In this StudySpanish.com review, we’ll be looking at both versions of the course—its desktop platform and its mobile app, Camino. We’ll go over how the two versions differ, what material they cover, and how much the service costs. That way, you should have all of the information to decide if StudySpanish.com will benefit you.
Our Verdict
One set of course material, two different interfaces. The desktop and the mobile versions are not at all the same, and they are not at all equal. Do yourself a favour and skip the desktop version of StudySpanish.com. Get the Camino app if you’re interested in this programme and save yourself the headache.
Once you do, you'll unlock tonnes of invaluable and thorough Spanish lessons, ranging from everyday vocabulary to niche grammar points.
TL;DR StudySpanish.com Review
Some quick pros and cons of StudySpanish.com if you don't have time to read the whole review:
Pros
- Camino app excels where the website itself fails
- Thorough and comprehensive material from beginner to advanced
- Sister sites offer more options for learners with other needs
Cons
- The free trial isn’t really free
- Desktop version is difficult to navigate; requires bouncing between two websites
- Relies heavily on self-motivation to track your learning
What is StudySpanish.com?
StudySpanish.com is actually one of two entities owned by Study Languages, LLC. StudySpanish.com was the pioneer version of the company’s web-based Spanish education programme and launched in 1998.
The other entity is Camino, the company’s mobile-exclusive course in Spanish education. Both programmes cover the same content and follow the same basic methods of education, but the experiences differ greatly between them.
We'll take a look at both in this StudySpanish.com review.
What Can You Do on StudySpanish.com?
At its core, StudySpanish.com is a hybrid. You’ll notice similarities to listen-and-repeat courses like Pimsleur and the quizzes and tests you see with textbook learning.
They tout two main principles in their courses. The first principle is “overlearning.” When overlearning, you learn a small amount of material very well instead of a large amount of material reasonably well. The second principle is authenticity—that is, you’ll learn via actual conversations that you might have in real life.
Listening and Speaking Exercises: CaminoDelExito.com
In a truly bizarre move, all of the listening exercises and their companion transcripts aren’t on StudySpanish.com at all. They’re kept on a sister site: CaminoDelExito. It looks in every way the part of StudySpanish.com, but these lessons are separate from the others. According to the website, you’re to listen to the unit’s dialogue twice, first with the transcript, and then again without it. They encourage you to listen and repeat after the speakers in the dialogue, which are all narrated by native speakers.
Only premium members can access the audio lessons. We explore the pricing later on in this StudySpanish.com review.
Pronunciation
If there is one thing that StudySpanish.com does exceptionally well, it is its thorough explanations of just about every aspect of the language. The pronunciation section on the desktop website doesn’t have any tests in this section. It does, however, go through and explain how every single letter of the alphabet is pronounced, including diphthongs. Each letter has an accompanying oral exercise to familiarise you with the appropriate pronunciation.
Grammar
Like pronunciation, StudySpanish.com does an excellent job explaining various grammar points in a thorough yet easily comprehensible way. It offers 109 lessons in nine units of grammar, all of which can be accessed on a free membership. The accompanying tests, with the exception of the basic quiz, are unfortunately saved for premium members only.
Vocabulary
Just like any other language, the journey to fluency begins with vocabulary. Unlike other programs that will teach you words you’re not likely to use in your daily life, StudySpanish.com focuses on words you’ll actually use and remember. StudySpanish.com breaks down vocabulary into topics based on various areas of interest, and you choose which vocabulary you want to practice.
Free members are given a hefty list of words, but premium members have access to twice that amount in each and every topic.
Verb Drills
Taking grammar one step further, StudySpanish.com goes as far as providing you with a separate set of exercises just for conjugating verbs. These exercises include an in-depth look at all of the different types of verbs and how they’re conjugated. From basic to irregular, from present tense to past participle and conditional, you’ll learn how to conjugate these verbs. Not only that, but you’ll also learn how to construct sentences with them, too.
What Does StudySpanish.com Look Like?
We’ll break this down into two sections: the first, looking at the desktop version of StudySpanish.com, and the second, looking at Camino, the app-based version of the course.
StudySpanish.com Desktop Website
We wish we could say this was straightforward. Alas, the desktop version of the programme is incredibly confusing. First, you’re expected to go to a completely different website in order to listen to the dialogue for the unit. Then you practice, first with the transcript, and then without, and then you’re to return back to CaminoDelExito.com to take the quizzes and tests.
Then there is the material on StudySpanish.com for you to cover, each with its own quizzes and tests for you to take. It’s all needlessly complicated.
