SpanishPod101.com Blog

Hey Listeners!

Did you know that all of our lessons, lesson notes, progress tracking and premium tools are available on your smartphone or mobile device? Well, they are! With our Innovative Language 101 App, you can study Spanish on-the-go wherever you want!

Getting on the fast-track to learning Spanish is THAT simple!

Want to switch from the app to your computer and continue where you left off? You can! Our system is fully integrated!

Download the App for FREE to your Android, iPhone, iPad or Kindle Fire

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Click here to download the Innovative Language 101 App for FREE!

Learn Spanish anywhere with SpanishPod101!

To your fluency,

Team SpanishPod101

P.S. Want to try another language? Did you know that our Innovative Language 101 App is available in 31 different languages? Choose from any of our 31 Innovative Language sites and take your language learning on-the-go!

Click here to download the App for FREE & learn Spanish on the go!

PEMEX: PEMEX

PEMEX is the largest Mexican company and biggest taxpayer in the country, and is also one of the biggest industries in Latin America. According to National data, the company’s business alone makes up 10% of the gross domestic product and represents over 30% of the federal income in Mexico. PEMEX is one of the few petroleum industries around the world that is involved in the petroleum process from start to finish. Just like big oil companies in the rest of the world, this Mexican company has recently invested heavily in deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Here is an example of PEMEX being used in a sentence:

PEMEX es una empresa muy conocida en México. (PEMEX is a well known company in Mexico.)

Want to learn more about PEMEX?
Click here for more!

P.S. Get Your Daily Dose of Spanish with 1-Minute Mini-Lessons
The Daily Dose of Spanish is a Calendar that gives you new, 1-minute lessons every day. Why? Because learning a little every day is easy, strengthens your habits and motivation and you improve your Spanish over time. Lessons range from culture and holidays to grammar, slang, phrases and more. Find it in the Spanish Resources menu or in the Quick Links menu on your Dashboard.

Click here to check out the Daily Dose of Spanish Calendar.

Hello Listener,

Can you believe it? You got us to 500 million lesson downloads. To put that number in perspective, that’s 9,513 years of learning done since we started teaching in 2005. It means that you’re learning with a proven system. 500 million downloads and 10 years of experience don’t lie. So, to thank you for helping us reach this milestone, we’ve been giving you a BIG 30% OFF and two new study tools.

In this month’s newsletter:

1. Ends Friday! Click here to get 30% OFF Premium or Premium PLUS!
2. Never Forget Spanish Words with the Updated Word Bank
3. New! Stay Focused, Learn 2x Faster with Lesson Transcripts

1.Ends Friday! Get 30% OFF with the 500 Million Celebration!
You’ve helped us reach 500 million lesson downloads! As a thank-you, we’d like to help you master more Spanish for LESS. Get 30% OFF any Premium or Premium PLUS plan – that’s just $7/month or $0.23/day. You get unlimited access to 220+ hours of lessons, study tools and apps. With Premium PLUS, you can even learn 1-on-1 with your own teacher. Hurry! This ends October 2nd, 2015!

Click here to get 30% OFF any Premium or Premium PLUS plan!
(As low as $7/month and up to $164.70 in total savings).

2. Never Forget Spanish Words Again with the NEW Word Bank.
Do you find it easy to forget words you’ve just learned? You need the Word Bank. It’s your personal, ever-growing collection of words. Save words from lessons and vocab lists to the Word Bank with 1 click and review ‘em in 1 spot. And, it’s been updated with a new features for Premium members. What are they? Click below to find out. Not a Premium member? Take advantage of the 30% discount above!

Click here to learn about the new Word Bank & how to remember words!

3. Get Your Lessons in Writing – Read Along with Lesson Transcripts.
Here’s how you easily remember the Spanish you learn in our lessons. Read while along listening! Using two senses at the same time keeps you focused and engaged so you learn twice as fast. With the new Lesson Transcripts, you get the entire transcript from our teachers – the dialogue, their explanations, tips and sample sentences – from beginning to end. If you’re a Basic or Premium member, find the transcripts in the Lesson PDFs of any lesson.

Click here to access a random lesson & view the Lesson Transcript!
(You must be a Basic or Premium member to access this.)

To mastering Spanish with fun and easy lessons!

Team SpanishPod101

P.S. 3 Days Left! Learn Spanish at 30% OFF with lessons by real teachers. 500 million lesson downloads don’t lie. You’ll start speaking Spanish from your first lesson and quickly move on to mastering practical conversations. But the only way to start speaking Spanish and SAVE is to take action and unlock our proven system. Get 30% OFF any Premium or Premium PLUS plan – just $7/month or $0.23/day – ‘til Friday, October 2nd, 2015.

