Free Spanish Report V1a

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 1
http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/
How to Learn
Spanish For
Free
Your Guide to the Best Free
Learn Spanish Web Sites
By Michael Tipper
Published By
Waterford Green Ltd

Registered in England and Wales
Company Number 6208489
Registered Office: 2nd Floor, 145-157 St. John Street,
London, EC1V 4PY
© Michael Tipper 2007

All rights reserved.
Nothing may be reproduced from this work or stored in any form of information
retrieval system without the express written permission of the publisher. The opinions
given are those of the author who is acting in good faith according to the extensive
research undertaken by him and who confirms that he himself uses or has used the
resources recommended in this report. The author takes no responsibility for any
changes to the sites previewed in this document or for the material presented on those
sites which may have changed since the production of this report. The author stresses
that the opinions, comments and recommendations are his and his alone and may not
necessarily reflect those of the owners and publishers of the material contained on
those sites. If you find that links are broken or sites are no longer available then
contact the author at http://www.learn-spanish-free-right-now.com/

Contents
1. Introduction Page 4
2. Online Dictionaries and Translation Services Page 12
3. Free Spanish Audio Programs Page 23
4. Interactive Multimedia Programs Page 31
5. Free Video Lessons Page 37
6. Some Great Grammar Sites Page 43
7. Your Free Learn Spanish Resources Rolodex Page 52
8. ++++ STOP PRESS ++++ Page 56
9. Please pass this on Page 56

Introduction
My name is Michael Tipper and
like you I am a student of
Spanish. That’s me on the right
with my partner Pat on holiday
in Spain earlier this year.
I have been travelling abroad as part of my work for a number of

years and have always been frustrated each time I visited a
foreign country that I could not speak the local lingo. I failed
languages miserably at school, partly because the lessons were
boring, partly because I wasn’t interested in languages but mainly
because I was a horrible teenager - Miss Littlejohns (My German
and French teacher) if you ever read this I am very sorry for my
behaviour back then!
I have made several attempts to learn German over the years

and can get by in a bar or café but anything beyond that (“2
mineral waters and my friend will pay please!”) and I am stuffed.
This year I had a go at learning Russian for a trip to Ukraine and

after 6 months of listening to tapes I thought I had enough to get
by on my visit….but then faced with a real Russian speaking
person my mind went to mush and all I could burble was “Sorry I
only understand a little Russian”.
So even with some great information (the audios I was using cost
over $700) I still struggled to hold even a basic conversation after
6 months of listening to them over and over again.

Then when I went to Spain this year with my partner and could
only mumble “Sorry I don’t understand” in broken Spanish, I
decided that I had had enough of not being able to speak
someone else’s language when I visit their country.
Now the ironic thing is that I am a specialist in learning and

memory development, author or 3 books on memory and
learning, have personally delivered speeches, seminars and
workshops to over 80,000 people and have designed learning
programs that have positively affected the lives of over half a
million children and young people. Yet I didn’t even think about
applying what I know about learning to studying a language!
So after my trip to Spain and my experiences in Ukraine together

with all of my back history of frustrations at not speaking another
language to a level of competence I decided to do something
about it.
I did my research, got my thinking cap on and came up with a

new system of how to learn a language based on my
understanding of accelerated learning, advanced memory
techniques and having the right mental approach. Now this
system is not about the WHAT to learn (i.e. the phrases,
vocabulary, grammar etc) because I don’t have that knowledge or
expertise. This system is about the HOW to learn i.e. study
methods, motivational strategies, memorisation techniques and
comprehension/activation tools.
So armed with that knowledge I decided to test my system to see

whether my ideas and the learning tools I have used in other
areas so well would work with learning a language.

Now I had to choose what “Learn Spanish” program I was going
to test my new system out on and here is where I faced my first
problem.
The whole point of the exercise was to prove just how simple and
effective my new approach to learning a language was. I wanted
the experiment to be impartial and I realised that if I picked one of
the many paid for programs out on the market and used it with
that then I would have people potentially claiming that it was the
program I used and not my system that had the most impact.
Now I want to make learning another language accessible to all

and while I was doing my research on the Spanish programs
available on the internet, I kept coming across some really good
free resources.
It suddenly dawned on me that if I was to prove that my approach

to learning a language was as good as I thought it was then I had
to take the “WHAT” i.e. the presentation of the Spanish to me, out
of the equation.
So I decided that I would test my new system just using free

resources that are available to everyone and anyone from the
internet. By doing that I could take away any claim that one paid
for learn Spanish product was better than another and isolate my
success to the methods of learning rather than the way the
language was presented.
It also meant that when it worked, anyone could take my system

and apply it to the same free stuff and then get the same results.

