Original subtitles

This is not just another ranking.

This is going to be a MASTERCLASS on how your brain works when you learn Spanish

and how to choose the best resources to improve your Spanish fast and effectively.

After learning to speak six languages, I have learned a thing or two about

what works and what doesn't when it comes to learning a new language.

So, before we even dive into the ranking, there's something you need to understand.

When you work in a new language, when you're trying to learn a new language,

your brain performs in two different pathways: the learning and the practicing.

The difference between learning and practicing is the direction of the information.

I'm going to say that again because you will never hear this from any other teacher or course.

This is brand new; you have never heard it before.

All my students who take classes with me master this concept because it's extremely important.

The difference between learning a language and

practicing a language is the direction of the information.

Now, when you learn a new language, what you do is you get something

that is not in your brain and you put it—add it—inside your brain.

I want you to imagine that your brain is like an empty box.

You get something that was not in the box and you put it there.

That's when you learn.

Now you've got something in the box that wasn't there before.

For example, you can say, "Today I have learned that 'house' equals 'casa' in Spanish"

or "I have learned how to use 'por" y "para" for example."

Practicing is the opposite.

It's when the information goes from the inside to the outside.

What does that mean?

It means that when you practice—right now I'm

practicing my English—you are not adding new stuff to your brain.

What you're doing is getting everything that you already learned,

putting it in order so you can vomit it, I can "expulse" ... expuls? Expel it from your brain.

So you can talk.

The differentiation must be absolutely clear in your head, and I'm sure it is not.

Even though you understand it, I'm sure that it’s not clear in your head,

and I'm going to prove it in just a second.

Question time.

When you watch a show on Netflix, for example, you watch something in

Spanish—maybe "Flores" or whatever show you like in Spanish—what are you doing?

Are you learning or are you practicing?

I bet my ass that 99% of you guys said "learning."

"I am learning Spanish. I'm learning with a show."

You're not learning. You're just practicing.

What? Yes, you're just practicing.

Let me prove it to you.

When was the last time that, after watching a

whole episode of "La Casa de Papel," you went like, "Oh, thanks to this episode,

now I know this word, this word, this expression, and this grammar rule."

"When was the last time you thought, 'Now I know how to conjugate the

present tense of 'ser' and 'estar,' and I know how to use "por y para"?'"

That has never happened.

If you're lucky—and I'm saying if you're lucky—you may have learned one word or two words.

And usually, that's very interesting words like insults or swear words.

Like, I cannot say this because then my video gets flagged,

but you know the kind of words that I mean, right?

Something like that.

Those words have the power of being interesting by themselves.

So just by watching a show, you may learn those words.

But what about the rest?

Understanding Spanish is not the same as speaking Spanish.

You may understand a whole show, but that doesn't mean that you can use it in your daily life.

I'm not going to go into the difference between the "recognized bucket" and the "created bucket."

That's a topic for another video.

What I'm trying to make you understand is that most of the time,

you've been practicing while thinking that you were learning.

Basically, you've been expelling information from your head,

thinking that you were adding information to it.

Let’s do the same with a book.

What was the last book in Spanish that you read, if you’ve read any?

Have you ever gotten the book and gone like, "Oh, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Oh,

thanks to this book I have learned this and this and this and this?"

Never. Never.

Why? Because when you're reading a book, your goal is just to practice, to understand,

to put in order everything you've got in your head so you can process it.

Right now, I've been talking in English for you for the last six or seven minutes.

English is not my native language. It’s a second language for me.

Have I learned something in English?

Do you think that my English is now any better than it was six minutes ago?

I'm telling you it is not.

In fact, I use English every day with my students—my beginner students.

I teach them in English because, of course, we need to communicate, right?

And my English gets no better even though I use English every single day—usually like two,

three, four hours of English every single day.

If I could learn English—check this out—if I

could learn English by speaking, I would be freaking Shakespeare.

And you can tell that I'm not Shakespeare.

Why? Because right now I'm not adding new stuff to my brain.

