Our rating: By: AppAbove Version #: 2.0.492 Date Released: 2011-07-14 Developer: Price: 4.99 User Rating: Loading... Loading... Download App

My experience with language-learning apps is that they vary greatly in density and quality. An app that claims to teach you a language in 24 hours may be little more than a dictionary, while other apps give little away in their titles and are in fact a great source of learning to get by in a foreign country. Spanish Anywhere fits into the latter.

Right from the start, this app engages your linguistic senses. Even the menu options have a Spanish translation underneath them, which can be flipped so you navigate the app using Spanish. From the main options, you have a comprehensive dictionary, phrases for particular situations and references for words categorised by subject. With an internet connection, you also have native English and Spanish sound-bites for every single word and phrase in the dictionary; no excuses for mis-pronouncing words then, as Spanish Anywhere does all it can to help.

These options will definitely be enough to get you by in Spain should you find yourself somewhere outside of the British colony that is the Costa del Sol, where a low level of English will suffice. However, Spanish Anywhere also contains good self-learning features should you actually wish to learn the language. The wealth of content really is impressive.

Every word or phrase you stumble upon you can add to a Study list, which you can then test yourself on using flashcards, e-mail to yourself, or simply look at it and hope it all soaks in (not an effective method). There are also several other learning games you can play such as Word Scramble, Spelling Quiz and the obligatory – but not all that useful – Hangman.

In truth, the games aren’t as exciting as they come, but it’s a fact that the mind’s better at absorbing information when there’s a challenge involved; that may not be a fact but it works for me and I’m the one doing the review, so take my word for it. That being said, games are always more exciting when you get to kill something, and sadly Hangman doesn’t count.

Spanish Anywhere will teach you Spanish at the basic level you need if you’re one of those people who insists on attempting to speak a foreign language even if you’re humiliatingly hopeless at it. At least this app will save you from such embarrassment. Those looking for more advanced lessons would do better listening to a podcast or, better still, go live in Spain for a year, but Spanish Anywhere contains all the fundamentals in a nice cheap package.