Native courses
Stop studying Spanish. Start answering in it.
Not A1, not B2 — the situations themselves, in the order they happen to you. Read the lesson, drill it, then walk into a scene where somebody speaks first and you choose what you say back. Finish the scene and the next step opens.
Free while we grow. Your progress stays in this browser.
You know the words. That was never the problem.
- You can conjugate the verb. You still freeze when the waiter turns to you.
- You learned the phrase from a book. Nobody mentioned it marks you as a visitor the moment you say it.
- You finished the level. You still cannot handle a phone call, a landlord or a chemist.
None of that is a vocabulary gap. It is the gap between knowing a sentence and producing one while somebody waits. These courses are built around closing it.
How a step works
1
Read the lesson
One situation, and the phrases natives really use in it — with the notes on when each one lands and when it does not.
2
Drill it
A short practice session built from that lesson's own sentences. Three lives, and a score you can beat on the next run.
3
Walk into the scene
Somebody speaks first. You hear it before you see it, you pick what you say back, and there is no undo — the conversation ends wherever your replies leave it.
Do all three and the next step opens. Skip ahead and you cannot: the pathway keeps the rest shut until the step before it is done.
Courses
Spanish for Day-to-DayReact, shop, pay, chat and flat-hunt. Nine lessons covering the Spanish that daily life in Spain actually runs on — for when you live there, not just land there.- React, agree and encourage with the tiny phrases natives say fifty times a day
- Tell the time, make plans and survive Spain's vague 'sobre las ocho'
Spanish for WorkSmall talk at the coffee machine, calls, emails, meetings and the occasional vent. Six lessons covering the Spanish your working week actually runs on.- Break the ice with colleagues and keep the corridor chat alive without running dry
- Navigate contracts, deadlines, days off and the sacred office coffee break like a local hire
Survival Like a NativeLand, greet, order, get home. Nine lessons covering the Spanish your first days in Spain will actually demand — from the first hello to the situations you hope never happen.- Greet people the way locals actually do — and know when it's tú and when it's usted
- Handle numbers, prices and times without freezing at the till
Which Spanish?Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile — one language, five personalities. Learn what actually changes between them and stop being surprised by the Spanish you meet.- Recognise the fillers and flow that mark a speaker as Spanish from Spain — and use them yourself
- Handle Mexican Spanish's elastic time, courtesy machines and the one verb you must never use for the bus
This is what a scene feels like
The opening of El quiosco, the first scene of Survival Like a Native. You walk into it once step 1 is done.
Un quiosco en la terminal de llegadasWith: La vendedora, El señor de la cola
You hear
La vendedora
¡Venga, el siguiente!
Right — who's next!
Your reply — pick one
- 1¿Quién es el último, por favor?Who's last in the queue, please?
- 2Perdone, ¿va usted delante de mí?Excuse me, are you ahead of me?
- 3Sí, yo. Ponme un agua grande.Yes, me. Get me a large water.
What you find out after you choose
Understood, but clumsy
You said: Sí, yo. Ponme un agua grande.
Answering 'the next one' with 'me' is how you find out there was a queue. Because nobody stands in line in a way you can see, checking first is the whole social contract here — and 'ponme', which is friendly enough mid-conversation, arrives as an instruction from someone who has just stepped in front of a man who was waiting.
219 notes like that one sit behind the replies in this course — not whether you were right, but what you sounded like.
Who these are for
- People who are going, or who went and found out the classroom version does not survive contact.
- Anyone who would rather be understood in a bar than certified on paper.
- Learners who want to be told when a sentence is perfectly correct and still wrong.
Who they are not for
- Anyone who needs a certificate. Nothing here maps to CEFR, nothing is examined, and no one is watching.
- Anyone who wants grammar tables. The grammar is inside the sentences, explained where it actually bites.
Before you start
Do I need an account?
No. There is nothing to sign up for. Your progress is kept in this browser, which means it is waiting when you come back — on this device, in this browser, and not on your phone as well.
What does it cost?
Nothing. Every course, every scene and every drill is free while we grow.
Where do I start?
At step one of whichever course matches where you are now. Everything after it stays shut until you have done the one before, so there is no order to get wrong.
Do I have to play the scenes?
Where a step has one, yes — playing it is part of what opens the next step. It is also the only place you have to produce the language with somebody waiting, which is the whole point of it.
Can I get it wrong?
In a scene, constantly: every reply gets an answer and the conversation carries on, because what opens the next step is having turned up, not how well it went. Drills are stricter — three lives, and running out means taking that step again. Either way nothing is lost but the run.
Start where you actually are.
No account, no card, nothing to install. If you are not sure which course, take the one that starts furthest back.
Free while we grow. Your progress stays in this browser.