OnlineSpanishClub.com

Learning Spanish? Join our online club!

You are here: Home / Articles

This Week, Half-Price Spanish ‘Easy Reader’ Ebook Offer!

by

An ‘easy reader’ is a simplified book or ebook for learners. You get short, easy-to-finish chapters, accompanied by online audio, and a glossary and exercise to go with each chapter.

We have a wide selection of ebook ‘easy readers’ in our online shop, at different levels, on different topics, and in varying ebook formats.

And this week, we have one story available at JUST HALF THE USUAL PRICE!

“El malabarista” is the story of a student who loses something that’s precious to her:

Como cada noche, Laura coge el autobús para ir a casa. El autobús blanco y azul está lleno de gente y los pasajeros apenas se pueden mover. Cuando Laura llega a casa se da cuenta que…

The level is A1/A2 (elementary/pre-intermediate) but you’ll get a better idea of whether it’ll be suitable for your current level in Spanish by downloading the free sample chapter (.pdf).

Too easy? Too hard?

So check out our catalog page, where you’ll find all of our ebooks listed by type and in level order, all with free sample chapters to download!

The half price offer is good until Sunday 14th March 2021, but why wait?

“El malabarista” just £3.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Catalog

Have you already downloaded the free e-books in Spanish?

by

Correct. On EasyReaders.org you can freely download two different types of e-books at a cost of ZERO.

These are two stories written by Spanish authors specifically for students who are learning Spanish, just like you:

‘El restaurante‘ is an ‘easy reader’, a simplified story with exercises and audio. It’s IDEAL for beginners!

‘La sorpresa‘ is a Spanish/English parallel text, also intended for beginners. You get the original Spanish story, and an accompanying English translation, so you can compare them line by line.

Which one is best for you? Well, we recommend that you try them both (it costs you nothing!).

With ‘La sorpresa’ you can go faster and help yourself with the translation to immediately immerse in the story of Pilar and Javier, a couple who lives a long-distance relationship (perhaps it sounds familiar to you?).

‘Il ristorante’ allows you to take your time to better understand each phase of the story. With the help of some exercises and the story’s audio recording you’ll be able to understand what happens to Nick, a Londoner who seems to have everything in life, except for…

… find it out! Download ‘El restaurante‘ – and, if you like, ‘La sorpresa‘ too.

Don’t forget the 150 FREE One-to-One Spanish Lessons!

by

Here’s a quick reminder: this week at EasyReaders.Org we’re giving away 150 FREE ONE-TO-ONE SPANISH LESSONS (the offer is for new students only.)

There are just two opportunities each year to try an online lesson (via Skype) with one of our native-speaker teachers – for FREE!

You don’t have to buy anything or provide credit card details – all we need is your email address, so our teaching management assistant can contact you to organise your lesson.

This promotion is for new students only and is limited to one FREE lesson per person.

Here are the links you need to ‘order’ your free trial Spanish lesson:

Free Spanish Lesson | Catalog

N.b. The offer ends on Sunday night, though that’s the deadline for responding to the offer, not for actually doing the lesson.

  • The Free Trial Online Spanish Lesson offer ends on Sunday 14/02/21
  • You don’t have to DO the lesson this week, just ‘order’ it
  • This offer is for NEW STUDENTS ONLY and is limited to one FREE lesson per person
  • If you ordered a free trial last time but didn’t take it – try again!
  • But if you’ve already done a free trial in the past, sorry but this isn’t for you
  • After your lesson, you’ll get a 15% discount coupon valid for your first purchase of one-to-one Spanish lessons

Follow these links to ‘order’ your FREE trial Spanish lesson:

Free Spanish Lesson | Catalog

This Week, 150 FREE One-to-One Spanish Lessons!

by

It’s February, so time for our semi-annual ‘FREE One-to-One Spanish Lesson’ offer!

This week at EasyReaders.Org we’ll be giving away 150 FREE ONE-TO-ONE SPANISH LESSONS (the offer is for new students only.)

This is a promotion we do twice a year when things are otherwise quiet – the last one was in November 2020 and the next one will be in November 2021.

Twice a year we aim to give away a hundred and fifty free online Spanish lessons, normally priced at £20 each.

Try an online lesson (via Skype or Zoom) with one of our native-speaker teachers, at a cost of exactly ZERO.

You don’t have to buy a lesson to get one free, we won’t even ask for your card details – all we need to organise your lesson is your email address, so our teaching management assistant can contact you to organise your lesson.

It’s a genuinely-free offer!

N.B. This promotion is for new students only. The free trial lesson offer is limited to one lesson per person.

To claim your FREE trial one-to-one lesson, follow these links to our online shop:

Free Spanish Lesson | Catalog

Once we’ve received your order (there’s no payment stage, don’t worry), our teaching management assistant will contact you to find out what your needs and preferences are and, importantly, WHEN you’d like to do your free lesson.