So this report that you are now reading is the result of that
research. I am now going to share with you all of the free learn
Spanish stuff I have applied my system to.
But I suppose the first thing you might want to know is whether
the free resources (and I suppose my as yet unpublished secret
approach) worked.
Well I decided I would see how much Spanish I could learn in just
33 days only using free stuff off the internet and my new system
to learning a language. I kept a daily video diary on YouTube. If
you click on the screen or the link below you can see the first
video on day 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2Pu6q6__eg

And the result – well watch the day 33 video here (6 minutes in
Spanish – with subtitles!). It is not pretty, I stumble a few times
and now I realise I made a few mistakes, but I speak for about 6
minutes in Spanish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCfupsIPRTw
So this report is about the free Spanish lessons and websites I

used from the internet.
By the way, before we get started, if you have

been passed this report from a friend,
colleague or family member and not directly
from me then make sure you get yourself
your copy of this Quick and Easy Guide to
Learning Spanish. (If you have already been
to my site then you will already have it)
It is available for free from my site (http://www.learn-spanish-free-

right-now.com/). I bought the rights to it and can either sell it for
$27 or give it away – for now I am giving it away so this is your
first free resource. Here is what it contains:

Greetings and basic expressions – how to initiate
conversations with Spanish speakers in exactly the right way, so
that you get your communication off to a flying start. (Page 8)
Getting the Pronunciation Right – understanding the letters of

the alphabet and how words in the Spanish language sound so
you will always understand and be understood. (Page 12)
Forever stop Native Speakers from quietly sniggering at your

mis-use of word genders by discovering what they are, what they
mean and a very simple way of knowing the right gender for any
Spanish Noun - I have not seen this in any other Spanish course
so far. (Page 16)
A simple, easy to remember formula to form questions and

statements from your ever growing Spanish Vocabulary that will
give you the correct word endings, verb conjugations and articles
every time which will have the locals think you’ve been studying
their language for years. (Page 22)
The right way to address and refer to people, children, animals

and objects, especially the well respected elderly and those in
positions of authority so that you honour the culture and receive
genuine appreciation for the effort you have made. (Page 25)
Avoid appearing stupid to Spanish Speakers by discovering

how to describe things in Spanish so that you create intelligent
conversation and feel articulate and self-assured. (Page 28)

How to expand your sentence content with the right words to
create more natural speech giving you the satisfaction of
sounding more like a native (page 34 and page 36)
How to talk about things that have happened in the past (Page
51), the present (Page 43) and the future (page 56) making your
speech more colourful and you interesting.
Understand how to provide facts in Spanish (Page 59), ask

questions (Page 61) and give instructions and commands (Page
63) so that you will feel confident and assertive in any
conversational situation
So to get your free copy of this great guide that I have found vital
as I started my Spanish journey then just go to:
Also by getting hold of this report at my site you will be

automatically eligible for free updates to this report and I will send
you links to new sites as I find them. Make sure you do this now
because I am not sure how long I shall be giving this away for
free. It has taken me far more work than I envisioned and my
girlfriend is starting to get more and more expensive LOL so I
may have to start charging for it (probably about $27)
Now another site I am duty bound to share with you is my own

personal blog which records my progress to become proficient in
Spanish, links to more great resources and things I have learnt
about Spanish.

The first 33 entries are my daily thoughts from my experiment
together with the YouTube videos (to save you searching through
YouTube to find them) so you can see how I progressed.
Those videos are well worth watching because I also share some
snippets of my new approach to learning a language. So please
do come over and visit me, browse the posts and maybe drop me
a comment on how you are getting on and what you think of this
report. You can find the site at:
http://www.youcanlearnspanishtoo.com/
So after what was going to be a short introduction (☺), let’s get on

with sharing with you the free resources I have been using.

Online Dictionaries and
Translation Facilities
As you enter the magical world of another language, in our case
Spanish, you are going to discover the wonder of new words and
phrases to use on the unsuspecting Spanish speaking public.
Likewise as you start to read Spanish and engage in conversation

with other Spanish speakers, you will encounter new words and
phrases that you don’t understand. Good learning practice will
mean that as soon as this happens you should look it up
immediately. This way you get to understand the word whilst the
context of its use is still fresh in your memory.
Traditionally, before the internet, you would be recommended to

get hold of the best (and probably largest) dictionary you possibly
could. That is still a good thing to do but as we are focussing on
using the World Wide Web you want to get hold of the internet
equivalent.
Of course the beauty of the internet is that not only are there
dictionaries out but the marvels of technology mean that there are
also translation facilities. Type in a body of text in Spanish and
press a button and you immediately get the English version and
of course vice versa.
Now this sounds great because it means you can go to a Spanish

web site that you are interested in, copy a chunk of text, paste it
into the translation tool, press a button and bingo you know what
it means.

