News In Slow Spanish combines reading with listening in a way that makes learning fast and easy.
News In Slow Spanish comes in two versions: the Iberian version (Spain) and the Latino version. You actually get access to both when you sign up for sign up for a subscription. This review was based on Spain version.
When I think of how I got over the hump with Spanish, it occurs to me that the way I did it was by reading everything in Spanish that I could get my hands on.
Listening is great and very important to learning a language, but it’s hard to gain new vocabulary while just listening. While you stop to look up a word, the speakers have moved on. Even if it is a broadcast of the news, you have to keep pausing the show, consulting Google Translate and then starting again.
Some words you just don’t understand when they fly out of a native speaker’s mouth no matter how many times you review that segment of the audio.
Enter News in Slow Spanish.
How Does News In Slow Spanish Work?
For the beginner, it offers a course in grammar called G.U.T.S. which is short for Get Up To Speed. It consists of 25 lessons intended to get you up and running by uses dialogues, lessons, and stories.
I didn’t get as much out of the initial dialogues, but I thought the explanations in the lessons were clear and concise.
You also have the ability to practice your pronunciation. Recording your voice when speaking in a foreign languages goes a long way to build your confidence to speak with a real human being.
The pronunciation interface is simple and intuitive. You listen to the phrase read by a native speaker, then repeat it while recording yourself.
Intermediate Grammar Lessons
For intermediate students and above they have more complete grammar lessons. I appreciated the intermediate grammar course a bit more because they added in quizzes with answers at a click of a button. When you enter the correct answer and click away or hit the TAB button it turns green. If the answer is wrong, it turns red.
Grammar can be a bit abstract so it helps to be able to apply it and see that you understand it with exercises.
Some might say that the exercises are too difficult, but I think the faster you get into engaging content the better.
What are the Courses Included in the Subscription?
In addition to the G.U.T.S and intermediate grammar courses, News In Slow Spanish also includes a course which explores hundreds of common expressions.
What is the Best Part of News In Slow Spanish?
The real meat comes in the form of the articles. There are two levels, immediate and advanced. They keep you up to date on topics ranging from politics to science and technology, from arts and culture to history.
The stories are offered in intermediate and advanced levels. I don’t see much of a difference between the two. In my opinion they are both good, with the advanced slightly faster than the intermediate, but both are slower than the speed you would find in a Spanish movie or TV newscast.
They also have a section that have immersive original stories on subjects such as like Niños y Jugetes, Leyendas Ibéricas, La Historia del Rock en España and La Guerra Civil Española.
And then there are the stories themselves.
In addition to the audio, which is read at a medium and easy-to-understand pace, you are given the text and have the option of downloading a PDF of the text. The native speakers speak clearly.
You can adjust the speed from half speed, normal speed and one and a half times normal. I don’t notice much of as difference in difficulty between the intermediate and advanced levels. The main difference is that the intermediate texts are presented as a dialogue, whereas the advanced texts are in news story form.
My approach is to scan quickly through the text to check for words I don’t know and to get a general feeling for the text. Then I listen over and over until I can understand the individual words.
News in Slow Spanish gives highlights most of the terms you will need which saves time since you can just mouse over the text and don’t need to search further. It would be nice if they could give you all of the vocabulary to click on. That is one thing I wish they would add.
Why You Should Try News In Slow Spanish
The combination of listening with a written transcript of the audio is one of the most effective ways to rapidly increase your vocabulary and increase your listening comprehension. News In Slow Spanish gives you great set of tools to do that while providing engaging content and letting you stay current with what’s going on in Spain ( and the Spanish speaking world).
The price of the subscription is a bit on the high side, but is worth it if you are series about improving your skill level in Spanish.
The best part is that you can sign up for a FREE TRIAL and get a feel for all the subscription offers. It’s easy to cancel, so sign up and see how much you can learn in a week and whether a subscription is right for you.