Welcome to the new section of our blog, The Mail Bag. This is where we’ll share stories from our listeners in their endeavors with Spanish. We hope stories from fellow students can help motivate and inspire you to begin learning Spanish or give you that extra needed push and renewed sense of strength when you think it’s impossible to get become more proficient!

Today we look at one such individual who had trouble restarting since 2 years of high school Spanish.  Meet Katrina Sanford.

“In the past, I have tried very hard to learn another language.  First I started off with Spanish, taking 2 years in school.  That’s because my dream is to work and teach around the world! 😀

Fast forward to the present.  There are now three of reasons why I am now learning Spanish again:

First, I love to travel and have many plans to spend a lot of time in Spanish speaking countries in the somewhat near future.

Second, I have a huge passion for dance!  Especially Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Cumbia…  I am well known to go out many times a week to dance, and in many of the places here they speak only Spanish, or if there is English there is very little.  Which is why I would love to know what the lyrics to the songs I love to dance to are!

Third, I live in an area in the Southwest United States that has a very large Mexican population and it would be useful to be able to converse with my fellow neighbors.

But more importantly, I want to show my best friend and dance partner how much I care by learning his native language.  He speaks both Spanish and English fluently, but speaks mostly Spanish at home with family and friends.  His family all speaks Spanish and but very little English…which leaves both me, and the person I am trying to communicate with, feeling out of place.

Which brings us to SpanishPod101.com. About 2 months ago I randomly had the urge to listen to the podcasts for Spanish.  SpanishPod101 was one of those in that bunch, and was instantly a favorite.  I loved how the hosts made things fun and that it was native Spanish speakers and native English speakers – together!

So I started out by signing on for the free 7-day trial.  I loved it!  After that free trail expired I was not able to renew, because finances were too tight especially because of the holidays…  So when I got a spare $25, I quickly got online and subscribed.

I actually just started my learning plan about a week or two ago, which was when I subscribed to your site.  My goal is to become fluent, or at least, able to converse without a problem by the end of the year.  The main part of my studies is actually SpanishPod101.com!  When driving, cleaning, doing chores, and sometimes as I am laying in bed, I listen to SpanishPod101 on my MP3 player and am constantly speaking the words aloud as I do so to try to get the pronunciation right.

So far SpanishPod101.com has helped me an incredible amount!  Right now, I am up to Newbie lesson 11 and have also started in on the Phonetics and Verb Conjugation Series.  I love Alan and Lisy as hosts of the Newbie Series :D.  The way that the site is set up, and in particular how all the resources are, is very, very helpful!  I use everything I can that you have available to make sure that I can squeeze every ounce of learning out of this incredible opportunity.  Each day I am excited to complete and/or review my lessons for the day and can’t wait to see how much I can learn.  Unlike in high school, this time I know it is going to work out!  In fact I have already seen results that are much better than I had hoped for! I have the determination and incredible resources (SpanishPod101) to keep on learning! 😀

Thank you so much for the incredible site, lessons, and services that you provide!  I am sure that I would not even be learning right now if it were not for your podcasts.

Looking forward to learning much more with you 😀

p.s. here’s a picture of me and my dance partner”

I think many of us know how it is to go through the 2 years of high school Spanish and still be nowhere near conversation level.  Katrina has some great goals and motivation for learning now and she sure is making strides towards those.  Keep up the hardwork! And keep dancing!

Now everyone, this is an ongoing project, so please share your stories! You may send these to contactus@spanish101.com with the subject line: “Mailbag Story”. Our favorite stories will win FREE premium service and be posted here to be shared with others!