That could take a few hours, or as long as a day or two, so be patient. If you don’t see an email from our team in your inbox, please check the spam/junk folders before writing to us. 

N.b. There’s no rush to do the free trial lesson, which doesn’t have to be this week – the offer ends on Sunday night (Feb. 14th 2021), but that’s just a promotional deadline, not a limit for actually doing the lesson.

  • The Free Trial One-to-One Spanish Lesson offer ends on Sunday, 14/02/21
  • No need to actually DO the lesson this week, just ‘order’ it
  • Remember: this offer is for NEW STUDENTS ONLY
  • If you ordered a free trial last time but didn’t take it – do try again!
  • But if you’ve already done a free trial in the past, sorry…
  • After completing your lesson, you’ll be sent a 15% discount coupon

Ready to order your FREE trial one-to-one lesson?

Free Spanish Lesson | Catalog

Try a FREE Online Spanish Lesson (From Monday 8th February)

by

It’s February, so ALMOST time for our semi-annual ‘Free Trial Online Spanish Lesson’ offer on EasyReaders.Org!

The next promotion of this type won’t be until November 2021, so why not take the chance to try an online Spanish lesson (via Skype or Zoom) with one of our friendly mother-tongue teachers, at a cost of exactly ZERO?

Note that our free online language lessons are normally priced at £20 each (you’d pay less per lesson for packs of ten, twenty or thirty 30-minute lesson credits – see prices.)

N.b. You don’t have to buy a lesson to get one free, we won’t even ask for your card details – all we need to organise your Spanish lesson is your email address (which you see, we already have…)

When we receive your order, we’ll email you a brief questionnaire to find out your existing level in Spanish and whether you have any particular needs or preferences for your 30-minute trial.

Be assured – this is a genuinely-free offer! But if you’re uninterested in hearing more about next week’s promotion, SCROLL DOWN NOW and click the unsubscribe link – it takes just seconds to permanently remove your email address from our database.

Offer details:

  • The Free Trial Online Spanish Lesson offer begins on Monday February 8th and ends on Sunday February 14th 2021
  • There’s no need to actually DO your free lesson that week, just ‘book’ it
  • This offer is for NEW STUDENTS ONLY
  • After completing your online Spanish lesson, you’ll be sent a 15% discount coupon which gets you a one-time discount on additional lessons, to incentivize you to continue (view prices)
  • Besides that coupon, we have four 20%-Off promotions each year (in the spring, the summer, the fall, and at New Year), so most of our regular students pay 20% less than the prices you see in the shop, here

Browse our catalog of Spanish lessons and ebooks, where you’ll also find free ebook downloads for learners of Spanish and certain other languages.

How’s the Spanish going? (If it isn’t, then… unsubscribe!)

by

You’re getting this email because, at some point in the past, you joined the mailing list at OnlineSpanishClub.com.

But perhaps you’re no longer interested in learning Spanish, and so won’t want to hear about next week’s FREE Trial Lesson offer (online, 30-minutes one-to-one with a real Spanish teacher, normal price £20!)

In which case, we’d really prefer not to bother you. Please SCROLL DOWN and click the ‘unsubscribe’ link, which you’ll find at the bottom of this article.

You’ll be given the option to permanently remove your email address from our mailing list. It takes just a second or two.

Still here? Excellent!

There’ll be more about the FREE Trial Online Lesson offer next week, when we have everything ready…

In the meantime, though, here’s a reminder about some of the free resources we have for learning Spanish that you might have forgotten about:

  • This website, OnlineSpanishClub.com has FREE material for learning Spanish at any level
  • DontSpeakSpanish.comis a FREE online beginners’ course comprising fifty or so pages of grammar explanations, exercises, vocabulary lists and listening practice… It’s also ours!
  • And not to forget our online shop, which features ebooks for learning Spanish and online lessons with a friendly native-speaker teacher (you can try one FREE, details next week, remember?)

¡Hasta luego!

Where are the Spanish characters on my keyboard??

by

Learning Spanish?

Then you’ll need to write Spanish characters on your various devices – computer, tablet, smartphone and so on – even if it’s only for instant messaging!

And that can be a pain.

I’m writing this in English, on a computer with an Italian keyboard.

That doesn’t present a problem, as I’m used to it.

But when I switch to the ESP (Spanish) keyboard option, via the icon in the Windows 10 taskbar at the bottom of the screen, what is printed on the computer keys doesn’t always match what I need to type.

There’s that weird upside-down ¿ for example.

And the ñ with the little thingy on top.

Not to mention the ç which looks like it’s running away…

Where are the Spanish characters on my keyboard??

