Learning a language through stories, particularly simple stories, is super intuitive. It’s really how most of us learn to speak our native language. Simple sentence structure and building Vocabulary through context clues. As an English speaker, I do not care about the accent. Like others have said, it actually helps build a confidence and gets the ear trained to be more comfortable hearing the language. I agree, the more comfort you have the easier it is to hear other accents from all over the Spanish-speaking countries.

These stories are a fantastic addition in my Spanish learning journey. Gracias!

Hard to listen to.

The narrator didn’t even attempt to use an accent, so I doubt she’s really a Spanish teacher like she said she was. Because my 8 year old learner was listening with me, I turned it off. I didn’t want her to learn the wrong way to pronounce words.

I just found this podcast and I’m so glad I did! The stories are fun to listen to and help with listening comprehension. The length of the episodes is PERFECT, it’s easy to listen to a quick story without committing hours. Thank you for helping me improve my skills! Gracias!

i don’t know if she’s a native spanish speaker but she sounds like a gringa

I’m glad she wasn’t my Spanish teacher because I would have been entirely screwed up with her terrible pronunciations. I couldn’t even listen to one episode due to her horrible accent.

Camilla, thank you so much for these stories. I have learned and continue to learn so much from you. Please keep doing what you do! People who say you have an American accent are probably correct, but that does not make any difference in the world because every American who learns Spanish after age 12-13 has an American accent. And that’s true of everyone from any other country—French-Spanish, German-Spanish etc. No matter how fluent you become, unless you live and speak everyday in a Spanish-speaking country, you’ll never pass as a native. And, BTW, there is no single correct way to pronounce Spanish. People in Honduras, Chile, Peru, etc, can tell if another Spanish speaker is from a different country than there’s. Nobody tells an English person that they can’t pronounce English correctly. And anyone who speaks good English to us with a French, Spanish, or German accent, for example, we say, “I love your accent,” because we do. Your American-accented Spanish will be understood by every native Spanish speaker, just as every Spanish speaker can understand others who learned Spanish in a different country. Enjoy Simple Stories in Spanish. Stop imagining that your Spanish is perfect—it’s not. And even if you’re in the 1% who sounds like a native, which you’re not, who cares? You can understand her perfectly, so move on.

Camila, thank you for your tireless work. I think many miss that you are intentionally laying aside the “proper” accent so that the ears native to English speakers can practice recognizing the vocabulary. As a result, we realize we know more than we thought. I was a decent Spanish speaker, but I was out of practice. After listening to you for a few months, ironically enough (though I was admittedly critical on the first listening) I’m now understanding my friends with thick and varying accents even better. I’m sure it’s demoralizing to see some of these comments, but remember you’re here for a very particular audience and you are doing us a great service. Continue to be you, stick to the original calling, and carry on in excellence. Thank you!

This podcast has been a game changer for me. It’s taken me from thinking, “Will I ever meet my goal of learning Spanish?” to, “Wow, I actually understand this!” What I love most is that it feels like the host truly understands what we learned in high school Spanish (which makes sense—turns out she’s a high school Spanish teacher!). She takes that foundation and builds on it with simple, engaging stories that are just right for learners like me. In a couple of months, my family and I will be spending five months in Mexico, and this podcast has given me the confidence boost I needed. It’s helping me see that Spanish isn’t as out of reach as I thought. I finally feel like I’m making real progress.

I appreciate that Camila provides these stories for free. Very generous. However- I suggest she works on the Spanish sound for “T”. I think it would really improve her Spanish.

I expected the speaker to have good pronunciation at least, but she doesn’t. I don’t think this would help Spanish learners.

The stories are simple and helpful for Spanish learners, however your pronunciation is off and distracting

I love this podcast! The stories are a delight, and I love the slow, annunciated speaking. It really allows me to pick up on each word and strengthen my spanish vocabulary. Thank you!

to my understanding the grammar is mostly fine but the effort needs to be taken on speaking in a spanish accent. preferably that of literally any of those countries.

The narrator sounds like she is a first year learner in the Spanish language the pronunciation and accent for Spanish is absolutely terrible.

You are so good at speaking and organizing your Spanish. I have been trying to learn Spanish for over a year. Your stories help me understand and review the words I have learned. I listen to you as I walk my four miles. I love it and it’s a good time to review my Spanish. Keep up the great work. I am a former teacher and I can hear and see your teacher qualities in your lessons . Lori

This speaker provides ample context to allow listeners to obtain Spanish vocabulary very easily!

This is great, I love the storylines but sometimes you pronounce some words wrong… I’ve been in Spanish classes since I was 6 and I think your doing great, just focus on your accent and the pronunciation. Thank you for your time! ❤️

I’m in my 50s. I took Spanish in high school but only learned the present tense. These simple stories are helping me review as I jump back in! I am so grateful for this podcast! Thank you for creating these stories! They are truly helping me learn Spanish!

The stories are slow with simple vocabulary to build confidence in listening and comprehension. Thank you!

This is so hard to listen to. Could not even finish the first story. Nonnative speaker is fine but the narrator doesn’t seem to make an attempt to pronounce words correctly. No real flow and feels very forced/choppy. I didn’t listen long enough to have more of an opinion but it was a tough listen

What I was looking for

It takes a lot of effort to create stories (I assume original?) and take the time to record and post pods. More than I’ve done! That said, my goal is to learn how to hear Spanish the way I would, say, in Madrid or Barcelona or… This pod may be good for vocabulary and sentence structure but the listening part, not so much. It’s basically Spanish words spoken in midwestern US English diction. Lo siento, no es bueno para mi objetivo. My recommendation is that small town teacher find a way to spend a few months in Spanish speaking country of choice to learn Spanish diction.

