Learn Spanish with These 7 Entertaining Video Resources
Watching videos is fun.
Regardless of who you are or where you come from, that’s a fact.
But videos can be so much more than an easy method to put off doing more important things.
Videos can actually help you learn Spanish.
They can help you ace hairy grammar rules, improve your pronunciation, learn new vocabulary and become an all-around better Spanish speaker.
So in this post, we’re going to get you fine-tuning your language skills while you’re relaxing on the couch.
And these great resources for learning Spanish with videos will offer you a seemingly endless supply of terrific viewing material to send your Spanish skills soaring!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Why Learn Spanish with Videos?
Learning Spanish with videos allows you to hear the spoken language while seeing the speaker’s mouth move. This will help you nail down your pronunciation. If you have trouble with a sound, you can try to replicate the way the speaker’s mouth moves to produce it. This will help you nail down those problem sounds that are holding you back.
Additionally, watching Spanish videos is more immersive than reading and listening activities. It can be difficult to immerse yourself in Spanish when you don’t live abroad. Videos, however, allow you to feel like you’re there with the speaker. Since videos use sights, sounds and sometimes even writing, they’re one of the most immersive resources for Spanish education.
Finally, learning Spanish with videos is engaging. Since videos engage your senses of sight and sound, they’re more likely to capture your attention fully. This will make it easier to study (and learn) for longer stretches of time without getting distracted.
7 Out-of-this-world Resources to Learn Spanish with Videos
LingusTV
LingusTV offers free videos to help you improve your Spanish. First things first, this website is intended for adults and uses some “adult” language and scenarios, so if you’re offended by these things, this might not be the best resource for you.
Each video is brief and focuses on a humorous scenario to teach you valuable vocabulary and grammar rules. Since the videos focus on conversations, you’ll also learn important conversational skills.
Just click a video title to load the video. Below the video is a description of what lessons you’ll learn from it.
Additionally, there are extra learning materials for each video. These include a full transcript, translations and notes to clarify certain phrases and grammar rules.
Videos are grouped by level (beginner, intermediate and advanced). In the beginner and intermediate levels, the videos are captioned in Spanish to help you along.
While LingusTV is based out of Spain, the speakers’ accents are fairly neutral. The rate of speech is sometimes relatively rapid, but this will help prepare you for understanding native speakers.
Beginners will enjoy videos like “Mi rutina” (“My routine”), which teaches you vocabulary about daily routines.
Intermediate learners will benefit from selections such as “Planes futuros” (“Future plans”), which features lessons on the future tense, describing hobbies and more.
For advanced learners, LingusTV offers videos like “¿Qué ves?” (“What do you see?”), which shows how to express displeasure and how to use sarcasm in Spanish. And who doesn’t want to be sarcastic in a foreign language?
YouTube
There are some awesome YouTube channels out there to help you learn Spanish. While there are YouTube channels for all levels of Spanish learner, there are particularly great YouTube options for beginners.
The big benefit of YouTube is that it’s easily searchable. If you’re having trouble with a particular topic, you can simply search it on YouTube and find videos that focus on that particular topic.
For instance, simply searching “preterite or imperfect” yields over 17,000 results, including “Spanish Past Tense: Preterite vs. Imperfect, Rule of Thumb” by The Spanish Dude, which provides a clear explanation of these sometimes confusing verb tenses.
If you enjoy learning content from Spanish learners and speakers, you can’t pass on the FluentU Spanish YouTube channel. As you can see from the video below, the channel is dedicated to bringing you real-life examples, native content and learning strategies in an entertaining and approachable way. The content producers know what it’s like to be studying Spanish!
As a matter of fact, once you subscribe to the FluentU YouTube channel, you’ll be taking a step forward in your learning journey. With native content and fun videos, you really can’t go wrong.
The sheer quantity of videos on YouTube means that you can probably find a video about any Spanish topic that’s confusing you.
Plus, YouTube is free, so how could you resist?
FluentU
FluentU is an innovative learning resource that allows you to use real-world videos from YouTube for their maximum learning potential. It differs from the learning channels we were just talking about above as well as others on this list for a very special reason:
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Click here to check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
But FluentU isn’t just about watching videos. It offers quizzes that include exercises and flashcards from video clips, pictures and example sentences—this way, you can actually “learn” all the language in a given video! It also keeps track of all your progress for you.
Since you select the videos and your pace, FluentU offers a fully personalized learning experience and caters to any learner at any level.
Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Play Store for iOS and Android devices.
“Mi Vida Loca”
Brought to you by the BBC, “Mi Vida Loca” is a mystery series featuring 22 10-minute interactive episodes designed to help beginning learners improve their Spanish.
You take on the role of a character in this series, and throughout each video, you’ll have to use what you’re learning to answer questions and participate. The series will help you practice your listening, reading and speaking.
Additionally, each video comes with an episode guide that includes a transcript and translations. This will help you study the text more in-depth.
The videos also offer optional Spanish and/or English captioning. Turn on one, both or neither to best suit your needs.
The videos do use Castilian Spanish, so this will vary some from the Latin American Spanish taught in most American schools. However, the speech is clear and slow, so no Spanish speaker would have trouble following it.
SpanishListening.org
SpanishListening.org offers videos from native Spanish speakers.
The videos tend to be less “produced” than many, so this Spanish is more natural. Each video also has a transcript to help you along.
SpanishListening.org’s convenient search feature allows you to select videos based on level or topic. You can also select based on speaker—each speaker is a native Spanish speaker, and their native countries are clearly listed, allowing you to learn regional accents. With hundreds of videos, it’s easy to find videos at any level on virtually any topic.
For instance, beginning-level learners might try “¿Qué idioma te gustaría aprender?” (“What language would you like to learn?”) in which Sorie from Honduras discusses what language she’d like to learn. It illustrates basic conversational Spanish that uses simple terms.
More advanced learners will benefit from “Cuéntanos cosas acerca del shamisen” (“Tell us things about the shamisen”) in which Jesús from Peru describes a Japanese musical instrument. Since this is a topic many listeners will be unfamiliar with, this is a great way for advanced Spanish learners to test their skills.
Innovative Language – Spanishpod101
SpanishPod101 offers over 1600 audio and video lessons accessible via subscription.
SpanishPod101’s video lesson library contains videos for absolute beginners through advanced learners. Lessons are grouped thematically to allow you to work on whatever topic you feel you need to or follow the lessons through chronologically.
Some videos are interactive, asking you to answer questions. Other videos contain narration. All videos are accompanied by lesson materials, including the transcribed text, its translation and a vocabulary list.
Practical Spanish
Practical Spanish offers 15 free learning videos and 5 music videos to help you improve your Spanish.
Videos cover useful topics like introductions in the video “Introductions & Greetings.”
While the videos skew heavily towards beginning Spanish, Practical Spanish offers a decent free selection of videos to help you get down the basics.
With these out-of-this-world resources for awesome Spanish learning videos, you’ll never lack for the right tool to help you learn Spanish the fun and easy way.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