Of course the reality of it is that even though technology is
amazing (and getting better all the time) the translation of text is
not perfect – may be 80-90% accurate. The translation may not
take into account true meanings of literal translations. For
example you might innocently want to translate “I am hot”
(meaning the temperature for you is too high) and the literal
translation of that in several languages has a sexual connotation
which is not what you meant.
Here is an example of why the translation facilities should not be

truly relied on for 100% accuracy. I went to one of the translation
facilities and translated this sentence into Spanish:
“Please can you tell me how I can get to nearest police station”
As a translation it gave me:
“Puedele por favor me dice cómo puedo llegar a más cercana

comisaría”
Now to check this I then typed this Spanish back into the same
tool and translated it back into English. You’d expect that I
should get exactly the same as what I typed in originally. Here is
what I got:
“You be able please tells me how can I arrive at more nearby

precinct”
Of course one of the things you should understand about learning

a language is that things more often than not DO NOT translate
literally i.e. word for word. Therefore there will always be a bit of

disparity. This is why sometimes when you hear someone
struggling with their English they often say strange things (to us
anyway) because they have used the word order and syntax of
their own language which is often different to ours.
So in this particular case if I put this English translation back into

the tool I should get the Spanish it gave me originally. Here is
what I got:
“Usted puede dice por favor mí cómo puedo llego en zona más
cercana”
And if we compare it to the Spanish I first got:
“Puedele por favor me dice cómo puedo llegar a más cercana

comisaría”
We can see that there are some similarities but it is a different

sentence. The point I am trying to make is that you should not
rely on the translation facilities completely but be wary of what
they give you. They will give you a starting point but that is all it
really is. You may have to do a bit of detective work to get a
completely accurate translation
I had a similar experience with the dictionaries I used. I wanted

to find out what the translation of “silverware” (meaning knives,
forks, spoons etc at a dinner table) was. Here are the different
translations I got (I have also showed the results I got from
translation facilities):

Translation facility1 - vajilla de plata
Dictionary 1 vajilla de plata
Translation facility 2 – Platería
Dictionary 2 - plata labrada
Translation facility 3 - los cubiertos
Translation facility 4 - vajilla de plata
Dictionary 3 - vajilla de plata, cubiertos
As you can see there is some consistency but from the 7 different
tools I used I got 4 different translations. I suppose at this point I
should make it clear what I mean between a pure dictionary and a
translation facility:
Dictionary – translates single words from Spanish-English

and vice versa. The thing I like about dictionaries is that
some have audio files to help you with your developing
pronunciation.
Translation facility – translates a body of text from

Spanish-English and vice versa. Can be used like a
dictionary if you just input single words.
So just be careful when using these services because you may

not be getting exactly what you think when you use them. Below
I have listed several examples of both dictionaries and translation
facilities I have used and continue to use. I generally use at least
3 at any one time because I have found that if I cross reference
between at least 3 I can generally find the meaning of the word I
am looking for because remember where there are synonyms for
a word (eg eat, consume) you might get both but from different
tools.

Online Dictionaries
http://www.spanishdict.com/
URL http://www.spanishdict.com/
No Entries 56,508 entries
Dedicated to Yes
Spanish?
Audio Over 10,369 audio pronunciations.
Positive • Has a linked active learn Spanish forum
• Can translate English-Spanish and Spanish-
English on same page without selecting an
option
• Has a word of the day
Negative • Small number of entries
• Google ads thrust in your face on audio
translations
Rating


http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-Spanish-Dictionary/
URL http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-Spanish-
Dictionary/
No Entries Not Specified
Dedicated to Yes
Spanish?
Audio No
Positive • Can translate English-Spanish and Spanish-
English on same page without selecting an
option
• If you don’t know how a word is spelt you
can enter the first few letters and it gives you
alternatives
• Not overwhelmed with google ads
• Gives synonyms of words
Negative • Has a linked but relatively inactive forum but
it is only about Ectaco’s translation products
• No audio
Rating


http://www.wordreference.com/
URL
No Entries 120,000 words with more than 250,000
translations.
Dedicated to Has French and Italian dictionaries in addition
Spanish?
to the Spanish one but they appear to be driven
by separate parts of the site
Audio Yes
Positive • Very active learn Spanish forum
• Links the words you want to translate to
areas of the forum where they are discussed
• Does have google ads but they are not in
your face
• Gives examples of the context that the word
might appear in
Negative • Need to select an option to choose between
English-Spanish or Spanish-English
Rating


