Tutoring:  

In lieu of an actual tutor, StudySpanish offers a variety of audio lessons. Unfortunately, the program requires that the learner go from the CD and then back to the website for the next series of exercises. Those who have already become fluent in another language may not find this too frustrating. Students who are new to studying a foreign language, however, may find going back and forth between two mediums daunting. Because of this if you are someone who has never studied a foreign language, StudySpanish may not be a good option.

Although StudySpanish does not offer tutors, they do have a variety of Latin American speakers featured on their audio components which give students the advantage of listening to the various Spanish dialects.

Also, the cultural notes encompass all parts of Latin America and Spain. This will give the student knowledge not of just one geographic area, but many.

Learning Options:  

Although StudySpanish did not offer specializations for learning the Spanish needed on a job, cultural knowledge was definitely addressed. Some of the many options available are: spray paint art, textile markets, the butchers and bakeries of Mexico, and the volcanoes of Ecuador. The student who chooses StudySpanish will have many chances to enrich their vocabulary and knowledge of Latin America and Spain.

There was no option for communicating with other students who were interested in learning Spanish. They did, however, have on their website a directory of schools where students can go to learn Spanish. The options for the schools are located in Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, and Argentina. In fact, whether you decide to purchase StudySpanish’s products or not, visit their website because the list of schools is very impressive.

Levels Available/Scope:  

StudySpanish.com offers options for studying beginning, intermediate, and advanced Spanish and gives students the option to study pronunciation, grammar, verbs, and idiomatic expressions. Learners can also opt to take a course focused on strictly conversation.

The conversation option StudySpanish offers is called “Camino del Exito”, which translated means “Path to Success”. This program focuses on drills, such as listen and repeat, substitution, replacement, translation, and variation. Although they appear to be professionally prepared, this approach is very old-fashioned since it violates the currently-held theories that advocate natural language and interaction is better than classroom drills.

StudySpanish is a clearly-laid out approach to language speaking, although it is not clear what students would do once they have finished StudySpanish’s intermediate level. It is doubtful that students would be ready for conversation since they are not given the opportunity for any kind of interaction in the course.

Clearly the most impressive part of StudySpanish’s website is their cultural notes. This was far better than anything else offered by the other Spanish learning websites. We can only hope that in the future StudySpanish will begin to offer a better language course to complement the amazing cultural component of their website. For even better online resources to learn Spanish, see our reviews of Spanish Pod, NuLengua, or Livemocha.