Click here to get UNLIMITED access for just $7/month or $0.23/day!

curanderos: healers

Healers, or Shamans are called in Spanish curanderos or brujos. People think they can cross over to and manipulate the spiritual world, either for good or for evil. It is believed that diseases are caused by a disequilibrium, and that in order to heal them, shamans have to enter into a trance in order to travel to the spiritual world.

Here’s an example of it used in a sentence:

El curandero compró hierbas en el mercado. (The healer purchased herbs in the market.)

Want to learn more about Mexican culture?
Click here and start learning!

P.S. Get Your Daily Dose of Spanish with 1-Minute Mini-Lessons
The Daily Dose of Spanish is a Calendar that gives you new, 1-minute lessons every day. Why? Because learning a little every day is easy, strengthens your habits and motivation and you improve your Spanish over time. Lessons range from culture and holidays to grammar, slang, phrases and more. Find it in the Spanish Resources menu or in the Quick Links menu on your Dashboard.

Click here to check out the Daily Dose of Spanish Calendar.

metro: subway

The subway that runs under the Mexican capital, Mexico City, has twelve lines that span from one side of the city to the other. This train system has been well-crafted in terms of engineering and design. Many cultural sights can be found at each connecting station, including things such as works of art, or arte, museums, or museos and photographic exhibits, or “exposiciones fotográficas”. Even if you don’t have the time to stop and explore the station, you will at least be able to enjoy these sights in passing.

Here is an example of “metro” being used in a sentence:

Ella toma el metro cada mañana. (She takes the subway every morning.)

Want to learn more?
Click here and learn about getting around using Mexican Spanish!

P.S. Get Your Daily Dose of Spanish with 1-Minute Mini-Lessons
The Daily Dose of Spanish is a Calendar that gives you new, 1-minute lessons every day. Why? Because learning a little every day is easy, strengthens your habits and motivation and you improve your Spanish over time. Lessons range from culture and holidays to grammar, slang, phrases and more. Find it in the Spanish Resources menu or in the Quick Links menu on your Dashboard.

Click here to check out the Daily Dose of Spanish Calendar.

Hello Listener,

• Premium Plan for Just $7/Month or $0.23/Day!
• Premium PLUS Plan for Just $16/Month or $0.53/Day
• Get Up to $164.70 OFF in Total at SpanishPod101

That’s right: Even the rarely discounted Premium PLUS plan, which includes your own Spanish teacher and customized curriculum is as low as $0.53 a day! You learn and master Spanish faster with personal attention, direct feedback, corrections and regular interactions. With Premium PLUS, you’re getting your own teacher as well as:

• Professional Assessment: An assessment of your Spanish strengths and weaknesses.
• Personalized Learning: Your teacher will create a study plan based on your needs.
• 1-on-1 Writing Practice: Contact your teacher via Premium PLUS My Teacher with your questions and problems – something most self-learners never get.
• Voice Analysis to Perfect Your Speaking: Learn how to speak like a native speaker with the help of a real native speaker!

Click here to learn Spanish 1-on-1 with your teacher. Save up to $164.70!

And regardless of whether you go Premium or Premium PLUS, all students have UNLIMITED access to more than 220 hours of high-quality audio and video lessons created by real teachers and professional voice actors! We add new lessons every week and focus on facilitating communication – so you actually speak Spanish from the first lesson!

More specifically, you get UNLIMITED ACCESS to…

• Exclusive! App for iPhone, iPad and Android to Learn on the Go
• Over 1,270 High-Resolution Audio & Video Lessons
• New Audio & Video Lessons EVERY Single Week
• Lesson Notes to Read Along with Every Lesson
• Lesson Review Quizzes for Extra Practice
• Teacher Feedback & Comments on Each Lesson
• Progress Tracking Reports: See Your Spanish Progress Grow
• Learning Guidance: We Guide You Through the Lessons
• Premium Tools: 2,000 Core Words List, Spaced Repetition Flashcards, Line by Line Pronunciation, Word Bank, Voice Recorder and More
• Exclusive! Custom Lists App to Create Your Own Word Lists
• …and much more!

Click here to go Premium! Get unlimited access for as low as $7/month or $0.23/day!