Online Translation Tools
http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en
URL http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en
Dedicated to No – this has 23 different language translation
Spanish?
facilities, many of them in BETA form
Positive • Includes a facility to search the web by
country or by language
• Has a facility to allow you to translate a
particular web page (need the URL)
• No google ads on this google page!!
• Allows you to suggest a better translation
• Has a very good FAQ that explains the tools
capabilities and limitations
• Basic design and layout gives little
confidence and relies on Google’s reputation
for credibility about its effectiveness (see
FAQ)
Rating


http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr
URL http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr
Dedicated to No – this has 36 different language translations
Spanish?
Positive • Simple to use
• You can search the internet for the text you
have chosen to translate
• My favourite for quick translations
• Basic design and layout
Rating


http://translation2.paralink.com/
URL http://translation2.paralink.com/
Spanish?
Positive • It translates and can be used to verify the
translations from other tools
• Confusing design and layout
• 500 character limit to text translation
• Bombarded with ads every few translations
Rating


http://www.freetranslation.com/
URL http://www.freetranslation.com/
Spanish?
Positive • Has tool to allow you to choose the variants
of Spanish letters when translating into
English.
• Credible site because it is the front piece for
a professional translation service
• Option to have your translation done by
human (a fee is charged for this)
• Simple to use
• Good help and FAQ section
• No google ads
• Depending on screen resolution, you have
to keep scrolling down the page when you
input text to then find the “translate” button
Rating


Free Spanish Audio Programs
Apart from my miserable French and German lessons at school,
most of my attempts at learning a language have been with audio
programs. In the dim and distant past this was with audio
cassettes (remember them!), then CDs and more recently with
MP3s.
If you think about it, it makes sense to learn a language using

audios because it is an oral/audio form of communication. You
can learn it from a book but it is far easier to become
discouraged, it takes much longer and is far harder to grasp and
master the correct pronunciation of the words and phrases you
are learning.
So I am sure you can imagine my delight when I discovered that

on the internet you can get hold of some extremely high quality
audio programs for free.
I was amazed at just how professional and well thought out these
programs were and just how comparably they stood against even
the best (and usually the most expensive) paid for language
systems.
I began my search for stuff like this as I began my 33 day

challenge that I mentioned earlier and I really wish I had
discovered these free audios earlier because I probably would
have set my goals for that experiment much higher.

Now before I get on to sharing with you these audios I need to
explain what a podcast is because these audio programs are
delivered as podcasts.
Essentially a podcast is a term coined for the delivery of MP3 files

(an audio format) to users. The “pod” bit comes from the Apple
iPod but you don’t need to have an iPod to receive and play a
podcast. All you need is a computer and an internet connection.
If you have an MP3 player then you can download the popdcast
files onto it but you don’t need to. You can listen to them from
your PC or laptop once you have downloaded them.
You can find the podcasts from a variety of places like Apple’s
itunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/) store (they are free but you
need to have the itunes software on your PC) or any of the other
podcast delivery sites like Podcast Alley
(http://www.podcastalley.com/). However I am just going to point
you in the direction of the source website rather than complicate
things by have you subscribe to podcast feeds. At the source
website you will be able to download the audio files just like you
download any other file.
Now you will have noticed that I have rated the other sites I have
recommended. The three podcasts I am about to share with you
all get  because their quality is so good. Each has
their own strengths and you will choose one to use depending
where you are and the style of teaching most suited to your
learning approach. I myself use all three but then I am a bit eager
to become as proficient as quick as I can ☺.

http://www.coffeebreakspanish.com/
Name Coffee Break Spanish – Language Learning with

your Latte
URL
Format Spanish Teacher Mark teaches student Kara how to
speak Spanish. Typical situations discussed,
vocabulary explained and dialogues given. Mark
testing Kara on what she has learnt. Nice
explanations of grammar and pronunciation given
Characters Both Mark and Kara are Scottish and broadcast from
Glasgow in Scotland. Mark is an authoritative
teacher with a great teaching style and a great voice
for radio. Kara is an enthusiastic student who is
willing to make mistakes. Both are extremely
likeable characters and you get the impression it is a
genuine lesson and not a scripted exchange.
Forum Yes – recently changed over to a new system
because of Spam but it was active before the
changeover.
Strengths • Ideal beginners podcast

• Practical Spanish in bite size chunks (15-20
minutes)
• Uses music and songs frequently
• Enjoyable to listen to
• Makes the language extremely accessible
Weaknesses None – this is an ideal beginners podcast –
recommend you start with lesson 1 and work your
way through from the beginning.
Podcast http://tinyurl.com/2x5e9z or look for “podcast
Downloads
episodes” at http://www.coffeebreakspanish.com/
page
WIIFT – There is a premium service with a monthly charge
what’s in it
(currently £8.50) where you get a bonus podcast,
for them
downloadable pdfs, flashcards and ipod notes. Mark
and Kara regularly encourage you to sign up (but not
in an aggressive way)
Rating


http://www.edufone.com/
Name Finally Learn Spanish

URL
Format Jade (American) and Carla (Mexican) discuss
various aspects of Spanish. They will introduce the
vocabulary, explain the dialogue in English and
Spanish, give the dialogue in just Spanish and then
will test you again on the vocabulary. You will hear
the dialogue 4 or 5 times.
Characters Jade is a Spanish teacher (amongst other things) as
is Carla. Jade explains the lesson, calls on Carla for
the dialogues and for “Spanish Insider” points and
also acts as the student herself, ably demonstrating
that learning a language is an ongoing process
whatever the level. Easy to listen to – obviously
enthusiastic about sharing what they know.
Forum Yes with some activity
Strengths • Excellent format
• Knowledgeable teachers
• Native (Latin American) Spanish Speaker
• Basic and intermediate dialogue