This is a great podcast to listen to when I want to keep my Spanish fresh

What a wonderful find for me ! Thank you very much for this support of my learning to speak Spanish I’m a 77 year old, retired lady saying, “Gracious Amigo” ! Ha !

Not to be that person, but accent and pronunciation is super important with Spanish. The stories and content are good otherwise.

I love this podcast! It’s been helping me learn Spanish without feeling like I’m doing homework. Thank you Small Town Spanish Teacher!!

I listen to another podcast for Spanish acquisition. The narrator is from Mexico and lives in the US and it’s really helped my comprehension. I was looking for another podcast with stories and read a story online from this podcast. Loved it! Decided to listen, and I unfortunately cannot listen to it. The pronunciation for so many words is not correct and it almost feels like making of the language. I know this is not the intent. I don’t even mind that she is not a native speaker. I learned a lot from a non native speaker on YouTube. But I don’t feel like this podcast would advance my Spanish so I have to unfollow.

If you want to learn how to speak Spanish properly, this is not a good speaker to listen to. It’s great that this author is telling stories in Spanish and I think it’s a great idea, but she has quite the pronounced (gringa) American accent. She says her “v’s” and “b’s” Incorrectly and also says her “t’s” like an American. as other reviewers have mentioned, she is not rolling her “r’s”correctly either.

I like the idea of learning Spanish through stories and find it very helpful and effective, but I just can’t bring myself to continue listening to this podcast. I don’t even care that she isn’t a native speaker (although I think it is more beneficial to listen to native speakers when learning or improving your Spanish), but the narrator of this podcast just does not sound natural when speaking spanish. If you REALLY want to improve your listening in spanish, it is best to find podcasts or videos of native speakers. As another reviewer mentioned, Dreaming Spanish is an EXCELLENT resource for spanish comprehension and you can find content that suits your level. Also there is a podcast called ‘mini stories to learn Spanish’ that has a native Spanish speaker. And also ‘News in slow Spanish’. So there are definitely other options

I think if this narrator took a few minutes to revisit when to roll the letter R, this would be an even better podcast.

I think she has a pleasant voice, and it would be good for an English podcast, but unfortunately, her pronunciation and intonation in Spanish needs work. If you are learning Spanish, try Dreaming Spanish on YouTube. It’s free, and it has native speakers speaking in Spanish on there. I hope she will consider doing a podcast in English. She can help a lot of people learn English.

This woman does not speak Spanish well.

Just started listening. Yes, I agree that the American accent of the presenter is pretty heavy, but I haven’t seen anyone suggest or found myself any similar free offerings from native speakers. I will listen to this as one of the things I do on my journey to learn Spanish along with a few others, and I appreciate the free offering.

Me encanta escuchar a este podcast. !

Yo disfruto este programa. Puedo entender quizás 80% de las palabras. Mis habilidades de escucha están mejorando. Muchas gracias a la maestra.

In order to learn by listening to native speakers, I often turn the speed to .75 (or watch shows with the subtitles to help) but this is truly annunciated so well and is at just the right speed for learners as is - I look forward to every single episode!

Ancestors

After I completed Section 4 in Duolingo, I was looking for podcasts that would help improve my listening comprehension in Spanish, and this podcast is exactly what I was seeking. My vocabulary and grammar knowledge are at just the right level where the stories are a bit of a challenge, but I can understand about 80%-90% of what is being said at any one time. Also, these Simple Stories in Spanish are in perfect nuggets of about 20 minutes, so you are not fatigued by trying to keep up.

This speaker HAS NOT earned the privilege to narrate stories in Spanish. She has a long way to go, yet in the meantime is DAMAGING listeners by entraining their ears in absolutely wrong pronunciation.

These stories are interesting to listen to, and as an early intermediate listener I can really follow along without having to translate everything in my head. The author speaks slowly and clearly about a variety of subjects. My favorite was one about gardening, and I also enjoy the history lessons. Thank you Camilla!

These stories are so interesting to listen to, and I am so glad that there is a written portion along with the listening so that I can capture every word. The podcast is nicely paced for learning too. I really enjoy learning from this podcast, it makes learning a lot easier and fun. Thank you so much for doing this!

This podcast is such a gift! Even if I don’t catch everything in the stories, this is an amazing way to learn in addition to studying and practicing. I’m thankful for a way to have fun listening and learning!

I happened across this in my “learning Spanish” quest…. Sadly, it’s still over my head, but I can’t wait till I’m ready!!! What a beautiful story teller she is!! I hung on every word even though I was uncertain as to what the words meant. So easy to understand her speech… clear and articulate. See you in a few more weeks.;)

I just stumbled onto this pod cast and was pleasantly surprised with the content, comprehension speed and clear easy to understand Spanish. One of The best podcasts! Thank you so much, looking forward to more episodes :) preed

I’m so glad I found this podcast! At first I was thrilled when I could pick out words here and there but before long I was able to follow along and get the gist of the story. Shortly after that I was able to use context to figure out words I’d never heard before. I really enjoy when I’m able to understand enough where I can laugh with the story. Thank you so much for doing this podcast, it’s helped me so much.

As a beginner, this is so helpful. I will definitely supplement with more exposure to native speakers over time, but this is SO HELPFUL as I am getting started. Thank you for your efforts in teaching!!!!

Interesting stories and language that will be challenging for A2 learners, and maybe easier for B2 learners. As an A2 learner, I find it very useful, understandable if I work a bit, and pretty fun.

The accent is too American. Maybe this is an OK place to start for some people , but if you want your own accent to be accurate, this isn’t it.