I'm not improving my pronunciation. I'm not learning new words. I'm not learning

new expressions. I'm not learning new grammar.

I'm just putting all the dots in order so I can talk to you.

Hopefully, you are starting to see what I’m getting at.

Every time you talk to your friends in Spanish, every time you watch shows in Spanish, every

time you read books in Spanish, every time you immerse yourself in Spanish, you're not learning.

Your Spanish is not better. Your Spanish is more fluent,

more comfortable. You feel better with your Spanish.

But that’s not improving. That’s not learning.

Now, why am I making so much emphasis on the difference between practicing versus learning?

First, because it's something nobody will ever tell you.

It’s something that’s crucial to understand if you want to

improve your Spanish or any other language.

Also, because all my students who take private

classes with me master this concept because it's extremely important.

And because, in this ranking, I’m going to be talking all the

time about the learning and the practicing parts.

Any resource can be used to practice or to learn.

Depending on how you use it, you're going to get one result or the other.

Enough chitchat. Let's start with the ranking.

Let’s start with Duolingo.

By Duolingo, I don’t only mean Duolingo. Basically,

I’m talking about all the language learning apps out there.

There’s Duolingo, there’s Babbel, there’s Drops, there’s Memrise. There are many options out there.

Where are we going to place all these apps?

A failure. A complete failure.

Why? Because now that you start to understand the difference between learning and practicing,

think about your experience with Duolingo.

Probably, I bet my ass that you’ve got experience with Duolingo because

everyone in this world has played Duolingo at some point in the past.

What were you doing? Were you actually learning?

Well, yes, you kind of learned a couple of words, just by simple repetition, right?

You learned probably "mamá," "papá," "mesa."

Then you learned some stupid words that you will never use.

For example, one of the very first things that

you learn in Duolingo—I don’t know why—is "bufanda," scarf.

And funny enough, you get sentences like, "The bear has a yellow scarf."

And you’re like, "Yeah, that’s the kind of sentence that I need. Sure."

Anyway, try to remember how Duolingo works and how all these apps work.

Basically, you get a sentence in Spanish, and you need to translate it into English.

Or you get a sentence in English, and you need to translate it into Spanish.

Or you get a disorganized sentence, and you need to put it in order.

Or you get a Spanish sentence by audio, and you need to write it down.

Isn’t that practicing?

The listening exercise is like when you’re listening to a show on Netflix.

The writing exercise, when you need to translate the sentence,

that’s exactly the same as when you’re writing a journal in Spanish.

So yes, there’s a certain amount of learning with this kind of app,

but that kind of learning is only useful for absolute beginners.

And you can learn how many words? Like 50, 60 words maximum.

You don’t know how to conjugate verbs. You don’t

know how difficult grammar rules work. You don’t know anything.

So the learning on these kinds of apps is just for basic vocabulary. That’s it.

Every year I go to the Polyglot Gathering,

which is probably the most important gathering for polyglots—people who speak many languages.

There, you can find people speaking 15 languages, 20 languages. It’s insane—amazing people.

And you know what? There’s no one in those gatherings—people who learn many,

many languages—who has ever told me that they went from absolute

beginner to advanced with any of these apps.

Why? Because it’s absolutely impossible.

You may go from absolute beginner, like zero, "I know nothing," to A1,

"I know something. I can introduce myself. I know the colors. I know this and that."

That’s it. That’s as far as you can get.

Next: Music.

Let’s sing in Spanish.

What? Yes, we all know songs in Spanish.

Songs are a beautiful way to learn Spanish or any other language.

I bet my ass—yes, I’m saying "bet my ass" many times today—that you know how to sing this:

Despacito…

Or maybe you can sing Bailando, bailando, right?

Or maybe Vivir mi vida, lalalala.

Now, you know all these songs.

But do you really know them?

Have you ever learned anything with these songs?

Absolutely not.

In fact, most of you probably know Bailando, and you don’t even know what bailando means.

So now, now that we understand the difference between practicing and

learning, it’s clear to see that when you sing a song, you’re just practicing.