• PDFs available with some of the dialogue in most
episodes (full transcriptions are charged for)
• Episodes focused around a particular theme
• Amazing membership (which is free) benefit of
registering your Skype handle to get in touch with
native Spanish speakers to practice with – it
works! I have used it myself!
• This is a truly bilingual podcast because Spanish
Speakers also listen to it to help them learn
English
Weaknesses Nothing significant as this is a great podcast but
perhaps might put some beginners off because it
does have some intermediate level dialogues right
from episode 1. However even beginners (like you
and I) can benefit from this as I discovered using
them – go on stretch yourself!!!
Podcast http://www.edufone.com/podcasts.php
Downloads
page
WIIFT – The site is promoting their mobile phone technology
what’s in it
to help you learn to speak Spanish
for them
Rating


http://www.notesinspanish.com/
Name Notes In Spanish – Inspired Beginners

URL
Format Vocabulary explained followed by dialogue in
Spanish. Often two sets of dialogue in one lesson.
Good conversation between a native Spanish
Speaker and an English speaker fluent in Spanish
Characters Ben is English and has lived and worked in Madrid
for 9 years. Marina is a Spanish teacher native to
Madrid. Ben’s authoritative and clear approach
compliments Marina’s playful and often flirtatious
style. This is a great combination and Ben offers
some great insights having already travelled the path
we are looking tread ourselves. Ben and Marina
already have advanced and intermediate level
podcasts and have now branched out to the
beginners level.
Forum Yes - a great community of Spanish Learners
Strengths • Streetwise Spanish as well as the basics and
essentials

• Real and relevant dialogue between fluent
Spanish speakers
• Native (European) Spanish Speaker
• Basic and intermediate dialogue
• Spanish Videos on their site too
Weaknesses Dialogues only spoken once so rewinding is
necessary. Would like to have them repeated within
the lesson.
Podcast http://tinyurl.com/3aoxx4 or look for “Inspired
Downloads
Beginners” at http://www.notesinspanish.com/
page
WIIFT – Good quality PDF transcripts of the dialogues
what’s in it
together with further explanations not covered in the
for them
podcast are available for a small (and quite
reasonable rate). The first podcast comes with the
PDF for free so you can see the quality and
relevance.
Rating


Free Multimedia Programs
I’ve have been continuously amazed by just how much great stuff
is available on the internet and I thought when I found the
podcasts that nothing could really top them. That was until I
started looking at some of the multimedia sites
These are sites that have text, audio and video to assist with the
learning and I was quite lucky to have stumbled across what I
think must be the free granddaddy of them all.
The BBC is the public service broadcaster in the UK and as such

the quality of free output it provides to those resident in the UK in
return for our TV license fee is quite remarkable. Of course with
the internet some of this output is now available to the world.
And so it is with their language learning facilities.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/

The beginners program is called “Spanish Steps” and features
Kevin Duala in a number of different everyday circumstances.
Now depending upon your internet connection, you can either
watch a short video clip of the dialogue (optional) or just follow
the lesson as it is portrayed in photographs.
In each part you can see the English translation, the Spanish text
or just listen to the dialogue in Spanish.
At the end of the dialogue (which usually has about 5-6 steps)
you get a summary of the conversation both spoken and written
in Spanish.
Then you go through a series of activities to activate what you

have learnt.
This one below is a drag and drop exercise where you have to tie
up the relevant piece of the dialogue with the right picture.

Other exercises include memorisation tests and written problems
(usually filling in letters). All in all a completely interactive
approach in nice bite-sized.
It might be a little simplistic here and there, but if you like doing
things to keep you involved and can’t stand the thought of sitting
through hours of audio, then this is a great place to start learning
Spanish.
There are other things on this site too – a video series,

intermediate level Spanish and other interactive games. If you
are just starting out and want to see whether Spanish is for you
then do visit this site.
This gets a definite 5 heart rating 

http://www.spanishspanish.com/
I think if I was to have a favourite Spanish site then this must be it

for a couple of reasons:
1. It is an extremely useful resource with some amazing

Flash lessons on it
2. It is amazing fun and very enjoyable to use.
This site doesn’t appear to have much organisation to it. It just

appears to be a collection of Flash driven flash cards to help with
specific aspects of learning Spanish.
For example there is a lesson to help you learn the alphabet with
audio – simply put your cursor over the letter and you a hear a
voice saying it in Spanish.