First I have to make sure that I’ve added the Spanish keyboard to whichever device I want to use to write with.

If you haven’t, Google how to do that…

Then I make sure I’ve actually selected the right keyboard, which isn’t usually hard but is easy to forget.

What I should see then, when I type (irrespective of what’s actually written on the keys), is something like this:

My Spanish keyboard!

And now?

Now, what I plan to do is print out that image and keep it by my computer as I study, highlighting any characters that give me trouble as I go on learning Spanish.

Testing out a new Spanish ‘easy reader’ – FREE Sample and audio!

by

Learning Spanish?

Careful not to get too obsessed with grammar books and apps…

If you’ve never tried an ‘easy reader’, that is to say a simplified Spanish story with accompanying audio, it’s definitely something you should check out.

Over at our online shop EasyReaders.org, the Spanish section has a selection of easy readers and Spanish/English parallel texts from A1 to B1 levels.

Spanish easy readers - El caso del cuadro robado - cover image

And this week, there’s a new one available!

It’s called ‘El caso del cuadro robado‘ and the level is B1/B2.

So I thought I’d check it out.

Click here (.pdf) for a FREE sample chapter so you can follow along with me.

Once you have the text you can read AND listen to it, as the audio is available free at Soundcloud.com:

https://soundcloud.com/onlineitalianclub/sets/el-caso-del-cuadro-robado

Now I’m a beginner in Spanish (I just started learning yesterday…) but I studied French at school thirty-five years ago and have lived in Italy for a couple of decades.

One Latin-origin language is pretty much like another, right?

Plus, I know the story, having edited other language versions of the same text.

So I figure I should be able to get at least something from the free sample chapter (.pdf).

But WHY read/listen in the language you’re studying?

There are loads of good reasons.

Building your listening skills at the same time as studying grammar and vocabulary will give you a head start when it comes to holding your own in conversations.

Plus, if you get used to dealing with Spanish texts and all the uncertainties they hold, that opens up a world of Spanish-language websites and media!

And lastly, though just as importantly, reading/listening to Spanish texts gives you a context for the grammar and vocabulary you’re studying in other ways.

For instance, you’ll see loads of examples of articles, tenses, and so on.

And words that you see and/or hear again and again will be much easier to remember.

OK, so let’s make a start.

First I’ll listen while following the text with my finger (or the mouse pointer) as I do so.

I’m planning not to worry about the bits I don’t understand, but just to listen until the end of the chapter without pausing or stopping the audio.

Here goes! (Why don’t you read and listen too?)

OK, wow, that was fast, wasn’t it?

Especially at first!

After a paragraph or two, though, I did get used to it and managed to follow the text, if not exactly understanding it, then at least knowing at which point we’d got to.

I’m sitting in a noisy corridor (because of the WiFi…), which doesn’t help.

I’ll try and find some place quieter and try again.

Yes, the second time, still listening and reading, went rather better! This time I could more easily pick out the words and grammar that were similar in Italian or French. Though a lot is completely new.

Normally after the ‘reading/listening at the same time’ stage, I’d suggest as a next step reading again without the audio, so taking as much time as necessary to figure out the text.

When reading, it’s important to use a dictionary only if ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. The objective with ‘easy readers’ is not to note down and learn all the unfamiliar words, but to get some Spanish going into your brain, through your eyes and ears.

It’s not a test, no one is saying you have to learn everything you read and hear. In fact the opposite – ignore as much of the ‘noise’ as you can and just try to get the gist.

Your brain will (in time) figure out which bits are important, and learn them. With enough ‘input’ and time, it’ll be automatic, perhaps even effortless!

As a final stage, what I would usually do would be to listen again, this time WITHOUT the text support, focusing on following as well as I could, so on listening skills.

But again, it’s vital not to get stressed about all the ‘known unknowns’. Focus on what you can understand, not what you can’t.

Still, as I mentioned, ‘El caso del cuadro robado‘ is an intermediate-level text and I’m just a beginner, trying to run before I can walk.

So this time I stop here, without the second and third steps.

And next time, perhaps I’ll pick out an A1 text and try with that!

OnlineSpanishClub.com | EasyReaders.org

Learn Spanish with me at OnlineSpanishClub.com!

by

I was on holiday in Spain a couple of times, and learnt to say ‘uno, dos, tres’ but not much more.

That was several decades back, and since then… ‘nada’.

But now?

The world is a smaller place, and Spanish is everywhere!

Moreover, I live in Italy and have more or less mastered Italian.

Spanish is SO similar to Italian in many respects that it seems a shame not to make the effort to learn some.

So, the plan is to make use of some of the great resources now available on the Internet.

I’ll link to the most useful resources from here.

There may also be occasional articles with study tips, and summaries of what I’m learning…