BBC vídeo series to learn Spanish

Spanish Learning Series

Hello there! In my first years of teaching I came across with many students around the globe who wanted to learn Spanish at a basic level in order to communicate when travelling and living in Spain. One day, while browsing for extra materials and tools, I found a fun and interesting series created by the BBC and I felt that it was a perfect supporting tool for some of my students to follow after class. The series was a bunch of short videos that followed a story-line and also included grammar explanations and further interactive activities that helped students and supported teachers work.

As part of my first steps as a teacher, I've always felt attached to the time where students used to share with me their insights after watching an episode so I got a bit upset when I discovered that the BBC had archived the page where the series could be watched and the course was not longer available. However, I knew that the lessons were extremely useful and I didn’t want the videos just to be forgotten so I decided to rescue and use them to help many of my students today.

The series is called “La vida Loca” and it narrates the adventures of a person who has been invited by a friend to visit Spain. The main character is a person that travels to Madrid on holidays. This person is “YOU” the viewer. Everything is explained as if it is experienced by the viewer. During each episode you can practice Spanish by making decisions and answering the questions suggested by the narrator. If you really want to learn and practice Spanish by watching this series, I recommend to watch each video several times and to stop it to provide an answer when required.

You can also download the episode transcription provided by the BBC that you will find below each video. You can practice your Spanish by reading the transcription after watching the video for first time. Once you have read it you can keep practicing by watching the video again and reading the dialogues at the same time. To download the episode transcription click on the file below each video👇.

Episode 1: En Madrid