Another lesson helps you with telling the time. All you do is put in
the time and it will show you the clock face and a voice will tell
you in Spanish what that time is for morning and evening.

Yet another will help you with expressions to do with the weather.
Simply put your cursor on the English phrase and you will hear
the Spanish translation and see a picture of that aspect of
weather – powerful stuff!
This site is another one that definitely gets a 5 heart rating


Free Spanish Video Lessons
In this video dominated society of ours, the massive explosion of
web-based video and the increasing availability of broadband
connections to the internet, I am sure it will not surprise you to
know that there is a tremendous amount of information available
to you on video online.
This is especially true if you want to learn to speak Spanish and if

you know where to look you can find some very high quality
resources to help you become more proficient.
http://www.expertvillage.com/interviews/spanish.htm
I stumbled across this first set of videos quite by accident when I

was searching for weather reports in Spanish. Expert village is
supposedly the worlds largest dedicated “how-to” video site and
has videos on a wide range of topics.

As you’d probably expect there is a series on helping people like
you and me learn to become more proficient in Spanish. And the
great thing about these videos is that they are free!
At the time of writing there are 39 videos on topics ranging from

the weather, days of the week, dealing with emergencies, and
phrases in sport to name a few.
The teacher is a Spanish Linguist (not native just very good!)

called Mixitxu Etxeberria (no I don’t know how to say that either
but she does introduce herself on each video).
She introduces the lesson, says the English phrase, says the
Spanish translation and then repeats it slowly. I like the format
very much because the Spanish text comes up on the screen and
appears later down the page that the video is on so you can copy
it and print it off.
Each video is about 4-5 minutes long (about 3 hours of total

lessons) and if you can suffer the ads (you have to click to shut
off an ad that gets in the way of the sub-titles) they are well worth
using.
Were it not for the in your face ads, this would get the full 5 heart
rating but for now it gets just 4 
http://www.youtube.com/
Any discussion about online video would not be complete without

mentioning You Tube. This of course is the ultimate video site
and despite many pretenders to its crown, I am sure will dominate
online video for years to come.
You Tube has some amazing stuff on it with literally millions and
millions of short video clips. Most are limited to 10 minutes or
100MB and so you are treated to bite sized clips. However
because it is so easy to put stuff up on You Tube there is so
much crap on there too.

You really need to know what you are looking for when it comes
to finding good videos on how to learn Spanish. A general search
on “learn Spanish” will give you general results but if you put in
“count in Spanish” you will get more targeted videos.
Most videos tend to fall into 3 categories:
1. companies promoting their own Spanish program

2. Well meaning people sharing what they know about
Spanish
3. Mom and Pops sharing clips of 2 day old Johnny gurgling
in Spanish
If you can put up with some blatant promos you will get some
good stuff from the first category. The second category does
have some good stuff too but beware that they might be 100%
accurate if they are just passing on something they have just
learnt. I am a prime example of that because on my day 33 video
on You Tube I made a few mistakes.
So despite the occasional dross you will find on You Tube, its
sheer scale of videos means that You Tube must get a full 5 heart
rating 
The last two sites in this category I have already mentioned in

other areas of this report but I shall include them here too for
completeness.

http://www.notesinspanish.com/category/videoblogging/
Ben and Marina at Notes In Spanish not only do their own video
blogging but they encourage members of their online community
to share their videos too. Now this is great for a number reasons,
not least because you get to see how others are getting on with
their Spanish so you can track your own progress too.
If you watch any of the videos from people other than Ben and
Marina you will see different standards of Spanish. We all have
to go through a faltering stage (I am still in mine!) and it is really
encouraging to see and hear others in the same position. It is
also inspiring to know that if others can do it then so can you.
You should consider doing a video of you speaking Spanish. It

really focuses the mind and gives you great experience. I know I
certainly benefited from doing it.

And then of course there is my blog which I am using to track my

progress and gather all of the great stuff I am learning about how
to speak Spanish. Already there are 33 videos of me charting my
progress to learn Spanish during my experiment and if I do say so
myself, there are some great tips on how to learn a language.
Over the coming weeks and months I shall be adding more of my

own videos but I shall also be sharing the videos I find that help
me.
Modesty aside I shall give me a 

rating because I am only going to share with you information and
videos that warrant that sort of rating. I am sure you will tell me if
they don’t come up to scratch.

