Bienvenido mis amigos (Welcome my friends). Today I will be reviewing learning Spanish via social media. Who knew I could use Instagram for something useful other than mindlessly scrolling through my feed late at night while I should be sleeping?
While there are many different social media applications, I would have to say Instagram dominates my use. Whether it be for following professional athletes to finding new recipes for supper, I use Instagram for informational and non-informational content. So, I thought, why not try using Insta for learning Spanish?
To start on this process, I had to find the Instagram pages I would use. I found a few with a simple Google search. The three accounts that I focused on during this journey was: @SpanishDict, @Ohlalagram, and @hablomosespanol. @SpanishDict offers daily vocabulary, grammar tips, and interactive quizzes to challenge the learner. @Ohlalagram provides visually appealing infographics and a variety of language memes to make learning Spanish fun and engaging. Lastly, @hablomosespanol offers short language lessons, and cultural insights that every other resource that I have explored has yet to touch on.
To begin, the accessibility of social media is unmatched. They are free to use and accessible for all ages and levels of Spanish speaking learners. With almost everyone having a phone at their disposal, hopping on Instagram for a few minutes here and there is accessible for almost everyone. This was especially beneficial to me with having a such a busy schedule; I could get a few minutes in during my lunch break or for the few minutes while I’m laying in bed. The other aspect I like about this resource was that it was a lot more fun and engaging than other resources. With the interactive and sometimes funny videos, I was excited to move onto the next video. Lastly, as I mentioned before, this was the first resource that I explored that also taught about the culture of Latin America. This is exactly why I wanted to learn Spanish in the first place, I love the culture! They would also teach slang terminology that native speakers use in their everyday lives.
While social media was an interesting online tool there were a few cons I’d like to mention. Being on Instagram learning Spanish was a bit of a double-edged sword. I found myself getting off task quite often as I would wonder off onto another page and go down a rabbit hole of nonsense. I found it difficult to stay on task for a long period of time. Another thing that I wasn’t a fan of was the lack of structure. There was no continuity in the learning process whatsoever. For a beginner, this would be extremely difficult to navigate the complex language. For myself, having a bit more background knowledge, it was a bit easier but still challenging to say the least.
Overall learning Spanish through Instagram is something I never thought was possible. It was a pleasant and surprising experience. For quick little tidbit lessons, there worked perfectly.
I’m curious, has anyone else tried learning Spanish through social media? Let me know!
See you all soon!
Zach
