The Telenovela Method: How to Learn Spanish Online Using Spanish TV, Music, Movies, Comics, Books, and More

by Andrew Tracey

This book is an entire guide for learning Spanish using free online resources combined with popular media (movies, songs, books, TV shows, etc.)--the Telenovela Method itself is just part of that book. I'll not only teach you the general method but I'll also show you how to adapt it to specific media sources such as movies, TV shows, books, comics, and more (note in the Table of Contents for it below that each media source gets its own chapter) as well as how to then immediately take what you just learned and utilize it in the single most effective language-learning technique actually using it to communicate with native speakers. Not only that but I'll give you an enormous amount of free online resources and teach you precisely how to use them.



You do not need to pay for a course, class, tutor, or insanely overpriced computer program. You need this book and and you need internet access (obviously you already have that), that's it.

Below I've put the Table of Contents for this book along so you can really understand what this book is about and what you'll be

Genres: Spanish Literature, Nonfiction, Language, Education

214 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 28, 2013

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't say I really read this one, more like heavily skimmed. My plan is to apply the method for learning Russian. The only problem is that I'm such a beginner in Russian that I can't really do anything that this book suggests, not yet anyway! One day, Russian! One day I will master you, and apparently I can do it will watching Spanish telenovelas. :)

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book did not age well. I don't know what year it was first published, but it wasn't 2017. More like 2009. It would have been a 5-star book back then. I think there are now easier/faster methods than this that are the same process. By learning the Telenova method you are learning the most common words in conversation.

You can accomplish this by simply getting the 1000 (2000, 5000) most frequent word lists that are now available online. Drop those 1000 words in the Anki app and you'll be able to understand close to 85% of spoken Spanish. You then sprinkle some grammar on top of that and learn to listen using Netflix and Youtube and you have the updated Telenova method. I did this myself. Once I learned the 1000 words in about 3 months, learning slowly at about 10 words per day, I could understand, or at least get the gist of everything I heard. You can do this with any language. The 1000 word count to understand most conversations will vary depending on the language.

[The Wandering Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the method that the author espouses in "The Telenovela Method" is fantastic, the writing leaves much to be desired. To begin, anyone who is even remotely familiar with popular methods of language acquisition will note that Mr. Tracey's ideas are neither unique nor revolutionary. In fact, much of his method appears to be very similar to that of Khatzumoto from All Japanese All the Time. This is, of course, not terribly important as the author himself states that this method is not uniquely his own. I will state that after being a long-time reader of the All Japanese All the Time blog, Khatzumoto definitely does it better and with far more aplomb.

Unfortunately, the actual meat of "The Telenova Method" falls flat in its presentation. This is just another example of a self-published e-book in desperate need of an editor. The entirety of the book could have been far more succinctly stated in half of the space, possibly less. Numerous run-on and awkward sentences, unnecessary asides, redundancy, over-explanation, and both grammar and spelling mistakes made the text nearly unbearable to read at times. In fact, I actually found myself with a heavy-duty migraine after the first hour of reading because I was mentally correcting the structure and grammar of nearly every sentence. Additionally, if an author wants to be taken seriously, I would suggest leaving typical "blog speak" out of your manuscript. While I don't require elitist speech and diction in everything I read nor am I such a perfectionist that I can not tolerate even the most minute of errors, I find it in poor taste to include such things as "haha" after your sentences or to pluralize using an apostrophe. If I want that, I'll visit Facebook.

The diamonds in this book are the appendices, wherein the author lists a variety of fantastic and FREE resources for the Spanish learner. A LOT of material is represented here, which means that it is inevitable that one will find something to get excited about. There are a few additional gems sprinkled throughout the text, but if you're at all familiar with the immersion method of language learning, your best bet is to simply skip the entire book and go straight to the appendices or just read the blog that it is based on.

[Jennifer Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book as a loaner via Amazon Prime.

It's written in very informal, blog-like style by a guy who has a blog about the very same topic. I'm actually considering buying the book - it has great resources and links for learning Spanish for free online. Quick read, and I've gotten so much from putting his clever and practical advice into practice.

Great how-to info, excellent tips, excellent links to other resources. Can't recommend this book more highly.

[Sleekkat · Rating 2 out of 5]

A long advertisement for his for-profit website. If you want to find sources video for language learning, the subreddit language-learning has something great suggestions without the hard sell.

[Razzle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel a bit guilty giving this three stars since I've been using the technique in the two weeks since I've read the book, and the technique itself is great. It's called "immersion," you may have heard of it.

This book is a bit like a self-help book in that there is one idea, and then a great deal of book padded around it. Or at least a medium amount of book. I like books, and I like the idea of self-publishing.

Honestly, my main complaint is that the book is not nearly as funny as his blog. I was drawn to his blog largely by its irreverent sense of humor and absurdist example sentences. The book must be designed for a wider and tamer audience, and it shows.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very clear explanation of how to use telenovelas (or other readily available resources in your target language, such as movies, books, or music) to boost your language learning. The author also includes many, many resources that have helped him in his quest to learn Spanish. Unfortunately, the book reads very informally, like he just took a bunch of blog posts and made them into chapters (which also means there is some repeated information). The sheer number of comma splices was also an annoyance.

[Terri Pease · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great System, Lots of Resources

Five stars because the method is so interesting and enticing. I love the detail this author gives about the various resources. The editing is only so so, it’s a little choppy and the flow isn’t always consistent. Still what’s most important and what makes this a five star review is that it gives you everything that you need to be able to learn Spanish.

[Rosemary Daly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of great ideas for improving your Spanish language skills. It is also full of fabulous links, websites, and resources for the Spanish language student. I am using it and hope to see my Spanish language skills improve greatly.

[Emmystorms]

Helpful tips for my whole "learning Spanish" process. Definitely skimmed a bit (as I often do with these types of books) but found useful snippets for sure!