Today, classrooms are no longer the only or even best place to learn a new language like Spanish. More and more people are finding that they can easily learn a language just about anywhere they have a few minutes of spare time, including their daily commute to work. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average American spends over 50 minutes a day commuting to and from work, or over 300 hours a year. Rethinking Your Daily Commute to Work But rather than simply sitting in traffic and wasting the time, you can instead use your daily commute to literally learn Spanish in just a few short months! SpanishPod101 has developed specialized learning tools that you can use on your commute to work (and home again) to master the language in... Show more

https://youtu.be/QowqVG1BBto?si=MSS_ZQeZFG7eFHUf Even if you don’t actually have the intention of learning a language, being able to say hello to someone when you’re traveling makes you look good. We all know this, don’t we? You just need to try not to pronounce it too well, so that they don’t mistake you for a native speaker—because we’re sure you’d rather not have to stand there awkwardly while they talk to you in a language you don’t know! However, if you do want to learn a language, it’s extremely important that you know how to greet someone in different ways for various occasions. This is why today, at SpanishPod101.com, we’ll show you how to say “hello” or “good morning” in Spanish—as well as in the other languages that are... Show more

Let’s talk about a day full of excitement, wishes, and traditions for Mexican people, Nochevieja (“New Year’s Eve”). December 31st is a big deal in Mexico, and people like to get together with family and friends to celebrate the year-end. Fireworks, grapes, sparkling wine, hugs and music are how Mexicans celebrate New Year’s Eve. Before midnight, Mexicans like to have a big dinner, similar to Christmas, with the whole family. The most traditional dish is Bacalao, dried salted coldfish, cooked with tomatoes and olives. In Mexico, no New Year’s Eve dinner is complete without it! After dinner, people wait for the countdown to midnight to wish everyone a ¡Feliz Año Nuevo! (“Happy New Year”), toast with champagne and eat 12 grapes... Show more

The Spanish language has its roots from a spoken Latin dialect that originated from a north-central location in the Iberian Peninsula around the fifth century. A written form of Spanish developed from the 13th to the 16th centuries in Toledo and around the 1560s in Madrid. Today, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world after Chinese. It is spoken in 31 countries where 442 million speak Spanish as their first language. Overall, about 512 million people around the world are Spanish speakers. In the United States, about 58.2 million speak Spanish. The status of the language Spanish is a Romance language that belongs to the Indo European language family. What is interesting is that there are more Spanish speakers... Show more

Most everyone is familiar with this day, as it is celebrated nearly everywhere the world. Yet, when exactly is April Fools’ Day? And where did April Fools come from? April Fools’ Day is observed on April 1st every year. This day of jokes and pranks is believed to have stemmed from the 16th-century calendar change in France, when New Year’s Day was moved from April 1 to January 1. This action was taken due to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. However, a few people were resistant to the calendar change, so they continued to observe New Year’s Day on April 1st, rather than the new date. They were referred to as the “April Fools”, and others started playing mocking tricks on them. This custom endured, and is practiced to this day... Show more

Learn all the Spanish New Year wishes online, in your own time, on any device! Join SpanishPod101 for a special Spanish New Year celebration! Can you relate to the year passing something like this: “January, February, March - December!”? Many people do! Quantum physics teaches us that time is relative, and few experiences illustrate this principle as perfectly as when we reach the end of a year. To most of us, it feels like the old one has passed in the blink of an eye, while the new year lies ahead like a very long journey! However, New Year is also a time to celebrate beginnings, and to say goodbye to what has passed. This is true in every culture, no matter when New Year is celebrated. So, how do you say Happy New Year in... Show more

In most cultures, it is custom to express gratitude in some way or another. The dictionary defines gratitude as follows: it is “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness”. Giving a sincere, thankful response to someone’s actions or words is often the ‘glue’ that keeps relationships together. This is true in most societies! Doing so in a foreign country also shows your respect and appreciation for the culture. Words have great power - use these ones sincerely and often! Table of Contents 12 Ways to say ‘Thank you’ in Spanish Video Lesson: Learn to Say ‘Thank You’ in 3 Minutes Infographic & Audio Lesson: Survival Phrases - Thank You Video Lesson: ‘Thank You’ in 31... Show more

When I decided to learn Spanish I had next to no experience in language learning outside of my native English. I did take one Spanish course in high school, but I failed it. Needless to say I didn’t qualify as a language learning expert. I wasn’t a world traveler. I had a day job, sometimes two. I wanted to learn Spanish, but I simply didn’t have loads of time to dedicate to the endeavor. Through some trial and error I was able to find enough time to progress through the language. It wasn’t always easy, and I made some mistakes along the way. In this post I’ll share my experience and give you 3 ways to help you learn Spanish more efficiently so that you get the most out of your time and your effort. 1) Use your time when you... Show more

Spanish, the second most spoken language in the world, has 437 million first language (L1) speakers, according to the latest data available from the Ethnologue website. It is spoken in 31 countries. Approximately, the total number of Spanish speakers around the world is 570 million. Spanish translation services are in very high demand in the United States, where there is a huge community of Spanish speakers (about 41 million native speakers). It is projected that the number will continue to rise. Can you speak Spanish? Spanish though is not just one common language as there are several variations of it. If you go to Andalusia, you won't be hearing people speaking "Spanish" that you are used to hearing, the one that you learnt in... Show more

Learn 4 tools and techniques to stop translating in your head and start thinking in Going through lessons is enough to get by and learn the basics of , but to truly become fluent you need to be able to think in . This will allow you to have conversations with ease, read smoothly, and comprehensively understand natives. To do this, you need to go beyond just completing daily or weekly lessons. We naturally translate in our heads because it's viewed as the easiest way to learn the definitions needed when learning a language. This way of learning can actually hinder your skills and fluency later on. If your brain has to make neural connections between the word you're learning, what it means in your native tongue, and the physical object... Show more