Resources for Learning the Spanish Language
Destinos Telenovela Resources
If you are interested in watching a telenovela that was made for Spanish learners, you should consider watching Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish, available from Annenberg.
Here is a general description of Destinos, captured from a deleted Wikipedia entry. Wikipedia Description of Destinos
Sometimes it is helpful to read transcripts as you watch the episodes. Scroll down to the Tom’s Destinos Dropbox link to access the transcripts and other resources including Destinos workbooks, audio files, and other resources. .
Here is the link to Annenberg site: Annenberg Videos Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish
Location of Tom’s Destinos Files
Tom Kessler (kesslertg@gmail.com) If you have problems, please send me an e-mail. Gracias!
Other Useful Destinos Resources
Follow the link provided above to access a variety of useful resources related to Destinos and other resources useful to those learning Spanish. Some published resources which are out of print are included, such as the Destinos textbook, associated audio files, the Workbook/Study Guide resources and audio files for each episode, and other useful resources.
The following resources are available at the preceding link (Location of Tom's Destinos Files)
1. Spanish-language typed transcripts in both MS Word and PDF format for: All episodes (1 through 52)
(Note: It took me many months to transcribe all of the videos. It was a labor of “love” and I learned a lot in doing this. I hope you enjoy the transcripts and that they make watching the episodes more fulfilling and help you do the exercises.)
2. Workbook/Study Guide resources for: All episodes 1 through 51 (Ep. 52 does not have associated resources)
- Destinos audio files, referenced in workbook/study guide, for all episodes
- Table of Contents and Appendices for all lessons/episodes
- Answers to episode questions and self-test
- Index
3. Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish Text Book (1992 Version)
— All chapters of the text book are available at the locations indicated below
— All associated textbook audio files for all episodes/chapters are available
Note 1: Vocabulary & Cast of Characters is located in folder for episodes 1 & 2 and also in the Org-by-artifact area
Note 2: Answers are included at end of each chapter/episode. Complete list of answers is located in Org-by-artifact area as well.
Vocabulary and questions for each episode – a useful teaching resource
Abbreviated versions of episode questions and activities for all episodes
An original and annotated (by hand) family tree (useful for figuring out who is whom)
Brief summary of each episode (in English)
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Other Spanish Learning Resources
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NEW … NEW … NEW … SPANISH AUDIO FILES … LISTEN AND LEARN
Check out this link for a fantastic series of MP3 immersion audio files. For each dialog there is a fast/slow/fast sequence. Be sure to listen to the dialogs before reviewing the included PDF transcript document … you will learn more that way! Enjoy.
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Immersion Plus Spanish NEW: A useful PDF verb table … see example below the link ….
Other Spanish Resources
Title: Notes in Spanish Audios
Overview: Husband and wife team discuss many topics dealing with life in Spain. Husband (Ben) is British and wife (Marina) is from Madrid. Even with the “Castellano” accent, Marina is actually easier to understand than Ben!
Most topics are about everyday life in Spain with some great historical background about how the Franco dictatorship continues to affect Spanish life of today.
Typical topics are: Spain’s immigration policy, The tapas tradition of Spain, Tourism in Spain, How Spaniards celebrate Christmas, New Year’s and the 6th of January (Día de Reyes), The Spanish cinema, Weather in Madrid, the Madrid traffic, Plus much more.
This is a great way to learn much about the culture and daily life in Madrid. There are 4 formats of the conversations: Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced and Gold. Beginner level has more English and covers some grammar (por vs para, ser vs estar, etc.). Intermediate and Advanced files are about 100% en español with the same vocabulary level. The speed of the conversation is the real difference in these 2 levels. Gold format is 10 minutes in Spanish and 10 minutes analyzing Spanish vocabulary in the conversation.
All audio files are all free and are available in podcast and .mp3 format. All pod casts are also available FREE from the iTunes Store. Search for Notes in Spanish. Each of the levels has an album icon at the top of the iTunes page as Notes in Spanish Beginner, Notes in Spanish Intermediate, Notes in Spanish Advanced and Notes in Spanish Gold. Clicking each album icon will provide all free podcasts for that level.
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Title: Notes in Spanish Videos
If you like the Notes in Spanish audios above you might want to watch their Notes in Spanish free videos. Ben and Marina provide videos with a vocabulary guide after each one. Some of the video were filmed on location throughout Madrid.
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Title: Spanish Audio Gazette
Overview: The University of Toronto has offered this collection of free audios and transcripts on a variety of Hispanic cultural topics. The audios are grouped according to the speaker’s Spanish.
Click on a topic to open the window to the transcript. Double click on the links for the audio either in the wav or mp3 format. Audios can only be downloaded from the website. Right click on the wav or mp3 format link and select download.
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Title: Weekly News in Slow Spanish
There is a separate tab for Latin American and España. Overview: Audio files for students that want to begin listening to audio files at a slower than normal rate. The news topics are directed to listeners with a basic vocabulary and grammar. The Latin America tab is the sister site of the original España site and the format is the same for both. The Latin America tab contains news articles exclusively from the Americas.
The free weekly podcasts are about 8 minutes. These free audio files are also available at the iTunes Store for free download. Search with News in Slow Spanish.
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Title: Coffee Break Spanish
Website: https://radiolingua.com/coffeebreakspanish
Overview: This site is produced by Radio Lingua, which provides audio files in many languages.
