Audiobooks have become my new favorite medium to expose myself to Spanish. In this post, I’ll talk about how you can leverage Audiobooks in Spanish to supercharge your language learning.
The Benefits of Audiobooks
In general, most of my reading comes from using Audiobooks. I find that I can finish a lot more of my books as I can pair listening with other daily routine activities like doing chores around the house, in the car, or, my favorite, on a run.
Another reason why I like audiobooks is that it can be a lifesaver for getting through really dry material. Spanish grammar and vocabulary are really boring and can be tough to concentrate on. With an audiobook, all you need to do is hit play and listen to the narrator go through vocabulary. There’s a lot that one can learn just by listening.
Here are my top reasons for listening to audiobooks compared to other mediums (such as TV, radio, podcasts, physical books, and radio).
The Audio Quality is High
This makes it really easy to hear every word and the proper pronunciation of each word. Audiobooks allow for passive listening and constant exposure means you can learn a lot by osmosis.
This is a big benefit over reading a physical book in Spanish. The voice in your head may be pronouncing words incorrectly and therefore getting into a bad habit. To illustrate that point, think about you say the word desert 🌵 compared to dessert 🧁. The words use the same sounds but you emphasize the beginning part of the word in desert and the last set of words in dessert.
The Writing Quality is High
Books have been thoroughly edited so you don’t get any of the mumbling or filler words that don’t help progress in your language learning journey.
You will be exposed to a higher range of vocabulary words and verb tenses so it’s a great review from all the time spent learning past tense, present tense, etc. Hearing those grammar rules and vocabulary in context will help remember them.
The drawback though is that writing can be filled with words and phrases less commonly used in daily speech. For example, you won’t hear any phrases or filler words that are very common in speech while listening to an audiobook. Examples of filler words that I use all the time are claro, bueno, vale, y pues.
Playback speed controls
The ability to slow down or speed up is a great way to train your ear. By slowing down, you have more time to process each word and make sense of the story. By speeding up, you are training your ear to comprehend at a much faster rate. This is a good strategy if you are going to Spain anytime soon.
Listen Anywhere
The more you can expose yourself to spoken the Spanish, the more you will learn. Whether it’s really engaging with the audio or just passively listening. You pick up a lot just by being exposed.
This point to me is the most relevant if someone claims that they need to be in a certain country to learn a target language. If the goal of living in another country is to learn Spanish by passively being exposed to it, you might be disappointed. Yes, you can learn a lot from listening, but you won’t learn a language by listening to people at a cafe. Further down, I’ll discuss why I think this excuse isn’t a very good one.
Audiobooks can be Language Learning Books or Actual Books
Books in the Language Learning category focus on teaching Spanish. Typically the format is listening to dialogue and dissecting the words and phrases to understand the context. They also typically have a lot of exercises where they ask you to translate a word or phrase into Spanish so that you can practice throughout the narration. There are short pauses in the audio to allow you to say the translation out load before the narrator chimes in with the solution.
Books in Spanish are original works in Spanish and books translated into Spanish from a different language. These found in the Audible Latino section.
For beginner and intermediate Spanish learners, I recommend starting in the language learning books and then progressing to books in Spanish. It can be easy to get lost when listening to a book in Spanish, even for advanced speakers.
My Experience with Books in Spanish
Language Learning Audiobooks
These sets of Audiobooks are fantastic for anyone from beginner to expert. Here are some that I have tried out and my notes:
Learning Spanish Like Crazy Bundle
This is a great series of audiobooks written by Patrick Jackson who became frustrated that pretty much all Spanish language learning taught Spanish for a vacation or very formal Spanish that isn’t commonly used. He wanted a program where one would learn authentic spoken Spanish.
I listened to the entire series (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced). Each audiobook is long – almost 20 hours so it’s a great value when using an Audible credit. I highly recommend this series to anyone as a great way to hear a ton of words and vocabulary that you’ll actually use when speaking Spanish.
The books all follow a similar format and are structured in the following way:
- You’ll hear a short dialogue in Spanish that becomes the focus of the lesson which are typically 30 minutes long
- Words and phrases from the dialogue are studied in greater detail
- You’ll be prompted to translate a word or phrase into Spanish. The short pause is followed by the translation so that you get instant feedback
In addition to the general Spanish series, Patrick Jackson also has a great audiobook on vocabulary for the modern day in Learn Intermediate & Advanced Spanish Bundle
21st Century Spanish Words & Phrases and Spanish Conversations Learn Spanish for Social Media, Technology, Web, Veganism, Digital Nomad Life & Uber Transit. This was actually my favorite of all his audiobooks because of the technology words that I couldn’t find organized in this way anywhere else.
I would not recommend Patrick Jackson’s books if you are only interested in learning words for traveling. His books are a series are meant for the serious Spanish learner who wants to do more than just ask for directions and order at a cafe.
Learn Spanish with Paul Noble
Paul Noble makes learning Spanish very approachable (he is actually a teacher), and his audiobooks focus primarily on using Spanish for traveling. This is an excellent resource if you want some helpful words and phrases for your next trip.
