Hola amigos! Yo soy Kara y buenas noches!

(Hi friends! I’m Kara and good evening!)

I had a LOT to say about my first few weeks learning Español and didn’t want to have a novel of a blog post, so decided to try my first ever vlog – I even did it in one take! Feel free to watch it on double speed if you want to skim through – no hard feelings here! Or check out my TL;DW (Too Long; Didn’t Watch) summary below.

TL;DW

Lingoda

• Online language learning course (offers multiple languages, not just Spanish) where you take hour-long classes on Zoom with native Spanish speakers and others who are learning Spanish at the same level as you
• I did a 7 day free trial, which offered 3 free classes (one hour each)
• I took an Orientation class first, then a class called “Hola!” (Hello) where we learned to introduce ourselves and say hi, and the final one was “¿Cómo Estás?” (How Are You?) where we learned to say how we are feeling and ask others how they are doing
• You can book classes at virtually any time of the day (various offerings of different classes at every time of day)
• Slides for the classes are available ahead of time to preview and download with instructor annotations afterwards
• Materials are 100% in Spanish and instructors speak mostly Spanish (unless you ask what something means in English), so you are fully immersed in the language
• I’m hoping to try a Sprint (more intensive learning for a short period of time) in the fall – option to get 50% or 100% of your money back if you attend all of your classes
• Pros: immersive experience, lots of speaking Spanish, helpful materials, easy-to-use website, lots of options for bookings,
• Cons: pricey if you want the paid version, free trial only had 3 classes available

Duolingo

• Popular language-learning app that is designed to feel like a game to keep users engaged
• Get a ‘streak’ for consecutive days spent completing lessons
• Free trial available for “Super Duolingo” (paid version of the app with unlimited hearts, no ads, additional features like previous mistakes you can review) – lasts 2 weeks
• I finished the first Section called “Rookie” (level A1 of Spanish – very beginner) and am currently at a 15 day streak
• Learned mostly basic sentences and words (I have, I want, foods, clothing, places, travel-related words, etc.)
• Pros: engaging and fun, various kinds of challenges (writing, speaking, reading, listening, etc.), streak helps keep you motivated to keep at it, can follow friends who are also using Duolingo
• Cons: can get repetitive, will be hard to get used to the regular version once my free trial runs out

I have, honestly, gone pretty hard the first two weeks of my project, so am feeling a bit lost of where to take my Spanish learning next. Here are my goals moving forward:

• Keep my streak going on Duolingo for the duration of this project
• Try out some other Spanish learning resources (websites, games, YouTube, podcasts, TikTok?)
• Record a brief video of myself speaking Spanish at the end of this project (maybe see if my sister or someone else I know will do a basic conversation in Spanish with me?)

Muchos gracias por leer mi post!

(Thanks so much for reading my post!)

Until next time (Hasta luego),

-KKF