Now, how could you learn with songs?

You get the lyrics.

You get the audio.

You listen to the song, and you analyze it.

You see what words have been used,

what grammar tenses are there, and why they have been used that way.

You translate it into English. You understand what’s written there so that, anytime

in the future, you will be able to use it.

For example, bailando. You understand, "Bailando is the gerund form of bailar, dancing."

And that is used for actions happening with the verb "to be."

"I am dancing." In Spanish, "Estoy bailando."

Oh, it’s the same with verbs like "estando."

"I am dancing." "Estoy bailando."

Now you’re starting to learn new stuff thanks to the song.

Can you see the difference between just singing bailando and analyzing the song,

the words, and learning from it?

This difference applies not only to language learning.

Everything works this way.

For example, those of you who are singers—now

that we’re talking about music—you know that it’s not the same as just singing.

You know, just singing the words "And I’m out there…" That’s like one thing.

That’s karaoke. That’s practicing. Everyone can do that, right?

What’s really learning how to sing?

You get the freaking music sheet, and you start analyzing it.

Page by page. All the notes, all the riffs, everything.

So when you sing, you actually know what you’re singing.

You see?

Those of you who play piano, it’s the same, right?

Playing piano, practicing piano, learning how to play piano—it’s the same concept.

Let’s keep going.

Otherwise, this video will last forever.

Online courses.

Here, you’ve got platforms like Babbel, Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone.

There are a million online courses.

Online courses were very, very popular years ago. Nowadays, they’re not that popular.

And I’m glad, because they’re useless.

Surprise, surprise.

Why? Well, you can imagine by now, right?

You get a decent amount of learning—decent,

mm—but then you’ve got just practice and practice and practice.

Honestly, online courses could rank a bit higher.

The reason why I place them in a C category is because

learning a language is already too difficult.

If they tell you what you need to use in order to learn, it’s super boring.

We’ll talk about this more when we get to grammar books.

Online courses have the same problem as grammar books: they tell you what you need to learn.

For example, the typical section in online courses is “parts of the body.”

And you learn words like "elbow."

Is this the elbow? I don’t even know.

I mean, I speak fluent English, and I don’t know how to call this.

I don’t even know the word for it in Spanish.

I mean, I’ve never talked about this part of the body in my life.

Freaking never.

What about this? I don’t even know how to say this in English.

And I don’t need it.

I mean, I don’t even know the Spanish name for that.

So, it makes no sense that they tell you what to learn.

You should be learning what you care about, what you want to use, what you’re interested in.

If you like football, for example—soccer or American

football, whatever you like—learn that vocabulary.

Because that’s what you’re going to be talking about.

You’re not going to be talking about the knee or the elbow.

You’re going to be talking about the football, the field, the referee, the players.

All those words are what you’re going to be using because you like that topic.

You’ll be talking about that topic.

So yes, online courses give you some practicing and some learning, but everything is very guided.

And I don’t like that.

Language learning should be customized.

Next: Learning while you sleep.

What is this?

I’m surprised by the amount of people who know about this.

This is horrible. This is the worst thing ever created.

In fact, before I describe it, I’m already putting it in F.

It’s horrible.

Do this for me.

Go to YouTube and search for “Learn Spanish while you sleep.”

Do it. Don’t pause this video; just open a new window.

You’ll find an insane number of videos teaching you Spanish while you sleep.

Now focus on the amount of views.

Some of them have millions of views.

This isn’t hundreds or thousands. We’re talking millions.

It’s absolutely ridiculous that people believe you can learn any language by sleeping.

It’s an insult to people who love languages like I do.

The first rule I tell my students—and you should start applying this as well—is this:

If you want to make it fast and easy, don’t do it.

Because learning a language is not fast. It’s not easy. Period.

Of course, if you get a good method, it will be faster.

If you get a good teacher, it will be more effective.

But fast and easy? It is not.

Language learning is like any other skill.

Playing piano, learning how to sing, dancing—you name it.