Some Great Grammar Sites
Now I know what you are thinking – “AHHHHHRRRRRGH” –
because that is what I thought when I started this project. I did
not even imagine that there would be any reason to start studying
grammar. I mean I just want to have a simple conversation in
Spanish; I don’t want a qualification in it!!
Well I must admit that the urge to explore at least a little bit of
grammar sort of crept up on me unannounced. I found that after
a while I started to spot patterns in the Spanish I was learning
and I started to get curious what the patterns were and why they
were there.
I also found that there were a few things that confused me. For
example there were two words for “I am” – “soy” and “estoy” and I
couldn’t understand why one was used in one instance and the
other elsewhere when the translation was the same simple “I am”.
So I had to go looking for some online grammar help.
As I am sure you’d expect there are literally thousands of sites

out there with Spanish Grammar advice and much of it is either
hard to understand, irrelevant or downright incorrect. However
there are a few gems on the web that you really should know
about to assist you in your Spanish development.

http://spanish.about.com/
About.com is recognised as one of the top 10 content sites on the

internet and is renowned for regularly updated quality content. It
has over 600 experts who regularly contribute to the site pushing
it to the top or near to it of all of the major search engines for
many, may search terms.
The Spanish pages of About.com are put together by Gerald

Erichsen, an avid Spanish speaker and someone else who has
gone before us and wants to help us learn Spanish.
The content on the site is extremely comprehensive with nearly

450 articles on parts of speech and nearly 50 on sentence
structure (just to give you an idea of the scale of this resource).
If you have a question about Spanish grammar then this is a

great place to go for the answer and because of that About.com
deserves 5 hearts 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_grammar
Another site that has to be on our list of places to visit must be

Wikipedia. This is not as comprehensive as the About.com site
(which can be a little overwhelming because of its vastness!) but
does have a good introduction to the basics.
A good thing about Wikipedia is that if there is a word you don’t

understand and it is important to the topic, there will invariably be
a link to a related page explaining what the word means.
Whilst this can be an advantage it can also work against you if

you suddenly find yourself 8 or 9 clicks away from where you
originally started.
Wikipedia can be edited by anyone so beware of the information

on the site and do verify anything from another source before you
take it as “the answer”. For that reason it only gets 3 hearts


http://www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm
This last grammar site I want to recommend to you is a

commercial site. They are selling a Study Spanish Program and
the main thrust of the site is to encourage you to buy it. However
in drawing your attention to them they have a very
comprehensive 9 part section on grammar.
It covers an amazing amount of information with over 100

separate written lessons that you can either view on the screen or
download the pdf version.
Each lesson has an interactive quiz of at least 10 questions

although you will find that if you buy their program you can get at
least another hundred questions. However I think the free
questions you get are enough to keep you going and get the
grammatical muscles moving.
One of the really good things about this site is that some of the
lessons have an audio component to them too. One feature of
this that I really liked was that you hear words spoken by a native

Latin American speaker as well as by a European Spanish
speaker.
This site deserves its 5 heart rating 

Miscellaneous Spanish Sites
There are a number of other sites that I have found really useful
over my short time learning to Speak Spanish that don’t really
neatly fit into any of the categories I have put the others into.
Here are some of the best:
http://www.jvlnet.com/~liliana/Spanish_Numbers.html
This is a really special site that will help you learn how to say the
numbers from 1-999 using some very effective Flash animation.
By running your mouse over a number you can hear its correct
pronunciation and then there is an interactive test where you
translate the number that is spoken to you in Spanish. The
system keeps score and tells you when you have got it right. It is
a great site but only gets 3 hearts  because some of the
number groups don’t have the test facilities that others have.

http://users.ipfw.edu/JEHLE/VERBLIST.HTM
I suppose this site should really be under the grammar section of

this report but as it is so quirky and detailed I thought I’d put it in
the miscellaneous section.
This site is one of those resources where you are really glad that
someone else has done the work for you because you can’t
imagine ever doing it all for yourself.
A big challenge in learning any language is understanding and

remembering how all of the verbs are conjugated across the
different uses they have with the various tenses, genders etc.
But before you can remember them you have to work out what
they are.
Well some industrious chap has put together literally pages and
pages of conjugations of hundreds of verbs. Judging by the
amount of verb conjugations there are on this site, if it isn’t here
then the verb is not worth conjugating.
I Am impressed with this as a resource and it deserves a
respectful 4 hearts for sheer industry alone .

http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-radio-spanish.html
One of the things I strongly recommend you do as you learn to

speak Spanish is to start listening to native speakers as often as
you possibly can. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand what
is being said, the important thing is that you are starting to tune
your mind into the language and getting used to its “music”.
This will be invaluable as you progress in developing your

proficiency and if you don’t do it, it will probably be the thing that
holds you back the most.
This site lists literally hundreds of Spanish radio stations that you
can tune in to any time of the day. There are radio stations from
just about every Spanish speaking nation which means you will
be able to find good talk radio in Spanish at just about anytime of
the day.
Try out a few stations until you find a couple you like. Nice site
that gets 3 hearts 

