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Maybe I am wrong, but my approach to leaning Spanish is to avoid translation when possible, but instead try to internalize the language -- I want to feel rather than know. I think it's the key to fluency.

And so, in addition to banging out DuoLingo exercises (which are surprisingly good at making their way deep into my brain), I decided to try out a few more apps, in order to get good enough to watch TV.

They offer a free trial with the first lesson enabled. The app is structured as a sequence of half-hour or so audio lessons, generally conversations between two or three people, which are deconstructed in great detail. I started with intermediate level, which was appropriate (although their beginner level probably has much to offer me as well, as they step through conversations on different topics which I am sure I could learn something from).

I am tempted to buy it - it's something like $60 for the intermediate level.

FluentU is a video app, featuring short youtube videos with double subtitles and a quiz/flashcard subsystem.

Many videos are very short - a minute! I thought it was bad at first, until I started watching, and realized that I accumulated enough during that minute, and any more would overwhelm me!

During the quiz some questions require you to say a sentence, and it checks with the usual lack of precision. However, there is a button that allows you to hear yourself. Horrors. But it's a great aid in pronounciation -- sometimes you don't realize that you are butchering words.

I am tempted to get it just for the recording feature. Sure, you can do it with a recorder app (or a cassette recorder, like I used when I learned English). But it's a hassle and this mixes it up a bit, so you are not as depressed as you would be just listening to yourself.

LingoPie is likewise a video-based app. It has a lot of content including short films and a few series. It seems that each show is 10min+.

There is also some Netflix content, which requires that you already subscribe to Netflix. Like the first season of Breaking Bad.

The interface may be a little better, and I may prefer it over fluentU. Although for my level of Spanish, the longer content presented more difficulties, and I slogged my way through half of a 10-minute cartoon with a ton of flagged words.

Both video apps offer a similar functionality -- watch a video with double-subtitles, freeze and flag/check a word you don't know, slow it down and hopefully follow it better, etc... There are some differences:

FluentU works only in vertical mode, with a small video and a single line of translation/subtitle. LingoPie shows the entire script in vertical mode, scrolling along, or in horizontal mode, the current dounble-subtitle.

When you click on a word with FluentU, it opens an entire page with translation and examples, including pictures, sentences and video clips. LingoPie just pops up a little box with the translation and pronounces the word or phrase.

FluentU seems to have short YouTube clips while LingoPie has more sophisticated and longer content.

LingoPie allows you to choose content by region - Mexico, Argentina, Spain, etc. Although in my limited trial I picked a show marked "Mexico" which was narrated by a woman with an obvious Argentinian accent...

I don't know what I will wind up buying. None of it is too expensive. RocketSpanish is probably the most useful due to its audio-only lessons, allowing me to walk around or do other stuff. FluentU is the most expensive at around $100/yr, but I like its short content and the recording feature. But I kind of like its interface of LingoPie more, although the longer shows are probably too challenging for me at this point in time.

Being able to watch TV is a key step in learning a language. Sadly I am not there, and perhaps one of these will help me along. I willreport my findings as I spend more time with these apps.

A major problem with Rocket Spanish is that the woman leading the lessons is not a native speaker (the guy is, but he speaks very little while she drawls on and on)... Not only is her spanish pronounciation far from perfect, but her English is very annoyingly nasal and drawn-out. She practically says "Spaynish"! I like the content, but this may be a deal-breaker.

It's cliché but i recommend watching films, documentaries, series, etc ... in Spanish, with subtitles (and later without), on topics that you enjoy ... and let it sink in. The less conscious effort you make to learn, the easier it gets, and hearing the language while being entertained works for a lot of people. An example of spanish tv series: "El Internado". It's a bit dull but perfect to learn and you can easily find subtitles.

Maybe I'm not there yet... I've been watching a lot of Spanish shows on Netflix with subtitles, and seem to gain nothing... Over the past few week I've been catching more phrases from my other studies, but I'm not able to follow. I think it will happen, and then I' ll pick up the pace exponentially.

Pimsleur might be worth a listen, they are always excellent for pronunciation / natural speech, as that's the focus.

For example in French there is natural variation around whether you bother to say ending consonants when the next word starts with a vowel, "liasons". My French is not nearly good enough to have noticed this, but apparently if you check the audio closely you find there is a mix of present and missing liasons across uses of the same word combinations so you get used to the allowed variation.

Trying Rocket Languages, FluentU and LingoPie

Rocket Spanish

FluentU

LingoPie

Some Observations

And so...

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