You cannot be a Broadway dancer in one month.

You cannot speak a language in one month. Period.

Anything that makes it easier—that makes the journey too easy—is not good for you.

Careful, I’m not saying that language learning should be a road of pain and suffering.

I’m not saying that, okay?

And if you’re one of my students, you know that my classes are very entertaining and delightful.

But what I am saying is that there’s a huge difference between something being

entertaining and fun, and something being easy.

Something easy is something that does not force your brain to work.

If your brain doesn’t work, you won’t get better. Period.

This sentence should be on your

office wall, huge, like a poster: If your brain doesn’t work, you won’t get better.

It’s like the gym. There’s no way you can grow muscle if you don’t stress the muscle. Period.

There’s no way you’re going to improve your Spanish if

you don’t force and stress your brain. Period.

Let’s keep going.

Flashcard apps.

Probably most of you don’t know what a flashcard app is.

This one goes to the top.

You know what a flashcard is, right?

A flashcard is just a piece of paper—like a Post-it—where,

on one face, you put “casa” and, on the other face, you put “house.”

That’s it.

Then, when you review it, you look at one side and think, “House… ah, I knew that one, casa. Yes!”

That’s a flashcard.

Nowadays, forget the Post-it; just throw it in the garbage.

We’ve got flashcard apps that do that for you.

Flashcards by themselves are good—just simple repetition.

I’m not going to say they’re bad, but they’re not perfect.

Around 70-80 years ago, there was a German guy called Sebastian Leitner who discovered

a theory that revolutionized the way we understand learning.

It’s called the forget-to-learn theory.

Basically—and I won’t go into technical details—this theory

tells us that in order to reinforce a connection

in our brain and make something more memorable, we need to forget it first.

Yes, we need to forget it.

This sounds a little complicated, but it’s actually not.

This knowledge led to something extremely valuable

for language learning: the spaced repetition system.

What is spaced repetition?

It’s an algorithm—a mathematical algorithm—that

calculates how much time you need to not see a word for you to almost forget it.

Then, it shows you that word at the perfect time, so

your brain struggles just enough to remember it.

When you think, “Ah, house, casa, I knew that

one!” that effort strengthens the connection in your brain.

The algorithm will then hide that word again until it calculates the next time you need to see it.

Not all flashcard apps use the spaced repetition system.

My recommendation is this: Start using a flashcard app today, right now.

But only use a flashcard app that uses the spaced repetition system.

There are many flashcard apps out there. Most of them do not use spaced repetition.

From the ones that do, my top recommendations are:

Anki. Most of you know about Anki. It’s very simple, not complicated, and great for beginners.

RemNote. RemNote is more advanced. You need to spend two or three weeks

learning how to use it, but once you do, it’s beautiful.

Every time you learn something, put it into your flashcard app.

Play with the app every day.

Anki and RemNote will show you only the words you need to review that day.

You might have a million flashcards, but maybe today you’ll only review 25.

That’s because the app knows what you need to practice.

It’s extremely recommended. Use it.

Next: Netflix.

Netflix here doesn’t only mean Netflix.

We’re talking about all video streaming platforms—Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO, etc.

Netflix is a B.

It’s not great, but it’s not terrible. Medium.

Why? I think you can guess the answer by now.

What is Netflix? Is it learning or practicing?

Don’t say learning, please.

It’s practicing.

When you watch a show in Spanish, whether you use subtitles or not, you’re just practicing.

You’re not learning. You’re not adding new stuff to your brain.

How can you learn through Netflix?

Watch the show. Every time you find something you don’t understand, stop the show.

Check that information. Memorize it. Make it interesting.

Every time I say this, some students have a heart attack.

“Stop the show? José, are you crazy?”

You need to understand your goal.

Is your goal to watch the show?

Is your goal to see who the good guy is, who the bad guy is, or who’s going to kill the woman?

If so, that’s entertainment.

If you just want to be entertained, watch the show in English.

Why would you do that in Spanish?

