Clicky

Spanish Uncovered Review

Spanish Uncovered Review (Story Learning)

This Spanish Uncovered review is up-to-date as of February 13th, 2023.

If you’re a relative beginner in Spanish and are wondering which course is right for you, read our review of Spanish Uncovered — in our opinion one of the most unique, fun and effective self-study language resources we’ve come across in recent years.

What is Story Learning? And Who is Olly Richards?

Story Learning (formerly I Will Teach You A Language) is a language learning brand created by Olly Richards and his team. The brand is built around a blog/website, podcast, youtube channel. Olly and his Story Learning team produces self-study language courses in many languages including Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Russian and many more.

Olly Richards Bio

With this language course, Olly claims to not only teach you a foreign language but also master the art of language learning. Relying on the nature of human communication, Olly created a course that rejects the boring textbooks of yesteryear and puts the power of story in the spotlight.

As someone who fluently speaks 8 languages, Olly Richards is the guy that you want to learn from. Olly’s language learning insights are based on the best of what we know from neuroscience and cognitive psychology about how to learn effectively.

Spanish Uncovered Review: Overview

Today, we are reviewing Spanish Uncovered, a comprehensive online beginner Spanish course that takes you from being a complete beginner in Spanish to an intermediate level.

Like other online Spanish language courses, it offers you the convenience of learning Spanish at your own pace with its collection of fully downloadable audio lessons, video lessons, and pdf lessons. Olly Richards’ courses are a natural, brain-friendly way to learn a new language.

Spanish Uncovered Review

Before you decide to purchase Spanish Uncovered, you can choose to enroll in a seven days free trial of the course (credit card is required). They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you do purchase and decide it’s not for you.

Spanish Uncovered Features

Some of the notable features of Spanish Uncovered include:

  • A Complete 20-module course that takes you from Beginner to Intermediate 
  • The story runs through every module
  • Downloadable audio, video, and pdf lessons
  • Audio and pdf lessons in both Iberian and Latin American accent
  • Useful tips about learning a language in general
  • Expert pronunciation training videos
  • Extra-large and engaging community of learners
  • 60+ video lessons with host Olly Richards

Besides Spanish Uncovered, Story Learning also offers a variety of other Spanish courses based on your starting proficiency level. You can choose between intermediate, conversational (Intermediate), grammar course, or survival Spanish.

Spanish Uncovered 100 Most Common Spanish Words
Spanish Uncovered Bonus: 100 Most Common Spanish Words

Spanish Uncovered Pros

Pro #1: Learn Spanish naturally through the “StoryLearning” method

The heart of the story learning methodology consists of Listening & Reading which allows you to acquire language passively in a brain-friendly way. For thousands of years – even when we were cavemen – we have been communicating through stories.

Scientists proved that learning through stories improves long-term memory. Olly Richards’ StoryLearning method uses the power of story to teach you Spanish by immersion and passive learning. Each module starts with an audio story, followed by a reading activity in Spanish. Later on, Olly helps you understand cognates and other words from the context, analyze the sentence patterns and help your brain comprehend the connections. Give up a vocabulary list and understand the new vocabulary from the context.

Spanish Lesson - At the bar
Spanish Lesson – At The Bar

Pro #2: Immersion first, study

The essential Olly Richards mantra is: MOVE ON BEFORE YOU LEARN THE GRAMMAR.

The StoryLearning method means you learn a language the same way children do. That’s why each module starts with an audio story, followed by explanatory videos that analyze the text in more depth.

Pro #3: Useful tips about learning a language in general

Before you even start learning Spanish with Spanish Uncovered, you’ll find one chapter dedicated to different methodologies and tips on how to effectively adopt a language. In the end, you’ll leave this language course with a better understanding of the language learning process.

Pro #4: Suitable for Iberian and Latin American Spanish accent

Spanish Uncovered includes each story recorded in both Iberian and Latin American accents. This is a big plus for learners who want to hear the differences in dialects side by side.

Spanish Uncovered Lesson Screenshot Iberian and Latin American
Spanish Uncovered includes both Iberian and Latin American pronunciation

Pro #5: Fully downloadable material

You can access Spanish Uncovered online, or download the material to use while offline. This gives flexibility to those who want to study on their commute or away from the distractions of wifi.

Pro #6: Expert pronunciation training videos

Another important feature of the Spanish Uncovered language course is the set of pronunciation videos with Angela Moreno, a native Spanish teacher as well as an expert in pronunciation and accent reduction. It’s reassuring that Angela understands the subtle differences between how sounds are pronounced in English and Spanish.

You’ll learn the correct position of mouth and tongue and an additional worksheet will help you fully adopt these sounds in your Spanish.

Spanish Uncovered Cons

 Cons #1: Instructions can be too long

Instructions in Spanish Uncovered are sometimes longer than necessary and can get a bit repetitive, which unintentionally takes your valuable time of learning.

Cons #2: Lack of Interactivity

Even though Spanish Uncovered lessons are full of extensive vocabulary, grammar, and even pronunciation worksheets, it sometimes seems like they are a better fit for a Spanish teacher than a self-study Spanish learner. Although we love that everything is downloadable, we miss interactive flashcards and other no-pencil-needed features. 