Camino Mobile App
While this is a StudySpanish.com review, we cannot leave it's superior sister app, Camino, behind.
Where its desktop version fails, the Camino app excels. The listening units and grammar units are still split into separate sections, but navigating them is much easier. Each unit is clearly marked with details about the content it covers. Most of all, the units in the core lessons themselves include a little bit of everything, rather than sectioning it off separately as the desktop version does.
Who is StudySpanish.com Best For?
It doesn’t matter if you’re a complete beginner or a more advanced learner wanting to further your skills. If you want to learn Spanish, StudySpanish.com will get you well on your way to fluency. Or more accurately, its mobile education programme Camino will. On its own, StudySpanish.com is better as reference material than a true education programme.
What Languages Does StudySpanish.com Offer?
Unsurprisingly given the name, StudySpanish.com offers only one language: Spanish. Honing in on just one language, the company has focused on teaching that language exceptionally well. That being said, StudySpanish.com has two sister websites: MedicalSpanish.com for health care workers who want to learn medical terms, and EstudiaIngles.com for native Spanish speakers hoping to learn English.
How Much Does StudySpanish.com Cost?
StudySpanish.com offers three different membership options, which we'll take a look at in this review.
Free Membership
The free membership gives partial access to the lesson library, tests and quizzes, and the Camino app. It will even record your grades on some of those tests and quizzes, but not all of them. This is perfect for those who aren’t ready to commit to a subscription or those who are tight on cash.
Lifetime Membership
For those who prefer to pay just once, the lifetime membership runs for $119. You’ll get full access to everything StudySpanish.com has to offer, as well as everything on the Camino app.
Monthly Membership
You could also choose the monthly membership for $9.99 a month, which gives you the same access as the lifetime membership. The only difference is you’ll lose that access if you unsubscribe.
The monthly subscription gives you a seven-day free trial, but you will need to input credit card information to try it. It will charge you the monthly fee, so you’re basically getting 37 days for the first month. It’s a bit misleading, which is a shame.
What Are The Pros and Cons of StudySpanish.com?
Pros
- Camino app excels where the website itself fails
- Thorough and comprehensive material from beginner to advance
- Sister sites offer more options for learners with other needs
Cons
- The free trial isn’t really free
- Desktop version is difficult to navigate; requires bouncing between two websites
- Relies heavily on self-motivation to track your learning
Are There Any StudySpanish.com Alternatives?
StudySpanish.com vs Spanish Uncovered
If it’s another comprehensive Spanish course you’re looking for, look no further than Spanish Uncovered. It doesn’t cover quite as much ground as StudySpanish.com does, but it will get you from absolutely nothing to intermediate fluency, and it's a little more organised too. You can also try it out for free for one week, to see if it's the right kind of course for you.
Check out our review of Spanish Uncovered if you want to learn more!
StudySpanish.com vs NoComprendo
NoComprendo is an interactive textbook. If traditional learning is more your speed, then this may be a good alternative for you. They offer clear, structured lesson plans, but also the flexibility to allow you to learn what and when you want. The only drawbacks are that you must access it from a desktop browser, and there aren’t any exercises for listening and speaking practice. But for absolute beginners, the extra tools they offer, like a dictionary and conjugation tables, this option may be the way to go.
StudySpanish.com vs Bite Size Languages
For those who want to use NoComprendo but need to supplement the lack of listening and speaking practice, why not try Bite Size Languages? True to the name, the lessons offered are short and sweet, making fitting in a bit of extra practice a breeze. The Spanish course is dialect-free, though it does feature Mexican Spanish-speaking voice actors.
You can learn more about Bite Size Languages here.
A Round-Up of Our StudySpanish.com Review
Although the course material between StudySpanish.com and its mobile app Camino is largely the same, the two interfaces could not be more different. And the course material is excellent, don’t get us wrong. But the complicated interface of the desktop version just makes learning so much more difficult, and needlessly so.
The creators of this programme know how to make a comprehensive learning experience. The Camino app is far and away a much better way of learning Spanish. If they could apply the same streamlined process to the desktop version, they would have an excellent programme on their hands.
The disparity between the two versions and the misleading information about the free trial left us feeling sour. As it stands, StudySpanish.com is absolutely a way to get a solid foundation of Spanish. With a few improvements, they could even make the experience that much more enjoyable.
Ori Starling is a writer, editor, and translator based out of the United States. Their interest in languages began over 25 years ago, teaching themselves Spanish at a young age from tapes so that they could speak with family. Since then, they've studied Korean, Mandarin, and Japanese, with plans to continue their lifelong language learning journey.