In addition to Paul Noble, there are two native Spanish speakers to ensure you hear the correct pronunciation. One has an accent from Spain and the other has a neutral accent from Latin America. There are some pronunciation and vocabulary differences among Spain and Latin America so I really valued having both.
One of my critiques of this series is that some words and phrases are not essential. For example, there’s a section on camping with a lot of vocabulary that I found totally irrelevant to the listener. Maybe there are a lot of listeners who camp when going to a Spanish speaking country. Regardless, I just didn’t think these words and phrases were needed in a beginner’s course.
The Paul Noble series is geared towards the beginner so I would avoid this book if you are an intermediate speaker, unless you want to brush up on some of the basics.
Spanish Short Stories Series
The Spanish Short stories series by Claudia Orea are a fantastic way to move from studying vocabulary and grammar to hearing Spanish in action. The series has stories for beginners and intermediate levels. I listened to Spanish Short Stories for Intermediate Level: Volume 1 and found it to be an excellent resource. The topics are relevant and stories are somewhat engaging. The audio quality is really high and the vocabulary difficulty is just right. There is also an accompanying PDF for further study and review.
The Complete Spanish Master
The Complete Spanish Master has a collection of articles and stories where the narrator reads a part of the article and goes through the vocabulary. The entire audiobook is in Spanish which I love because it really pushes you to think completely in Spanish. I highly recommend this audiobook to intermediate and advanced speakers.
Books in Spanish
Once you are at an intermediate level of Spanish. I highly recommend starting to listen to books in Spanish. I find that books you have read that have been translated to Spanish can be a great place to start. The reason for this is because, since you already know the story, you won’t get discouraged if you don’t understand a few words or sentences and get lost for a moment. You should be able to pick up on words and phrases just by their context which accelerates your language learning.
The Harry Potter series was the first book I listened to in Spanish. The quality of the translation is superb and the narrator is very good. It’s hard to beat Jim Dale but Carlos Ponce is pretty close.
I read a lot in the self-improvement book genres and there are some great books in that category in Spanish. I recently finished A Veces se Gana – A Veces Aprende and really enjoyed it. The vocabulary was pretty simple for the most part so following along was easy.
Another book that I am excited to check out is Inquebrantables. It’s been a top seller on Audible for a long time so it must be good.
As a final note, watch out the Audible Latino newsletter. I have found that there usually have a free Audible Latino book!
Is Audible my only Source for Spanish Audiobooks?
No. In fact you can get a lot of Spanish audiobooks and e-books for free from your local library. All you need to do is get a free library card and then create a free account in Libby. I was able to check out the Harry Potter series in Spanish from my library.
You can also find free domain books in Spanish on LibriVox. I haven’t listened to anything on the app yet but I have seen a great selection of classic books that I eventually want to read.
Audible has the greatest selection of the language learning books that I have seen. My local library actually has a great selection of books in Spanish so I tend to check there first before Audible.
Why you can learn a language anywhere
I wrote this post because I have found that Audiobooks really kept me on track and have helped me accelerate my Spanish knowledge. It can be discouraging to keep up with learning a second language during the pandemic as travelling was a big motivating factor for me.
Anyone can learn a language if they are willing to put in the time and effort. Learning a language is no different than learning an instrument, learning to cook, learning to code, or any other skill. However, learning a language does come with its own set of excuses. Here is what I have encountered the most:
Excuse 1: I can only truly learn a language by living abroad
I have so many friends who have lived or studies abroad and still can’t speak their target language. I know it’s not a scientific study but it makes one thing clear. Learning a language is hard work and it requires time and effort, no matter where you live. English is spoken all over the world and it’s easy to get by without knowing a second language.
Technology has been a big driver in reducing this barrier. There’s so much content available in Spanish that this excuse isn’t really relevant anymore. People from Spanish speaking countries likely live in your community as well.
Excuse 2: Adults can’t learn another language as well as children can
There’s no real evidence that children are better at learning a language compared to adults. In some cases, the opposite has been true. Adults have an ability to pick up on more advanced grammar topics which gives them an advantage in learning a language. More information on this point is in this article and also check out the book Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It.
The reality of this myth comes from many adults getting discouraged while learning a new language once they get past the basics. It’s an easy excuse to fall back on.
Kids are able to learn a language quickly because they are forced into it. As an adult, I know how the world works and can just point and shrug to get by in any country. Unless working at a job were Spanish is required, you aren’t squeezed into situations where you have to know a second language.
A Little about my Spanish Journey
I’ve lived in the US my entire life and can speak Spanish fluently. I grew up going to a bilingual school in Minnesota and learned Spanish like I did English. However, that was more than fifteen years ago and it’s still important for me to find ways to maintain my Spanish. For a while, I became discouraged to keep up with my Spanish because I barely use it in daily life and didn’t see the importance. The other factor is that a lot of people I interact with, either domestically or internationally, who know Spanish have great English proficiency and it is easier and faster to communicate in English.
I had a renewed interest in learning Spanish when I found that I could use it at work. There were a few customers where communicating in Spanish is the preferred way to do business and the onboarding process would be much better if done in Spanish. This is what led me to find audiobooks as a great resource to keep up with Spanish.
Hope you enjoyed the post! I’d love to hear your comments about how you use audiobooks to learn another language!