What's your current level of Spanish?

How many hours do you currently dedicate to learning Spanish?

How often do you listen to Hispanic music?

Have you ever tried studying a language through music? If yes, how?

Have you already used a language learning app?

Which language learning app(s) have you used already?

May I contact you for a follow-up interview? You'll receive a $15 iTunes/Google Music/Spotify/Amazon voucher in return.

Scheduled an interview

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

No, just trying to get more familiar with hearing words really, no formalized learning

Complete beginner (I can say "Hola")

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

maybe no more than checking some lyrics from time to time

Duolingo, Memrise, FluentU, uTalk, Glossika

well the ones I've used cover different bases so to say... they do what they do well... well maybe with Duolingo I actually got bored pretty quickly

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Reading, translating, writing out, singing lyrics

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Less than 1 hour per week

Yes. First by listening for words I know, then looking up the lyrics in Spanish and translating them.

I like being able to learn any where I was. At home on the couch or waiting at rhe bus stop for my kids. I also like that I can get a few minutes of studying if I'm pressed for time and that everything I need to learn/study is in one place (i.e. I don't have to get a workbook, notebook, and pencil).

Some things I don't like about the language apps I use is not being about to test out of words or phrases I already know. The point system on some of the apps can be discouraging especially when there's a leaderboard and I see that I'm 349,297th place. The last thing is an interface that is not user friendly and/or is hard to navigate around.

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Duolingo, Memrise, Busuu, Babbel, Beelinguapp

Advanced (I can understand and talk about almost anything)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Reading and understanding the meaning of the songs.

I mean, I teach Spanish, but I study it in order to teach.

Yes, on youtube, good song with lyrics.

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I used music while I was learning Hebrew. It's a very useful tool but I don't think music alone is enough.

Upper intermediate (I can express myself well in both formal and informal settings)

Yes, I first began studying Brazilian Portuguese by listening to Brazilian artists on Spotify. I also followed some Brazilian celebrities on Instagram who would often share music in their posts.

Duolingo, Memrise, HelloTalk, Babbel, Rosetta Stone, Lingvist, Français, Frantastique, Drops, Clozemaster, Innovative

Complete beginner (I can say "Hola")

Less than 1 hour per week

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Yes, by listening to songs from animated Disney movies in my target language

Advanced (I can understand and talk about almost anything)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Spotify playlists. Print off the lyrics learn them by heart

Duolingo, Memrise, Busuu, HelloTalk, Lirica

They are low level vocabulary. You can’t progress past the beginner stage at all. All language apps are targeted for beginners

Upper intermediate (I can express myself well in both formal and informal settings)

Not completely through music but combining the topic I was learning with a song

Duolingo, Memrise, Busuu, HelloTalk, Babbel, Lyrics Training, FluentU, drops , various grammar apps, learn languages free,mango

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Less than 1 hour per week

Yes. Searching for the lyrics and then looking up the words I didn't know

Advanced (I can understand and talk about almost anything)

Duolingo, Memrise, Lyrics Training, FluentU

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I like being able to customize to my tastes and interests. I don’t like being locked into specific content or a content level until I meet the app’s goal. As an independent learner, I have my own interests and needs and goals.

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

FluentU was too restrictive, hated Rosetta Stone. I liked Duolingo the most but found it didn't help beyond basic learning

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

English through videos or the site lyricstraining

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Upper intermediate (I can express myself well in both formal and informal settings)

Occasionally through songs

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

I incorporate music in studying the language, by simply checking the lyrics of songs that I like or doing exercises while listening, such as fill in the blank, etc.

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Advanced (I can understand and talk about almost anything)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Upper intermediate (I can express myself well in both formal and informal settings)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Ease - not having to prepare classes myself was nice. Often I could only practice a very limited amount of language skills

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Yes! Since I live in South Korea now I study Korean by listening to pop music a lot. It's really fun! When I studied Spanish as a kid I hated the Rosetta Stone boring stuff, and when I studied Spanish after college I did a lot more musical learning on my own.

