Immersion tools

Hello, im new here and new to learning spanish. My question is, are there internet radio channels, video or audio podcasts, or anything that would be good to help with the immersion part of my learning? maybe online news stations or tv shows? i would like to have something plaing that i can watch or listen to that can help me get used to hearing the spanish language. I am not sure if one type of media is better than an another. I thought listening to one of these types would be better than just continuosly going throughthe lessons.

Hola. Bienvenido al foro. If you're really new to learning Spanish, you may not be ready yet for Spanish-language radio and TV, but one thing you're likely to benefit from even as a beginner is the WONDERFUL TV series called "*Destinos*." It was designed to help people learn Spanish. There are about 50 episodes, set in Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Puerto Rico, so you hear somewhat different accents. It's also a great story. I started watching it when I was pretty new to Spanish, and I LOVED it! The episodes are available for free on the Internet at __http://www.learner.org/resources/series75.html__ . Another useful resource on the Internet is *SpanishPod.* It has very enjoyable short podcasts at five different levels, from newbie to advanced. Listening to the podcasts is free; getting access to the transcripts costs a little money, but a "basic" subscription is not exhorbitant, though you can also buy a "premium" subscription, which costs several hundred dollars. In any case, the first seven days are free, so you can take a look. The podcasts are interesting and fun. __http://www.spanishpod.com__ There's also another site with a similar name: SpanishPod101.com. I tried this but didn't find it as interesting, but you may want to see for yourself. Another site I like is at the University of Texas. It offers *video podcasts* with transcripts in both English and Spanish at several different levels, all for free: __http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/index.html__ . The BBC offers a couple of audio useful resources: *BBC Mundo* - __http://news8.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/programmes/default.stm__ *El Mensual* - __http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/news/__ One other very good podcast is *Notes in Spanish*: __http://www.notesinspanish.com/__ My only reservation about it is that the pronunciation you'll hear is from Spain rather than from Latin America. Platha rather than Plaza, etc. Here, again, the podcasts are free but there's a charge for transcripts/notes. I hope you find some of the above helpful.

Online Spanish Help also has some really good [url=http://www.onlinespanishhelp.com/travel_guides.php":11pa0hkj]Spanish language travel guides[/url:11pa0hkj] with English translations. It's kind of cool since a voice comes on to read them too. They also have some [url=http://www.onlinespanishhelp.com/basic.php:11pa0hkj]basic Spanish[/url:11pa0hkj] example and other immersion tools. Also, [url=http://lomastv.com/land.php:11pa0hkj]LoMasTV[/url:11pa0hkj] is pretty good, but not free.

Thanks, Patrick. The Online Spanish Help site looks quite useful, but I want to correct the way your URL for the travel guides appears. There's an extra character in your URL that prevents the page from loading, at least on my computer. The correct URL is *__http://www.onlinespanishhelp.com/travel_guides.php__*. As for LoMasTV, it's a very useful site, but in my opinion it's only for somewhat more advanced learners, not for someone who, like talkingreef, is "new to learning Spanish." I tried LoMasTV a year or two ago, but most of the videos were simply too hard for me. Perhaps I'll give it another try sometime soon.