A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or
more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two
months apart.
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons
are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have
to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until
the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each
lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such,
we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final
exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work,
including the final exam.
Week One
Wednesday - Lesson 01
There are many sounds in Spanish that we don't have in English, so we'll start off our first lesson by practicing pronunciation. What's more, we'll practice Recipes 1 and 2, extending Recipe 2 so that you can express yourself better in the past tense. Once you finish this lesson, your pronunciation will have improved, and you'll know how to use Recipes 1 and 2 even better than before.
Friday - Lesson 02
Today's lesson is a first introduction into what's usually referred to as the preterite tense. During this lesson and the ones that follow, you'll learn when and how to use the preterite and the imperfect when describing events that happened in the past, and you'll learn an assortment of time phrases that will help you reinforce your use of the past tense. When you're finished, you'll appreciate how the Spanish language carves up events and situations that have occurred in the past.
Week Two
Wednesday - Lesson 03
Throughout the course, we'll be reviewing what you've learned in previous lessons, so today you'll practice a number of recipes that'll look familiar to you. Working with these recipes, you'll learn what it takes to transition smoothly from one recipe to another. When you've completed this lesson, your speaking and writing skills will be more polished than ever before because you'll know how to use transitional phrases.
Friday - Lesson 04
The verb ser has peculiar verb forms, and today you'll learn those different forms framed up against its partner verb, estar. After practicing this lesson's helpful drills, you'll know when to use ser and when to use estar. Once you've done this, your next step is to learn the Fun Phrases associated with ser and estar. We'll also practice Recipes 1 through 4 and learn some extended verb forms. After today's lesson, you'll know all there is to know about Recipes 1 through 4!
Week Three
Wednesday - Lesson 05
During the previous lessons, you've been learning and reviewing vocabulary while improving your pronunciation skills at the same time. This lesson is no different, but the focus today will be on distinguishing the preterite from the imperfect tenses. When you're finished with today's lesson, you'll know the full range of Recipes 1 through 6, preterite and all.
Friday - Lesson 06
In today's lesson, I'll show you a few new verbs while reviewing Recipes 1 through 6. After that, we'll move on to an in-depth review of Recipe 7, which will give you options on how to package past events. Accompanying this lesson are practice drills designed to improve your ability to respond spontaneously in Spanish. You're now midway through the course, so you'll want to practice what you're learning here with native speakers of Spanish.
Week Four
Wednesday - Lesson 07
Today we'll go over the complete range of Recipe 7 and go through a few related exercises. You'll learn a number of commonly used short and crisp phrases that are associated with Recipe 7. You'll also learn how to apply Recipe 7 to hacer/dar/decir, verbs, which you need to know only because you'll be using them all the time. Besides learning more about Recipe 7, we'll also review Recipes 1 through 6. When you've completed this lesson, you'll feel comfortable using so-called irregular Spanish verbs, because you'll know the underlying pattern of these verbs.
Friday - Lesson 08
Spanish has flexible word order with some constraints, so today you'll learn how and when you can change the word order around. We'll review Recipe 8, which you learned in Speed Spanish II, and I'll introduce you to Recipe 9, which I like to call the Se Habla Español recipe. Later, we'll review reflexives, and then you'll learn some new ones and run them through a number of recipes. Because this lesson is chock-full of material, you'll be busy with fun!
Week Five
Wednesday - Lesson 09
Remember in the first Speed Spanish course when you learned all about the particles, lo/la/me. Later in Speed Spanish II, we expanded on them. Now you've made it all the way to Speed Spanish III, and it's time that you learn the full range of particle usages. You'll learn how to incorporate these new particles into your conversations and, as always, we'll practice our recipes. Then you'll learn a host of new verbs that you can use in your everyday Spanish conversations.
Friday - Lesson 10
In this lesson, we'll review the recipe that produces would verb phrases, and you'll learn its capacity to express probability. Besides learning more about Recipe 10, you'll learn a new recipe that will help you to express the future. This is Recipe 11. Because this lesson is building toward the subjunctive recipes, you'll also learn a number of phrases that can trigger the subjunctive. As we'll do in every lesson, we'll go over some new vocabulary words. We'll pay special attention to ser and ir in this lesson, too. When you're finished, you'll have completed Recipes 10 and 11.
Week Six
Wednesday - Lesson 11
The focus of this lesson, like all the others, is the recipes. Today, you'll build on what you've learned in previous lessons by practicing Recipes 12 through 14. Laying the foundation for the subjunctive in the previous lesson, this lesson does the same and more so that you'll be prepared for the subjunctives recipes in Lesson 12. After you finish this lesson, you'll have learned Recipes 1 through 14.
Friday - Lesson 12
If you've ever heard the phrase, Viva Las Vegas, you've made the first step toward learning the subjunctive. In this lesson, framed up against the memories of Señor Macías, Platero, and David Smith, you'll learn the present and past subjunctives. After you finish this, our final lesson, you'll have learned a total of 17 recipes that should help you speak fluent Spanish! You now have the tools you need to read, write, and say whatever you want. It's up to you now to seek out Spanish speakers. May your recipes be with you!