QuickAdvice: Spanish Touch Trainer Helps You Learn Spanish
Spanish Touch Trainer (Free) by Appocado is a fun and effective supplement to your Spanish studies. The focus of this niche app is verb conjugation, arguably the hardest part of learning Spanish for a native English speaker. Spanish Touch Trainer takes advantage of the iDevice functionality to take the monotony out of textbook study and drills. It has a beautiful user interface and feels game-like, though it is a serious learning tool.
To jump right in, choose Beginner or Advanced. Each section contains 55 practice sentences. The sentences are presented in English. Select one. The first word will be highlighted; choose the Spanish translation of that word from a number of choices given. The first sentence is the beginner section is: My name is Juan. Choose from the following answers: mi(s), tu(s), su(s), nuestr(o/a/os/as). Selecting the correct answer, mi(s), gets you a pleasant little ding, a point, and two more choices: mi or mis. Select ‘mi’ for another point. Next, ‘name’ will be highlighted. Your choices: nombre, amiga, or bebe. ‘Nombre’ gets you another point. Next, choose the correct verb (infinitive) for ‘is’: olvidar, ser, or soportar? It’s ‘ser’, but now you must choose which conjugation: siendo, eres, or es? Choose ‘es’, and get your result: 5 correct, 0 incorrect choices made. Perfecto.
Once you have completed a sentence, you have unlocked it. This means you can hear it spoken aloud by tapping the Say it! icon.
In addition to well over 100 practice sentences, you also get a detailed reference guide by tapping the Conjugations icon. This contains hundreds of verbs and all of their conjugations. That alone is a reason to keep this on your iDevice even after you have completed all of the exercises.
This app is an incredible bargain for free -- there are unobtrusive ads (as you can see in my photos) which don’t particularly bother me. If you are taking Spanish classes, whether at the junior high, high school or college level, Spanish Touch Trainer is a worthwhile addition to your arsenal of learning tools. Enjoy learning with this truly educational game.
