Not only has the Internet helped with language learning lessons and practice, but podcasts can help tremendously. You can find free online Spanish audio lessons and download them. That means that your lessons are on your computer, phone, or handheld device. They’re there whenever you want to access them, as many times as you want to access them. It’s like have your own team of language teachers who are ready to teach whenever you’re ready to learn, who let you choose which lessons you want to learn, and who have infinite patience because they’re able to teach you the same lesson as many times as you need in order to master it. This cutting edge method allows you the freedom to learn at your own pace. You listen and learn whenever it suits you. That’s different than being required to attend a class and fit it into your schedule. This freedom, therefore, also helps your attitude toward learning Spanish or any other language. If you’re forced to learn what a teacher says you’ll learn, at times when it may not be convenient or desirable for you to learn it, you’re not going to be in as good a mindset to absorb what you need to in order to master it. Compare that attitude to when you decide to learn. You learn at a time when you’re not distracted by other parts of your life, and you learn when you’re mentally excited to learn the next concept. If you have this freedom and this attitude, your language learning will go more efficiently with each of your sessions.

Learning another language is so much easier now than it ever has been. Think back to Roman times when hearing another language meant enemies were nearby, and learning another language meant that you somehow had to cross those lines and make friends with people who may prefer to be your enemies. Then you had to have enough exposure to the language to be able to figure out the meanings of different words are and the patterns of how the language works. Lifespans were also much shorter, so you had to do all of that decoding and practicing rather quickly.

Today, we have the Internet. So many online features allow us to learn a language easily, at our own pace, and in whatever location we choose. Today online lessons and podcasts allow people who want to learn Spanish to hear native voices from Peru, Mexico, and Spain while staying within earshot of their computer or handheld device. Many aspects of learning a language have to do with hearing it. You can read a grammar book and learn quite a bit about a language. Imagine learning it without hearing it, however. Your learning would be quite limited, so traditional language learning has been in classrooms or in visits to areas where the language is spoken.

Take advantage of all that is offered online to enhance your Spanish lessons. With all the tools that are online, you can learn the grammar rules of Spanish, hear native accents, learn to imitate Spanish pronunciation, take online Spanish lessons, or listen to Spanish podcasts having to do with language learning or podcasts in Spanish just to test your understanding. It’s all there whenever you want to learn Spanish.

Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, and its popularity is growing. It is the primary language of 21 countries, and it is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Nearly 400 million people speak Spanish as their first language, and it’s the 4th most popular world language behind Chinese, Hindustani, and English. There are no indications that Spanish will do anything but become more popular either. As the Hispanic population grows, and as more people study Spanish as a second language, the number of speakers will continue to increase. This popularity is one of the reasons to learn Spanish. Free online Spanish lessons, Spanish audio lessons, and Spanish podcasts make the language even easier to learn.

Other reasons to learn Spanish are travel, ease of learning, and bilingual opportunities. With so many countries having Spanish as their official language, there are many places travelers can practice Spanish. Knowing the language of the places you visit allows you to see and experience parts of the culture that people who don’t speak Spanish will not get to enjoy. You will gain insights into the people who live there and their way of life. Also the logistics of traveling become infinitely easier if you can read the street signs and know how to ask directions. Any amount of study you do before visiting a Spanish-speaking area will help when you travel there. Don’t think that you have to be fluent. Even spending a few minutes online learning Spanish a few days or weeks before your trip will help.

Spanish is one of the easiest languages for native English speakers to learn. Its pronunciation system is straightforward, making it easy to learn to read aloud. Spanish also has a similar sentence structure and alphabet to English, so there are not as many grammatical differences for English speakers to have to learn. It’s an excellent first foreign language for native English speakers, and once you’ve learned a language like Spanish, it takes less time to learn another foreign language because your mind has had practice learning how to learn another language.

Being bilingual, especially with a widely spoken language, also creates opportunities. Some employers give preference to people who know Spanish. The more you know about a particular subject or another language, the more opportunities can open up to you, even if you can’t foresee those opportunities while taking your first online Spanish lesson.

Spanish is the most popular of the world’s Romance languages, which are languages that have their origins directly from Latin. The other Romance languages, by the way, are French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. Spanish is one of the most popular languages to learn because it is spoken in so many parts of the world and it is the official language of areas like Spain, Mexico, Central America, and most of South America. If you consider the number of speakers of the language, it is the fourth most spoken language out of the hundreds of languages spoken today. It is by far the most popular language studied as a foreign language in American universities. If you want to learn Spanish, you’ll have many people to practice with, whether they are native speakers or language learners like you.

Here are a few main ideas to help you get started learning Spanish. Spanish follows subject-verb-object sentence structure and word order, just like English. For example, in English and in Spanish you’d say “I study Spanish,” rather than “Spanish I study” or “Study I Spanish.” Its letters have their one and only sound (except for just a few of them), so spelling and pronunciation are easier than a lot of other languages. Spanish audio lessons, therefore, will be an excellent way to learn Spanish because generally if you can hear it, you can spell it, and if you can spell it, then you can say it. Since Spanish is spoken in different parts of the world, some accents are different for different areas. They are not so different that you wouldn’t be able to understand each other though. With a little practice, you’ll be able to tell who is from Spain, who’s from Mexico, who’s from Chile, etc. Keep an ear open, and you’ll learn to speak Spanish.