Duolingo is slick and gamified, but somehow it's hard for me to keep using it over a long period. Memrise is well designed, too. It offers more control while sacrificing grammar learning. Rosetta Stone is super boring but has lots of good listening practice.

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

I try to memorize lyrics for fun

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Less than 1 hour per week

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

open the lyrics and trying to understand the song. mostly used for vocabulary.

Complete beginner (I can say "Hola")

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Yes! I’ve listened to Spanish songs and then I’d find the lyrics in English

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

By using Spotify and YouTube.

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

One of my Spanish class had some music included

They were easy to use and I could do it on the go, on my commute, smaller lessons. I missed the grammar and sentence construction guidance.

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Less than 1 hour per week

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Upper intermediate (I can express myself well in both formal and informal settings)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

I liked the short exercises. Didn’t feel like I needed to spend too much time and could do it in public transport or when waiting somewhere. But the content of learning is sometimes not practical e.g small tree. More daily conversation related content would be nice (or let the user select preferred content within a specific group). The interface is visually a bit too screamy in my opinion (feels lie kids are mainly targeted). The usability is good tho. :) what would personally help me is to have some certain document with a summary of all phrases/words that I have learnt so far. If i could print it out that would be cool!

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Less than 1 hour per week

Yes, tried to Google to listen to songs that might be slower paced to understand for beginners, but gave up pretty quickly since I was doing it on my own

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Yes, in high school our teacher incorporated songs into our assignments and lessons

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

My teacher in high school would frequently have us learn songs in Spanish as part of the curriculum.

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

I learned the lyrics to a particular song, translated it and then always knew what the words meant from then

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Less than 1 hour per week

I read the lyrics while listening to music.

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

No, but it sounds fun and interesting!

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Watching youtube and reading lyrics on pandora

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Kinda, watched a show that was centered around music (Rebelde)

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Duolingo:
Starts with testing already. Emphasis on learning by doing
Easy UI
Tips before test
Discussion threads for each question
Gamification
Stories

Difficult to practice conversational language. Textbook language might be entirely different from what's used on the street.

Memorise:
Associations with existing mental models
Emphasis on timed repetition done well

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

No, just in some exercise of my class to read, find vocabulary and pronunciation

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

I learned English from music and cartoons

Complete beginner (I can say "Hola")

Bilingual. I have the DELE C2 certificate.

No longer actively learning Spanish. I now use it in my daily life

Yes. Ever since I first started learning Spanish, I've always used music. Same with other languages I've learnt. For Spanish, I started with music from Enrique Iglesias, and I would try to translate his songs using a dictionary. This was back in 1998

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Translating lyrics, phone app called LyricsTraining

Duolingo, Memrise, Babbel, Lyrics Training

Complete beginner (I can say "Hola")

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Yes. I read lyrics and try to sing along.

Duolingo, Memrise, HelloTalk, Babbel, Beelinguapp

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Not actively, my boyfriend plays Hispanic music but I don’t play it myself to study Spanish

You can do it whenever you want, which is nice. However I didn’t like the repetition. Ofcourse repetition is needed, but it was exactly the same every time.

Advanced (I can understand and talk about almost anything)

Yes, French- by looking up the lyrics, following along, and singing along

Duolingo - free and easy; didn't provide enough context around vocabulary words to be useful. Memrise - free and intuitive, provided enough context around phrases to be more useful, but still wasn't as good as one-on-one intercambios or instruction.

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I've listened to Brazilian Portuguese songs on Spotify. I find music I like, and then I try to translate/understand it. I don't do this often, though.

Duolingo, Memrise, HelloTalk, Anki, Mango

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Less than 1 hour per week

Sí, escucho la música con letra y busco la palabra yo no sé

Complete beginner (I can say "Hola")

Less than 1 hour per week

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Upper intermediate (I can express myself well in both formal and informal settings)

I usually learned the lyrics of songs to broaden my Vocabulary

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Yes, Korean through Kpop. I was frequently listening to the songs and checking the lyrics+translations

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

I'm not the biggest fan of apps, too many notifications. I also really don't like how competitive it feels, I want to learn and not focus on how I'm doing in comparison to others.

