5 Best Spanish Podcasts For Beginners: Boost Your Spanish Skills
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Podcasts are one of (if not the) the most effective ways to learn a language. Not only do they give us a basic understanding of the language. But they motivate us with interesting stories. With podcasts, we learn a language naturally. We can even learn while doing other activities, going to work or school, or doing exercises. This article will present you with the 5 best Spanish podcasts for beginners. They’ll motivate you to learn Spanish, and new vocabulary will naturally jump into your head. Are you ready? Let’s boost our Spanish skills.
List Of The 5 Best Spanish Podcasts For Beginners
- CoffeeBreak Spanish
- SpanishPod101
- Notes In Spanish
- Spanish Obsessed
- Audiria
Why Are Language Podcasts So Beneficial?
Right at the beginning, I have 6 reasons to understand why learning a language with podcasts is so beneficial.
- They help you to understand the language more
- Practice your listening skills
- You’ll start understanding various accents of the language
- You’ll learn new vocabulary – always use the transcript for it
- Learn more about the language, the country, and culture where it is spoken
- It’ll prepare you for different situations when you will be facing the language
How To Learn Spanish With Podcasts?
There are many fun and interesting ways for how to learn Spanish with podcasts. The best way is to have a transcript with it. Prepare yourself a nice cup of coffee or tea, print a transcript of the podcast, and have some highlighters ready. Then you can start listening to the podcast.
Listen ⇒ Read ⇒ Learn Vocabulary ⇒ Listen Again
First of all, I recommend you listen to the full podcast and try to understand as much as you can. The second time, listen to the podcast and read the transcript at the same time.
After, stop listening, and dedicate some time only to the transcript. Read it and highlight some vocabulary you want to learn.
Then write new vocabulary separately to your language travel notebook.
Once you are done with it, listen to the podcast again, and at the same time, read the transcript. Finally, you’ll recognize a lot of vocabulary from the transcript, and will start understanding the entire podcast episode.
Then it’s time to leave everything and solely listen to the episode again.
Work With A Transcript
Working with a transcript and writing new vocabulary down is the most effective way to learn Spanish with a podcast. Another way is to only listen to a podcast when you are doing other activities like going to work, travelling on a bus, etc. However, it’s always better to dedicate a proper time to the podcast, focus, and also make an effort to learn new vocabulary.
TIP: On the first day, you can listen to the podcast and work with a transcript, as I described to you. Then you will already understand the vocabulary from the podcast episode. On the second day, you can only listen to the podcast episode several times to memorize the vocabulary and get more familiar with the podcast series.
This is how you should work with podcasts. I can assure you that you’ll learn a lot of the language when you work this way.
And now, finally, it’s time to see which podcasts you should pick to learn Spanish. Below, I’m giving you the best Spanish podcasts for beginners.
1. COFFEE BREAK SPANISH – Travel Diaries
- The average length of an episode: 15 min
- Language level: beginner to advanced
- Transcript is available
- Total number of episodes: 40
- Accent: Spain
A fantastic podcast created by CoffeeBreak Spanish will take you to Spain and its amazing destinations even now, virtually.
Remember that it isn’t necessary to understand everything. The crucial thing here is that you are in contact with the language and listen to the pronunciation of the words. You’ll also recognize a few words that you have learned, and it’ll help you understand the whole context, which is what we are looking for here.
You’ll listen to the Spanish talking about different places in Spain. They talk slowly, and you’ll have the chance to understand. After, they analyze each sentence together in the podcast, translate and explain the meaning of some words, so you’ll learn a lot of new vocabulary, too.
Additionally, it’s great for us travellers, as we get to know many parts of Spain. This podcast perfectly fits our language learning purpose, and I highly recommend you start listening to it.
Listen to COFFEE BREAK SPANISH
2. SPANISH POD101 by Innovative Language
- The average length of an episode: 23 min
- Language level: beginner
to advanced 
- Total number of episodes: 1800 episodes
- Accents: Spain, Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica
SpanishPod101, created by Innovative Language platform, provides you with thousands of audio and video lessons with specific topics. This podcast is the best for you if you are an absolute Spanish beginner.
You can learn vocabulary within these topics with SpanishPod101 or keep improving it and understanding it in a context. Every audio and video lesson is accompanied by a detailed English explanation. You can listen to these lessons wherever you are learning from their SpanishPod101 mobile app. Additionally, you’ll also get lesson notes with transcripts, descriptions, vocabulary, and phrases within the specific topic. You can choose a language level at which you would like to learn.
You can choose between 3 plans, basic plan, premium, or premium plus.
Premium Plan of SpanishPod 101
With all plans, you’ll get all the features and things mentioned above. With the Premium Plan, you’ll get access to all language levels from a beginner to an advanced. All audio and video lessons also contain flashcards, word lists, dialogues, and audio-slideshows to boost your Spanish learning process. The best part of Premium Plan is their themed lessons like travelling, culture, and conversation.
After all, there are teachers to support you and give you feedback on your Spanish learning progress.
Premium Plan Plus of SpanishPod 101
Premium Plan Plus equips you with a personal teacher who will guide you through your learning process. He’ll design a custom program that fits your needs. Also, you can send an audio recording to your teacher, practicing speaking from a particular lesson. He’ll help you with pronunciation and analyze your speech.