Hurry – Just 500 Spots Are Available!
We don’t have enough Spanish teachers to realistically offer more than 500 spots for this entire promotion. This is why the Premium PLUS plan is rarely offered. In fact, we don’t even have enough teachers to offer 500 Premium PLUS subscriptions…

That means the 500 spots are all we have available for both plans – combined!
So take advantage. Click on any link to get 30% OFF Premium or Premium PLUS. That’s as low as $7/month or $0.23/day to start mastering Spanish. Choose your plan, get instant access to the entire learning system and start learning in minutes.

Only 500 spots! Click here to upgrade and claim your 30% instant discount now!

And signing up is risk-free. You don’t have to take our word for it because your membership is fully backed by our 60-Day Money-Back Guarantee. If you’re not speaking Spanish as fast as you’d like, simply contact us for a full refund. No questions asked.

Thank you for downloading and learning!

Team SpanishPod101.

P.S. Just 500 spots are available for the 500 Million Celebration, meaning you MUST ACT quickly to instantly get 30% off Premium and Premium PLUS. You learn Spanish with lessons by real teachers – over 220 hours of audio and video lessons inside. At 30% OFF, that’s as low as $7/month or $0.23/day. Hurry! This ends October 2nd, 2015!

Click here to learn Spanish with UNLIMITED access for $7/month or $0.23/day!

Hello Listener,

How easy is it to forget new Spanish words and phrases?

First you learn ‘em. Two days later, you forget ‘em.

Stopping to note them down takes a lot of time. You can write every word down on 100s of flashcards or in a notebook. That’s the time-consuming part of the battle. But wait! You STILL have to review them all!

So here are 5 ways to never forget new Spanish words with the Word Bank.
It’s your personal, ever-growing collection of vocab. Come across a new word in a SpanishPod101 lesson? Want to master specific vocab list? Save ‘em with 1 click and review ‘em in 1 spot – the Word Bank.

And it’s just been updated with new features! If you’re a Premium user, be sure to check it out! If not, take advantage of our upcoming 500 Million Celebration Sale and get 30% OFF Premium or Premium PLUS (click here) with this sneak peek.

1) Never Forget New Words from Lessons. You’re listening (or watching) a SpanishPod101 lesson. And you come across a new word. But hearing it once isn’t enough. Find the word in the lesson’s vocabulary review list and click on “Add to Word Bank” to save it.

Click here to visit the newly updated Word Bank!
(You must be a Premium user and logged in to access this feature.)

2) Save New Words or Phrases from Vocab Lists. Know those “Free Spanish Bonus” word and phrase lessons we send out? You can save these to your Word Bank as well for future review. Select your words, click on “Add Selected Words” and choose “Word Bank.” Done!

3) New! Review Quickly and Easily. Ready to review? You’ll find all your saved words in the Word Bank. We’ve updated it so it’s a lot cleaner and easier on the eyes. Review the words and meanings at a glance. You can also hear the native audio pronunciation.

And, you can even enlarge the words as you hover over them.

4) New! Organize and Label your Words. Maybe you want to see just the adjectives. Or just the questions. Or…the words you learned this past month. Just add a custom label of your choice to a set of words. Then, review just the ones you’re interested in.

5) Bonus! Print out your Word Lists as Physical Study Sheets! Want to have your words and phrases down on paper? This tactic is a favorite for some of our users. Just export your Word Bank entries into a PDF file and then print it as a physical study sheet. Add notes, create a notebook of word lists and much more!

Click here to visit the newly updated Word Bank!
(You must be a Premium user and logged in to access this feature.)

With the SpanishPod101 Word Bank, a Premium Study Tool available for our Premium and Premium PLUS learners, you can…

Click here to visit the newly updated Word Bank!
(You must be a Premium user and logged in to access this feature.)

This is your personal, ever-growing collection of words. Save with 1 click, review them all in 1 spot and never forget Spanish words again.

Stay tuned for even more great learning tools and features to come!

To your fluency,

Team SpanishPod101

P.S. Get Up to 53% OFF on Apps, Subscriptions, Audiobooks & more!
Our 10-Year Anniversary Countdown is 10 days of the BEST Spanish deals of 2015. Want to learn Spanish for the price of a coffee? Each deal lasts only 24 hours, then it’s gone FOREVER! Grab the best Spanish deals of the year before the Countdown ends December 18th, 2015!

Click Here To See Today’s Offer – Ends Midnight (EST)!

Speaking is usually the #1 weakness for all Spanish learners. This is a common issue among language learners everywhere. The reason for this is obvious: When language learners first start learning a language, they usually start with reading. They read online articles, books, information on apps and so on. If they take a class, they spend 20% of their time repeating words, and 80% of the time reading the textbook, doing homework or just listening to a teacher. So, if you spend most of your time reading instead of speaking, you might get better at reading but your speaking skills never grow. You get better at what you focus on.

