitles match exactly what the actors say… even if they make mistakes! (It’s true, Spanish speakers make mistakes too, especially when speaking rapidly). It’s a good idea to watch this version more than once.
Original version:
You will understand this version if you’ve already seen the version with Spanish subtitles a couple of times.
Conclusion (animated video):
The virtual teacher reviews some of the language from the clips and wraps up the lesson.
PDFs (3)
List of vocabulary and expressions
Introduced in the lesson, with translations in English.
Transcription
This is a transcription of the entire lesson (presentation, original movie clip with translation, and conclusion). It’s a good strategy to read the transcription while listening to the entire lesson, or parts of the lesson, as often as you need until you can distinguish and understand every word. You can also chime in with the audio. This way you can focus on pronunciation, the stress patterns and the intonation of words and phrases in Spanish.
A bit of grammar:
An explanation of a couple of the grammar points that came up in the lesson.
Interactive tasks
These activities will help you to memorise the words and expressions from the lesson. You can also hear a native speaker pronouncing the words and phrases.
Test yourself:
These activities will help you to evaluate your comprehension and your knowledge of the words, phrases and grammar points highlighted in the lesson.
A suggestion:
A suggestion: To help you retain everything in your long-term memory, it’s a good strategy to repeat some of these activities a few times over the coming weeks— even if you got it all right the first time.