Spanish Uncovered Features

Language learning tips

Before you start Spanish Uncovered, there is an introductory section, where you can learn how to navigate through the course, how the StoryLearning lessons work, and get some useful tricks to learn a language. This section will also give you a list of 100 essential Spanish words to boost your Spanish fluency and to get you ready for immersion.

Language Learning Tips Spanish
Tips for learning a new language from Olly Richards

Cognates and translation

Olly Richards’ learning system is created to help your brain build on prior knowledge (mother tongue, other foreign languages, or common sense) and maximize your understanding. The key is to start with the words you already know from English. Olly teaches you how to build understanding based on cognates (words that have a common etymological origin) or false cognates. After listening and reading only in Spanish, you finally get an English translation to fill in the missing gaps.

Spanish Uncovered Review - Cognates Lesson
Spanish Uncovered Cognates Lesson

Lesson Transcripts

Spanish and English lesson transcripts are available and fully printable for later review. This means you are fully covered, even when you don’t have access to the internet.

Review modules

After you’ve completed ten modules, you’ll get one review module that leads you through Spanish grammar, vocabulary, and speaking.

Learning Pathway

One of the best features of Spanish Uncovered is definitely its logical, well organized, and easy to follow learning path. Each module consists of a synopsis, an audio story, a reading section, the cognates and translations section, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, speaking exercise, and a review quiz.

The main idea of StoryLearning is to start by listening to a Spanish story and gradually analyze the material, in the terms of grammar, pronunciation, cognates, and vocabulary. The grammar lessons include extensive worksheets and detailed explanations about grammar rules. As you progress, you’ll find that you just begin to understand Spanish grammar more intuitively. 

Olly Richards Spanish
Olly Richards: The man, the myth, the legend.

Who Would Benefit From Spanish Uncovered ?

We feel that people who would benefit most from Olly’s course include those who:

  • can tolerate a little frustration of not understanding everything right at once 
  • like learning a new language through stories and meaningful content (ie. “StoryLearning”)
  • like learning languages in general and would benefit from Olly’s broader language learning tips
  • enjoy discovering innovative methods in language learning
  • are patient to see results

Who Won’t Benefit from Spanish Uncovered?

Some language learners may not reap all the advantages of Spanish Uncovered, and that includes those who:

  • are on a tight budget
  • require one-on-one help with learning
  • lack persistence
  • feel too much frustrated when everything is not translated or explained immediately
  • prefer learning through repetition over context

Spanish Uncovered vs. The Competition

SpanishPod101 vs Spanish Uncovered

These two courses offer essentially different learning styles. While Spanish Uncovered uses StoryLearning to intuitively learn new vocabulary, SpanishPod101 lessons are arranged around general topics and rely mostly on the power of small and simple routines.

SpanishPod101

This easy to follow, on the go course, centers mainly around listening and repetition. While repetition is one of the elementary methods in SpanishPod 101, passive learning is the main goal in Spanish Uncovered. Here, the progress goes from passive understanding to analytical thinking and dissecting grammar rules. The learning pathway is well developed, structured, and based on cognitive psychology and neuroscience to provide brain-friendly learning. This kind of learning is not always fast-paced, but it sure provides a greater level of understanding.

If you enjoy the story learning approach and you feel you would benefit from language learning tips, then Spanish Uncovered is the one for you. On the other hand, SpanishPod101 has one of the most extensive collections of Spanish lessons, including podcasts, videos, and flashcards. Both courses cost the same amount of money, and in the end, it’s your learning style that makes the difference. 

You can read our full review of SpanishPod101 here.

How Much Does Spanish Uncovered Cost?

Spanish Uncovered offers a seven day free trial to get a sneak peek at the materials, although you’ll need use your credit card to activate the trial. On day 8, if you haven’t canceled, $297 will be charged to your account — that is the cost of a yearly subscription.

Spanish Uncovered 7 Day Free Trial

Use the button below to sign up for the 7-day free trial of Spanish Uncovered.

If you choose to cancel,  simply send an email before day 7 and your account will be cancelled without being charged.

Spanish Uncovered Review Summary

Spanish Uncovered from Story Learning and is a unique course that offers innovative StoryLearning methods based on the latest research from neuroscience and cognitive psychology. With this course, you’ll be able to initiate a passive learning process, and later turn on your analytical mind for Spanish grammar, patterns, and vocabulary. Created by Olly Richards, a man who speaks eight languages, Spanish Uncovered will also give you the tools you need to learn any language through self study.

Innovative methods, pronunciation training videos with a native Spanish teacher in Iberian and Latin Spanish accent, loads of downloadable material, lesson transcript, pdf translation, worksheets, language learning tips. What more could one ask? This language course is the right choice for anyone who wants to learn Spanish in a brain-friendly way, who appreciates innovative methods, and is willing to challenge his or her brain for the best results.

With a 7-day free trial, and a 30-day money back guarantee, we’re confident to recommend Spanish Uncovered to any beginner who is serious about learning Spanish on their own.