So if you want to improve you speaking skills, you need to spend more of your study time on speaking. Here are five tips to help you get started:

1. Read out loud
If you’re listening to a lesson and reading along, read out loud. Then re-read and speed up your tempo. Do this again and again until you can speak faster. Try your best to pronounce the words correctly, but don’t obsess about it. Read swiftly, emote and put some inflection on the sentences. Reading aloud helps to train the muscles of your mouth and diaphragm to produce unfamiliar words and sounds.

2. Prepare things to say ahead of time.
As you may know from experience, most learners run out of things to say. But, if you prepare lines ahead of time, you won’t be at a loss for words in conversations. This will help you not only to learn how to say the words, but how to say them in the right context. A good way to prepare yourself before conversations is with our Top 25 Questions Series, which teaches you how to ask the most common conversational questions, and how to answer them, in Spanish:

Click here to learn the top 25 Spanish questions you need to know.

3. Use shadowing (repeat the dialogues as you hear them).
Shadowing is an extremely useful tool for increasing fluency as well as improving your accent and ability to be understood. Shadowing helps create all the neural connections in your brain to produce those words and sentences quickly and accurately without having to think about it. Also, as mentioned in tip #1, shadowing helps develop the muscle memory in all the physical parts responsible for the production of those sounds. Depending on what your primary and target languages are, it’s quite likely that there are a lot of sounds your mouth just isn’t used to producing. Shadowing can be done, for example, when watching TV shows or movies or listening to music.

Each one of our lessons begins with a dialogue. Try to shadow the conversation line by line, and you’ll be mastering it in no time.

Click here to for a FREE taste of our Absolute Beginner series!

4. Review again and again.
This is the key to perfection, and we can’t emphasize it enough. Most learners don’t review! If you review and repeat lines again and again, you’ll be speaking better, faster and with more confidence.

5. DON’T BE AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES!
You’d be surprised by how many people try to avoid talking! The more you speak, the faster you learn – and that is why you’re learning Spanish. Practice speaking every chance you get: whether it’s ordering coffee, shopping or asking for directions.

farmacias: pharmacies

Mexican pharmacies or farmacias sell most of their medicines without a prescription or receta; only specific medications such as antibiotics or drugs that cause dependence cannot be bought over-the-counter.

Other drugs that require prescriptions in many other countries but are not heavily regulated can be bought over-the-counter in Mexico, such as antidepressants, birth control pills, and heart medications. This setup led to an array of medication use problems, including irrational medication use, over- or under-dosage.

Here are the useful phrases that you can use at a Mexican pharmacy.

1. ¿Tiene este medicamento? (Do you have this medication?)
2. ¿Necesito receta? (Do I need a prescription?)
3. ¿Puedo hablar con el farmacéutico? (May I speak to the pharmacist?)

Want to know more about Mexican pharmacies?
Click here and start learning!

P.S. Get Your Daily Dose of Spanish with 1-Minute Mini-Lessons
The Daily Dose of Spanish is a Calendar that gives you new, 1-minute lessons every day. Why? Because learning a little every day is easy, strengthens your habits and motivation and you improve your Spanish over time. Lessons range from culture and holidays to grammar, slang, phrases and more. Find it in the Spanish Resources menu or in the Quick Links menu on your Dashboard.

Click here to check out the Daily Dose of Spanish Calendar.

UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico)

The National Autonomous University of Mexico, known as UNAM, located in Mexico City is the largest university in both Mexico and in all of Latin America, and is among the most prestigious schools in the Spanish-speaking world. Among its alumni are three Nobel Prize laureates—Alfonso Garcia Robles, Octavio Paz, and Mario Molina.

Here is an example of it used in a sentence:

Universidad más grande de América Latina, la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México fue fundada en 1910. (Latin America’s biggest university, the National Autonomous University of Mexico was founded in 1910.)

Want to learn more about Mexican culture?
Click here and learn about the education system!

P.S. Get Your Daily Dose of Spanish with 1-Minute Mini-Lessons
The Daily Dose of Spanish is a Calendar that gives you new, 1-minute lessons every day. Why? Because learning a little every day is easy, strengthens your habits and motivation and you improve your Spanish over time. Lessons range from culture and holidays to grammar, slang, phrases and more. Find it in the Spanish Resources menu or in the Quick Links menu on your Dashboard.

Click here to check out the Daily Dose of Spanish Calendar.