As you can see, they provide even more features than just podcast and audio lessons.
SpanishPod101 is truly one of the most amazing platforms out there to practice and improve your language skills. It offers you a variety of things, and you have it all on one platform. I consider it the best language learning app, and you can find out more in my separate article.
3. NOTES IN SPANISH
- The average length of an episode: 20 min
- Language level: beginner to advanced
- Transcript is available (but at additional cost)
- Total number of episodes: 30 beginner, 46 intermediate, 35 advanced episodes.
- Accent: Spain
Notes in Spanish podcast has been created by a couple, Marina and Ben. She is madrileña (a woman from Madrid), and he is an English man. They teach you some conversational phrases and talk about real-life events, culture, travel, and life in Spain.
This podcast will take you to the everyday life of Spanish people and help you with common words and slang language.
Learn Spanish with NOTES IN SPANISH
4. SPANISH OBSESSED
- The average length of an episode: 13 min
- Language level: beginner to advanced
- Transcript is available, but some of them have to be purchased
- Total number of episodes: 58 beginner, 59 intermediate, 56 advanced episodes
- Accents: Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Cuba, Spain, and more!
Similar to Notes in Spanish, Spanish Obsessed also offers you conversations from real life. You will be listening to situations on the market, in a shop, bar, or on the street.
This podcast is also created by a Spanish-English couple, where Rob is from London and Riz from Colombia. You can also get some vocabulary and grammar guides on their blog.
Learn Spanish with SPANISH OBSESSED
5. AUDIRIA
- The average length of an episode: 10 min
- Language level: beginner to intermediate
- Transcript is available
- Total number of episodes: 173k
Audiria was created by two brothers from Málaga, who now live in Madrid. Their intention is to bring the Spanish language and its culture to the world through their podcasts. They offer them daily.
Audiria has many podcasts, but not only that. This website offers a lot more from songs, culture, daily scenes, humor, history, Spain, audiobooks, and more. They also have vocabulary exercises, short and long phrases, idioms, and pictures.
They even have a separate section for beginners, where they explain mostly grammatical features and some important words to learn.
If you cannot decide what to listen to today, go to the ‘Today’s Podcast’ section right at the beginning of their page and listen to the episode.
Great podcast episodes from Audiria
Below, I have picked up a few podcast episodes related to travel and Spanish culture that might be interesting to you:
A dónde viajamos los españoles?
Comer en España: bares, restaurantes, ventas, tascas, mesones
El gran sorteo de la lotería de Navidad
These 5 podcasts are the best Spanish podcasts for beginners. Pick some of them and use my method to learn effectively with these podcasts.
If you happen to like learning Spanish with podcasts, then I recommend you to choose SpanishPod 101. As I described above, it is more than just a podcast. You can work a lot with their transcripts, flashcards, and vocabulary sheets.
Additionally, you can also listen to Coffee Break Spanish and their Travel Diaries. These are absolutely amazing, with interesting destinations and travel inspiration.
Below, I am giving you 2 podcasts that are more for intermediate and advanced Spanish learners. Maybe you can just challenge yourself and start listening to them as well. I believe it is important to take on challenges on your language learning journey. Use the same method again with transcript, and you can learn a lot also from these advanced Spanish podcasts.
Hoy Hablamos
- The average length of an episode: 8 to 15 minutes, covering 1 topic
- Language level: intermediate to advanced
- Transcript is available
- Total number of episodes: 1000+ episodes
- Accent: pure Spanish
Hoy Hablamos is a podcast full of culture, people, traditions, and real-life conversations.
If you get a premium account, you will also get access to their PDF files with transcriptions, grammar, exercises, and vocabulary sheets.
Learn Spanish with HOY HABLAMOS
Radio Ambulante
- The average length of an episode: 20 min
- Language level: advanced
- Transcript is available
- Total number of episodes: 88 episodes
- Accent: Latin-American
Radio Ambulante talks about many interesting stories from people in Latin America. They take you on a life adventure in South America, covering topics such as historical and cultural events and current happenings in the countries.
You§ll also get their transcripts for free. Their stories are truly engaging and emotional and will easily take you to the countries.
Learn Spanish with RADIO AMBULANTE
Here you have it, the best Spanish podcasts for beginners and beyond. Use my method to learn a language with podcasts, choose an episode with an interesting topic, find a nice spot for learning, make yourself a delicious drink, and start learning in a fun and effective way.
More Resources To Learn Spanish
In this article, I’ve given you some listening resources to build your language skills. If you want to work on other language skills, check out my post about the most important skill of language learning.
Go to my language resources for more resources for reading, vocabulary learning, and to practicing speaking foreign language. Come and learn a language for travel with 7 basic steps. Traveling gets much more exciting and fun if you can speak the basics of the local language.
Check out my Spanish language section for more inspiration on Spanish learning.
Don’t forget to get my Language Travel Notebook now for free. Learn how to use the language travel notebook.
Interested in Audiobooks?
If you like listening to great stories in a foreign language, check out the list of the best audiobooks for beginners in different languages:
- 8 best Spanish audiobooks for beginners
- 13 best German audiobooks for beginners
- 6 best French audiobooks for beginners
- 6 best Italian audiobooks for beginners
Learn Spanish For Travel: Get Free Spanish Guide
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