If your goal is to learn Spanish through this show, then stop the show. Analyze it. Learn.

“But if I stop, it’s going to take forever to watch a single episode!”

And what’s the problem?

Do you want to be entertained, or do you want to learn?

Every time I share this concept,

students fight against me. They give me a million arguments about why it’s not true.

You know what? After a month, month and a half, they apologize to me.

They say, “José, wow, now I see it. Now I

get it. Just watching a show doesn’t make my Spanish better.”

Here’s the same challenge I give my students:

Watch an episode of any show in Spanish. With or without subtitles, it doesn’t matter.

At the end of the episode, send me an email saying, “José, thanks to this episode,

I’ve learned: …” and list what you’ve learned.

I’ll be waiting for your answer.

Next: Online Classes.

We’ve got iTalki here, but iTalki is just one of many platforms.

There’s iTalki, Verbling, Busuu, Amazing Talker, Preply—so many options for online classes.

I’m going to rate online classes as B.

Why? Because it all comes down to the kind of teacher you find.

98% of online teachers would belong here, in the B category.

But there’s a small 2-3% of teachers who belong here, in the A category.

I’m one of them.

So, the average rating lands at B.

What should you avoid when looking for a teacher?

Avoid the conversational method. The conversational method is

nothing more than a fancy way to say, “We’re going to talk, and that’s it.”

You’re going to pay them to talk.

Yes, you could do that for free.

There are apps like Tandem, language

exchange platforms, Facebook groups, or local Spanish-speaking communities wherever you live.

You don’t need to pay $10, $15, or $20 for

a conversation. But to sell it to you, they call it the “conversational method.”

Run away from this.

Avoid teachers who use grammar books. If a teacher says, “We’re going to

follow this grammar book. You need to buy the book,” run away.

If they say, “No, no, I’ll give you the PDF,” still run away.

Why are you paying for a teacher if you’re just going to follow a book?

If I wanted to learn from a book, I’d go to the library and buy it myself.

When I pay for a teacher, I want them to teach me.

I want them to use their expertise and personality

to frame information in a way I can understand better.

What kind of teacher should you look for?

Look for a teacher who has a method.

Not the conversational method, but a personal, structured method.

Look for a teacher who learns languages or has learned languages.

This is the biggest piece of advice I can give you.

Never choose a teacher who only speaks their native language.

For example, if you’re learning Spanish, never pick a teacher who only speaks Spanish.

If you’re learning German, don’t pick a teacher who only speaks German.

If you’re learning French, don’t pick a teacher who only speaks French.

Why?

Let me give you an example.

Let’s assume your native language is English. You’re American, British, or Australian.

Could you explain the English subjunctive? Probably not.

Could you define what a phrasal verb is? No idea, right?

If you don’t know your own native language well enough to explain it, how do you expect me,

as a Spaniard, to know Spanish deeply just because I was born speaking it?

I dare you to come to Spain, Mexico, or Argentina and ask anyone on the street:

“What is the Spanish subjunctive?”

“What is the pluperfect tense?”

“When do you use ‘ser’ versus ‘estar’?”

Good luck. You’ll find no one who can answer those questions.

The reason is simple.

We are born with languages.

I was born speaking Spanish, but I had no

idea about Spanish grammar until I started learning other languages.

When I learned English, then I understood Spanish.

When I learned Italian, I understood Spanish better.

When I learned Esperanto, I understood Spanish even more.

Learning other languages has made me an expert in Spanish.

Not because I was born speaking it, but because I’ve used my knowledge

of other languages to deepen my understanding.

So, never choose a teacher just because they are native speakers.

If you want to learn Spanish from a Dutch person who speaks six languages, go ahead.

If you want to learn French from a Spaniard who speaks four languages, go ahead.

If you want to learn Italian from an American who speaks 17 languages, go ahead.

Those teachers will teach you way better and more efficiently than any native speaker.

Next: Grammar Books.

Grammar books go straight to D.

They’re trash. Completely useless.

I still remember when I was learning French for the first time.

