Why Online Language Games based on a Travel Story can help you learn Spanish (and German, French, and Italian)

As we completed our Spanish 1 course in preparation for our upcoming stay in Spain, we were reassured that our idea of a “Story” to drive our language courses makes sense. (Click HERE to listen to the "Story" as our Spanish 1 "hero" flies from Boston to Barcelona.)

How do we know?

When we are trying to recall certain words and phrases, we begin to imagine the situation our traveller (David) finds himself in. And expressions such as: “...es la primera vez...”, “ ...es muy bueno...”, or “...no es muy bueno...”, “...me quedo tres semanas...”, “...me alegro...”, etc., etc. often come to mind as we are thinking about '”The Story”.

We also fully expect that with a vocabulary of only 700 words, we will not be “fluent”, nor likely to understand everything that is being said. But we already know that we can read a fair amount of Spanish text (which users of only audio and picture programs may not be able to); and watching yesterday a Spanish "soap opera" (La Que No Podía Amar) for the first time, we already understood quite a bit.

We'll keep a log of our language adventures...