Complete beginner (I can say "Hola")

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Hmm not intentionally, but when I was learning English initially I also listen to English music, but didn't understand the lyrics up till a later point when I had progressed much more.

They didn't engage me enough to open them again. Most of the latter level content where paid and I didn't want to pay until I've seen the effects—however I couldn't figure that out because free stuff were so beginner level.

Intermediate, I'm guessing, but I'm not entirely sure as I learned informally.

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Listen to the text and try to analyze it

Complete beginner (I can say "Hola")

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Complete beginner (I can say "Hola")

I'm not actively learning Spanish

I liked the simple breakdown of phrases and the opportunity to practice talking the language

I did not like that some of the lessons seem too far out of context and it is unlikely i will ever need the particular words

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

The sentences I learned via Memrise were useful and "contemporary" so I could immediately put them to use, which I liked :) Duolingo in my experience tends to include weird sentences (like "My wife speaks with the plants", huh??), and also pretty old-fashioned words (like "ausgezeichnet" which made many German friends laugh), so I stopped using that one... I also like being able to choose the themes to focus on (rather than having to progress through a set of modules in a certain order, like is the case for Duolingo). Also: Duolingo is pretty punishing when you're mistyping one character, or forget an accent or something. It can be quite discouraging! Babbel seemed quite promising as I started using it (for Arabic..), but it was paid so.. the barrier was too high for me to continue with it.

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Advanced (I can understand and talk about almost anything)

I speak daily for work and with friends and with my spouse

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm only learning by being in a Spanish speaking environment but I'm not actively pursuing lessons or studying on my own

I mostly listen to this music if someone sends me a particular song or as background music when I'm out with friends

No but it's an interesting concept as I'm a musician and English teacher. I do think however that musicians and musical people with a trained ear can become very good at pronunciation though

I only used the app in the beginning for the very basic information like how to introduce yourself and say a few words and basic sentences. I found it funny and at the same time not so time efficient that Duolingo teaches you sentenses you will never have to say in your entire life like 'tu bebes agua como un caballo' and 'no soy un elefante' 😅 also, it would be nice if these apps taught you how people speak in real life and how to talk to Mexicans for example from a more cultural aspect. When I came here and used what little Spanish I had learned from Duolingo, my then boyfriend told me the way I spoke was very rude!

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

No, but I’d love to! No, pero me encantaría!

I like Duolingo for complete beginner as it allows you to get familiar with pronunciation and word formation. I love HelloTalk because it allows you to learn colloquial language and lets you meet people. I also love that you can send voice messages which is great for listening comprehension

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Complete beginner (I can say "Hola")

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

No but interested eg in the mimic method

Positives : spaced repetition, use of images for visual learners, clips of native speakers with a range of accents, direct glosses of phrases in users L1. Negatives: non systematic learning of grammar, small thematic clusters of vocabulary not sufficient enough to able to hold even a basic conversation on that one theme

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

Less than 1 hour per week

Yes. As a teenager I became a fan of a German band and I started to translate their songs, because I wanted to know their meaning.

I like game elements and interactive elements, such as chatbots. I don’t like that you cannot choose the topics or themes that you want to become fluent in first.

Advanced (I can understand and talk about almost anything)

I live in Mexico, every day all day long I guess.

Elementary (I can have a basic conversation)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

French - I used to listen to french songs, and read the lyrics and translations - which helped me learn more vocab. It stuck in my head better than just reading it.

Liked - gamified and broken down into small sections. didn't like - there is nowhere to record vocab, so I can't keep track of whatI've learned in-app

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Yes, listening, reading lyrics and maybe even singing and eventually understanding

Advanced (I can understand and talk about almost anything)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Yes, english and I am trying with french

The app it's funny, you can make progress fast, it's kind of like a game, really interactive, and it encourages you to use it everyday, friendly language

Intermediate (I can make myself understood in many different situations)

I'm not actively learning Spanish

Not intentionally but I guess I learned some Spanish via music and movies.via

Advanced (I can understand and talk about almost anything)

Duolingo, Memrise, HelloTalk, Rosetta Stone