Home study is an extremely popular option for many people studying Spanish. Originally the self study courses were supplied on cassette tape and available in book shops or by mail order and when CD became more established most of those courses made the change. With the advent of super fast internet connections thanks to broadband and the popularity of iPods and other portable music players, Spanish courses are now becoming available as downloads. As this becomes more popular the download market is sure to take an ever larger slice of the home study market.

One thing to remember if you already have a Spanish course on CD is that you don't have to go and buy it, or another course, all over again just to listen to it on your iPod. You can use iTunes or any other free music utility to convert the audio from your CD course to enable you to upload it to your music player. That way you can take your Spanish course with you absolutely everywhere your iPod goes!

This great flexibility means you really have no excuse not to study Spanish, or any other language. You can listen in the car; on the train; or in your lunch break at work.

While listening to Spanish will help you improve your listening skills, you really do need to practice speaking Spanish to help you with your conversational Spanish. While you could try it on the train I'm not sure that I'd advise it, but if you practice your conversational skills for just 10 or 15 minutes every day you will see an improvement. The real key here is regular practice to keep reinforcing the information that your brain absorbs. Although teaching yourself Spanish is no substitute for actually living in a Spanish speaking country and forcing yourself to use the language in your everyday life, you will gain some benefit all the same.