Final Words
So that is it for now.
I hope that this report will be of value to you. It is my belief that

you can become fluent in Spanish just using the free resources
that are available to us all on the internet.
I have shared with you the resources that I am currently using

and have used to develop my proficiency in Spanish in just 33
days (check out the You Tube video of Day 33 for proof!).
It is all there for you so all I can do is share with you the sites that
I have used and encourage you to try them out.
If you do find that any of the links I have given you are broken,
then please do let me know by dropping me a comment at my
blog at http://www.youcanlearnspanishtoo.com/ .
Alternatively if you have a site that you have used that is not in
this report and you think would be valuable to others who are also
learning to speak Spanish then once again, drop me a line at my
blog.
So good luck with the Spanish and do let me know how you get
on and what you think of this report.
Regards

Your Free Learn Spanish
Resources Rolodex
Online Dictionaries
http://www.spanishdict.com/

http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-Spanish-
Dictionary/


Online Translation Tools
http://translation2.paralink.com/
http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en


http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr

http://www.freetranslation.com/

Free Audio Programs (Podcasts)



Free Multimedia Programs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/


http://www.spanishspanish.com/

Free Spanish Video Lessons
http://www.expertvillage.com/interviews/spanish.htm

http://www.youtube.com/

http://www.notesinspanish.com/category/videoblogging/



Great Grammar Sites
http://spanish.about.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_grammar

http://www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm

Miscellaneous Spanish Sites

http://www.jvlnet.com/~liliana/Spanish_Numbers.html

http://users.ipfw.edu/JEHLE/VERBLIST.HTM

http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-radio-spanish.html


++++STOP PRESS++++STOP PRESS++++STOP PRESS++++
Remember if you are not already signed up to receive this

report from me directly, you may not have the most up to
date copy.
In addition you will be missing out on special free video

reports I will only be making available people have received
this from me directly.
To make sure that you have the latest version

of this report and get a free copy of Quick and
Easy Spanish (a 72 page “How-To” Spanish
Course) then just visit this site:
++++STOP PRESS++++STOP PRESS++++STOP PRESS++++
PLEASE PASS THIS ON

If you have a friend, colleague or family member who is
learning to speak Spanish then please do pass this on to
them or anyone else you think would benefit from knowing
about these free resources.


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© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 1

Waterford Green Ltd

© Michael Tipper 2007

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 2

2. Online Dictionaries and Translation Services Page 12

3. Free Spanish Audio Programs Page 23

4. Interactive Multimedia Programs Page 31

5. Free Video Lessons Page 37

6. Some Great Grammar Sites Page 43

7. Your Free Learn Spanish Resources Rolodex Page 52

8. ++++ STOP PRESS ++++ Page 56

9. Please pass this on Page 56

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 3

I have been travelling abroad as part of my work for a number of

I have made several attempts to learn German over the years

This year I had a go at learning Russian for a trip to Ukraine and

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 4

Now the ironic thing is that I am a specialist in learning and

So after my trip to Spain and my experiences in Ukraine together

I did my research, got my thinking cap on and came up with a

So armed with that knowledge I decided to test my system to see

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 5

Now I want to make learning another language accessible to all

It suddenly dawned on me that if I was to prove that my approach

So I decided that I would test my new system just using free

It also meant that when it worked, anyone could take my system

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 6

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 7

So this report is about the free Spanish lessons and websites I

By the way, before we get started, if you have

It is available for free from my site (http://www.learn-spanish-free-

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 8

Getting the Pronunciation Right – understanding the letters of

Forever stop Native Speakers from quietly sniggering at your

A simple, easy to remember formula to form questions and

The right way to address and refer to people, children, animals

Avoid appearing stupid to Spanish Speakers by discovering

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 9

Understand how to provide facts in Spanish (Page 59), ask

Also by getting hold of this report at my site you will be

Now another site I am duty bound to share with you is my own

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 10

So after what was going to be a short introduction (☺), let’s get on

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 11

Likewise as you start to read Spanish and engage in conversation

Traditionally, before the internet, you would be recommended to

Now this sounds great because it means you can go to a Spanish

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 12

Here is an example of why the translation facilities should not be

As a translation it gave me:

“Puedele por favor me dice cómo puedo llegar a más cercana

“You be able please tells me how can I arrive at more nearby

Of course one of the things you should understand about learning

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 13

So in this particular case if I put this English translation back into

And if we compare it to the Spanish I first got:

“Puedele por favor me dice cómo puedo llegar a más cercana

We can see that there are some similarities but it is a different

I had a similar experience with the dictionaries I used. I wanted

© Michael Tipper 2007 All Rights Reserved Issue 1 Page 14

Dictionary – translates single words from Spanish-English

Translation facility – translates a body of text from

So just be careful when using these services because you may