The Coffee Break Spanish is designed for Beginners/Intermediate students. At the top of the page is a link for “Free Lessons”. From the drop down menu select Coffee Break Spanish. There will be links for Section 1, 2 or 3. Click on the Lesson number and title to change to the audio page. The download link is under the audio player. All podcasts are also available FREE from the iTunes Store. Search with Coffee Break Spanish.
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Title: Radio Lingua Coffee Break (English Q&A)
Overview: This site is produced by Radio Lingua. This is mostly in English answering questions about Spanish from listeners. Typical questions involve grammar, numbers, directions, etc. There are many conceptual ideas presented on how to learn Spanish.
The link to the 5 files is indexed on the right of the web page. To listen to the audio, click the Download mp3 file link. All podcasts are also available FREE from the iTunes Store. Search with Café Cortado.
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Title: Radio Lingua Show Time Spanish
Overview: Produced by Radio Lingua. The 2 commentators are Mark (from Scotland) and Alma (from Barcelona, Spain) and Carolina (from Bogatá, Columbia after episodes #31). Mark’s English with a Scottish accent is harder to understand than his Spanish!
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To listen to any of the 40 lessons, click on the mp3 link in the Basic Main Podcast column. Each episode is divided in 3 parts. The first part is 100% en español. The second part is a quick lesson in 2 or 3 phrases that are commonly used and can make a person sound more…”Spanish”! The third part is a review or a discussion of some part of grammar. Every 5th episode there is a “telenovela” to an ongoing story called Verano Español. All podcasts are also available FREE from the iTunes Store. Search with Show Time Spanish.
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Title: Basic Spanish: SPN101, SPN102, SPN103
Overview: These iTunes podcasts are produced by the De Paul University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to support their basic Spanish courses. These are directed to beginners and provide excellent listening comprehension. Most of the podcasts have very little English as an introduction. The majority of the podcasts are in Spanish.
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To listen to the podcast, place the mouse over the title and click on the play icon that appears on to the left of the title. These free podcasts are available from the iTunes Store. Search with Basic Spanish: SPN101,
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Title: Destinos: An introduction to Spanish
Overview: This is a collection of video files that are played from streaming video from the web site.
The program was originally broadcast on Public Broadcast Stations (PBS) as a teaching tool for The format is a telenovela (Spanish soap opera) providing dialogue to increase vocabulary and listening comprehension. There are 52 episodes and each is 30 minutes.
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There is no capability to download these videos, and the free videos must be played on a computer. Each video has a gold box labeled “VoD”. Double click on the VOD link to open a new video window, which begins the episode. The Spanish spoken will include accents from throughout Latin America and Spain.
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Title: Nuevo Destinos
Overview: This is a follow-on series of the original Destinos above. The plot retraces the events of the original series many years later upon the notice a letter that Pedro has died.
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There is no capability to download these videos, and the free videos must be played on a computer. Each video has a gold box labeled “VoD”. Double click on the VOD link to open a new video window, which begins the episode.
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Title: Cadena Hoy por hoy
Overview: Cadena SER is one of Spain’s major radio stations and has been broadcasting since 1926 and has 4+ million listeners. All the latest podcasts are available to listen via streaming audio on the websites below. To download any audio, right click the play icon and select the download option. These free podcasts are available from the iTunes Store. Search with the name of each program below.
These audios are interviews with prominent people who are subject matter experts. The speed is real time Spanish from Spain. All of Spanish language accents are represented with many guests from Latin America.
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Title: Ser Historia
This is a talk-radio history program that explores many historical topics in the 55 minute program. To download any podcast right click the play icon and select download. These free podcasts are available from iTunes Store.
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Title: Pretérito Imperfecto
This is a talk-radio history program produced for Cadena Ser radio. Podcasts are about 15 minutes and cover a variety of subjects. Free audios may be played via streaming audio on a computer or downloaded via the iTunes Store.
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Title: Nomadas
Overview: This is a talk-radio travel program produced by Radio Nacional de España (RNE).
To listen to the podcast click on the title. Click the play button labeled “Reproducir”. To manually download, right click the link titled “Llévatelo en mp3” and select the download option. These free podcasts are available from the iTunes Store. Search with Nómadas.
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Title: ¿Eres Tú, María?
Overview: This is a series of videos produced by Prentice Hall Publishers for the textbook Realidades. These videos are used for Spanish I classes to develop listening comprehension. The story line is used to connect the 10 videos.
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Title: Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life)
Overview: This is a free series of 21 interactive videos filmed in Spain to teach “survival Spanish”.
There is a story line and this is a great way for beginners to get started or people who are re-connecting with Spanish to see how much they remember. The website offers links to the videos, the entire transcript, lists of grammar notes and vocabulary lists sorted by episode. All text material can be printed for free if the person wants a copy to make notes.
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Title: Madrileños por El Mundo
This is a regular series produced by TeleMadrid. The format is to interview people who live in other parts of the world who that were originally from Madrid. Double click on the title to play the video.
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Title: Españoles en el Mundo
Overview: This is the same format that became popular in with other stations in Spain. There are interviews of Spaniards who live in different countries. This series is produced by Radio y Televisión Española or RTVE.
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Title: Andaluces por el Mundo
Overview: Canal Sur Andalucía has used the same popular format of interviewing people from Andalucía who live in outside of Spain. If you were ever curious about the Andalucían accent this is the place to listen to it.