garyb wrote:Jaleel10 wrote:I can highly recommend her podcast too and it comes with transcripts. http://www.espanolautomatico.com/
I listened to Español Automatico for a good few months, but eventually got sick of it because too many of the episodes were just becoming sales pitches for their courses, full of marketing BS and promises of miracles. Which is sad because it's a very professionally-produced podcast, and the "normal" episodes discussed some very interesting topics and were of a perfect length for multiple listens. Sure, they need to make their money somehow, but other similar series (like Français Authentique and Italiano Automatico, the ones that obviously inspired it) find a better balance and are more honest about what they're selling.
I listened to the first episode and really liked it. My comprehension was at or near 100%, and I didn't have the problem I normally encounter with podcasts where my brain wanders and thinks about other, non related things. I think this is because I like the topic of "language learning", so I was listening carefully to pick up any good advice
I'll keep listening and hopefully the sales pitches aren't too bad. Many of the episodes look very interesting, so even with advertisements it might be worth it to get exposed to some good content. Therywas talk on here (or the old site) about how helpful it is to watch informercials in your target language, so as long as the advertisements are in Spanish I'll try to listen to all the episodes.