The beginner’s grammar book I got was teaching me

words like “silk,” “cotton,” and “leather”—but in French.

I was like, “Why? Why would I need this?”

Language learning should always be customizable and entertaining.

Grammar books are neither.

To the trash they go.

Next: Artificial Intelligence.

Here, we’re talking about tools like ChatGPT, Google Bard, Gemini, and many others.

AI tools go straight to the top—S.

It’s obvious.

AI has completely changed the way we learn languages.

It’s the closest thing we have to a personal teacher.

But can AI replace teachers?

Absolutely not.

AI tools are still machines. They learn from people, and people make mistakes.

For example, ChatGPT often makes errors with verb tenses,

grammatical rules, and the use of “por” versus “para.”

Why? Because it’s fed with human data, and humans make mistakes.

That’s why the final filter should always be a real, human teacher.

But AI tools can teach you so much and help you self-learn effectively.

You’ll end up paying a teacher only for the absolutely necessary things.

Let’s keep going!

Podcast

What I’m going to tell you is the same: podcasts are just for practicing, right?

When you listen to a podcast, you practice, practice, practice. There’s no learning.

How do you learn with a podcast?

You listen to it, and every time you don’t understand something, you stop, check it out,

and make it interesting. You insert that information into your head, into your brain.

Immersion Immersion, immersion, immersion! I’m going to

put immersion as an A category. Even though it’s absolutely practicing, it’s also so much more.

When you travel to Spain, Mexico, or Argentina,

you’re going to need to speak, read, write, and listen all the time. So,

it’s completely practicing. But here’s the key point: something must be interesting.

The brain only memorizes things that are interesting. And guess what? Living in Spain,

Mexico, or Argentina makes things very interesting!

You’re going to make mistakes, get into trouble, and need to send important

emails. All of that makes the brain highly engaged. Even though it’s a lot of practice,

it also involves a lot of learning because it’s so interesting for your brain.

Lingopie Lingopie is another tool, and I would rate it a B.

Lingopie is essentially a software with intelligent subtitles. You watch a Netflix

show with subtitles, and you can click on the words to get more information.

Can you learn with Lingopie? Yes, but only if you stop the show,

click the word, and check it out.

For example, if you see the word “marker,” you might click it, read the definition,

and memorize it. However, a month later, you might forget it while speaking to a friend.

Why does that happen? When you memorized it,

the information went into your short-term memory, not your long-term memory.

So, to make the most of Lingopie (or any similar software), ensure that everything you memorize

moves to your long-term memory. That way, you’ll remember it even after a year.

Tandem/Language Exchange Apps Tandem or similar apps are usually rated C. Why?

The reason is simple: most language exchange apps are not really used

for language exchange. They often function like an unfiltered Tinder.

Instead of practicing languages, many users are looking for something else. I’ve received

inappropriate messages from all sorts of people on these apps when my only intention was to practice.

That doesn’t mean you can’t find nice people willing to practice,

but for me, it has often been a waste of time.

Dictionaries WordReference is the

gold standard for online dictionaries, and I’m putting it in the A category.

Avoid using SpanishDict. Please, just don’t. The number of mistakes on that website is

incalculable. It’s like the infinite digits of Pi!

Every time a student asks me about something they found online,

I can instantly tell if it’s from SpanishDict because the mistakes are so characteristic.

WordReference, on the other hand, is

amazing. Every polyglot I’ve met says the same thing: WordReference is the best.

Why? The amount of detailed information

it provides is unmatched. For example, translating the verb “to get” into Spanish depends heavily on

the context and emphasis, and WordReference breaks that down for you, meaning by meaning.

Conclusion Hopefully, you’ve

learned a few things from this video. Remember, the ranking of tools isn’t what’s most important.

What matters is understanding how your brain learns and using resources the right way.

Always base your decisions on the difference between practicing and learning.

If you’d like customized help, you can check my

classes at PolyglotPanda.com or in the video description.

That’s all for now. Ciao, pandas! 🐼