Lupa/ Jiveworld Review 2024: Best for Improving Comprehensive Skills in Spanish

Listening to podcasts has become very common among language learners. If you are learning Spanish and love podcasts, you must have heard about Radio Ambulante. It is a well-known podcast designed to teach Spanish the way it is spoken. You may know this, but do you know there is a special app, Lupa, having the same stories? Yes, it is surprising to know this fact. But does Lupa work similarly to Radio ambulante? Is it really useful? I know you are having these kinds of questions in your mind. But don’t worry. Here I will discuss everything related to it.

Quick Takeaways

• Lupa is an app that follow podcast like structure and is presently known as Jiveworld Español.
• This app is all about real life stories from latin American countries. 
• The main focus of this platform is to improve the listening comprehension skills in Spanish. 

What is the Lupa app?

Lupa is a podcast-structured app designed to teach Spanish language only. Its main focus is on Spanish, so the title is also taken from it. 

Lupa means ‘Magnifying Glass’

The team of the famous podcast Radio Ambulante creates it. The real native speaker from Latin America covers real-life stories. All the stories are from the podcast itself. Each story has its transcript and also breaks down each sentence word by word.

Update: The name of this platform has changed to Jiveworld Español.

Why did they change the name of the platform?

As I mentioned above, the name of the platform was taken from the Spanish word Lupa. However, with the recent version, the team is planning to offer some more languages. Thus, they have changed the name by combining two different terms – Jiveworld and The language. 

Important: There is still no language added to it.

Pricing plans of Jiveworld Español

Jiveworld Español has a lot of free content to offer. But to unlock all the stories on the platform, you must need the subscription plan. Below I am adding the table to show the prices of the plan-

Type of plan	Pricing
Monthly	$15.95
Annually	$129 ($10.9 per month)

Course Overview

The platform is all about having real-life based stories. The interface of the platform is simple. In starting some stories are free to listen. But once I scrolled down, I got so many of them based on different niches. Some of the topics covered were

• Friendship
• Family 
• Soundbites and many more

The way they tell the story is similar for free and paid content. I thought there would be videos depicting the whole story. However, I was wrong. It had no video in it. There was just a story in the form of a podcast. The whole course is divided into different sections. Below I have mentioned them one by one-

1. Warm-up listening exercise

The first thing that I got was the warmup exercise.  It took short chunks of the story and played one by one. In starting the first chunk was further divided into the sentences. I could read each sentence along with listening to it. 

At the beginning of the session, a question is asked related to that small chunk. Once the entire portion is completed, the answer is provided at the end. However, before seeing the answer, try to guess it yourself. Once done, reveal the answer. After getting the answer, the whole text has a transcript available on it. In some sentences, I was confused about what the host was saying. Luckily, there was an option to slow down my speed and even pause the story again and again.

2. Lessons

After the warm-up listening exercise, now is the time to start with the lesson on the platform. The way it is created is similar to the warm-up exercise. The only difference was the availability of the translations with each sentence and showing the vocab in it side by side. In addition to that, to challenge your skills more, there is an option to hide words from the text. You can either hide a few words or all words to test your listening skills. Again is a great feature for a user already at an intermediate level. 

There are some words in the vocab section that you can add to the favorite list. This can help you to revise those words at a single time. 

In short here are some features that you get on it-

1. Interactive transcripts

When I chose the story, there was a transcript available in Spanish. RD and for each transcript, there are awesome buttons that help me to learn the transcript and the audio according to my learning ability.

2. Repeat and rewind

The next thing that the platform offers is repeating the text as much time as you want. As mentioned above you can repeat it or change the speed of the content. This helps in understanding the information heard. 

3. Vocabulary 

With each line, some words are highlighted. Each highlighted word has a meaning underneath the sentences. It is really a nice way to increase the vocabulary knowledge. 

4. English translations 

It is very common to face difficulty in understanding the content even if you are at an intermediate level. To help with this, there are English translations of each sentence.

5. Flashcards 

In each story, there is a word that you can add to the flashcard deck. There are fewer words in each story that you can add on. However, it does not use any dictionary plugin. This saves us from getting random translations on the platform.

6. My stats

You also get a separate tab to understand your progress. There are different sections to know it. Below, I have mentioned all the sections in it-

Features	What the represents
Total points	Every time you complete a sentence or learn a new word, you earn some points.
Streak score	The number of days, you use the platform continuously shows the streak score
Soundbites Completed	Some stories have soundbites in it. This section on the stat tab shows how many soundbites you have completed.
Stories complete	This platform is all about stories in it. How many stories you have completed will be shown in this section.
Chapters complete	Each story is a compilation of different lessons. Suppose you have completed two stories having 10 and 15 chapters in it. In such a case, the number in this section will be 25.
Minutes of Listening	The total amount of time, spent on hearing stories on the platform is shown over here.

Are the stories on Jiveworld interesting?

Yes, of course, the stories are interesting and related to the topic covered. All of them are based on real-life incidents. They are enjoyable. Most of the users have been using it for long. If you are interested in knowing more about Latin America, this is what you need. 

It’s like a way of getting to know the countries of Latin America. You may already know this, but for me, it was surprising to know that there was the existence of black Columbians. There is an emphasis on the cultural insights also. Though I love the stories on the platform, most of them are serious in nature. The users who are looking for light-hearted stories, Jiveworld Español.

 may not be a platform for you. The description of the stories may warn you about this, but in most of cases, it may not be mentioned in it. 

Which level does Jiveworld teach at?

Jivewold does not offer any particular course to learn the language. On the contrary, there are multiple stories to engage the learners with. Thus, according to the platform, there is no specific level. However, after using it one thing is confirmed, the stories are created keeping the intermediate and advanced-level learners in mind. 

Will Jiveworld Español teach different slang and phrases?

The answer to it depends upon the context in which it is asked. The platform is well known for providing various slang and phrases, but it may not teach them. What does that mean? As I already mentioned the lessons are more like podcast form where the narrator tells the stories. It is natural to have new words or phrases in each of the podcasts. Let me show by giving the example-

When I was in the lesson of my first story, there were 10 new words that I encountered. But surprisingly 4 of them were never repeated in the whole story again. In short, there is no spaced repetition system in it, which is important to teach you a new language. 

Hack: To learn all those new words, it’s best to add them to the favorite list. This will help in getting all the new words in a single place. 

Are all the Spanish dialects covered in Jiveworld?

I have already mentioned that the platform includes stories around Latin American countries. It means that there are not all the Spanish dialects on the platform. In fact, the platform does not have relevant content from Spain itself. The countries that have most of the stories and mentioned below: 

• Argentina 
• Chile
• Columbia
• Mexico
• Brazil
• Puerto Rico
• Peri
• United States

Rather than that, other countries have very little content on it. As I told above there are very less stories related to Spain. It means that the Spanish dialect that is Castilian Spanish accents, is also not taught on it. Further, if you want to know the name of the journalist who has added the story, it is not possible. 

Does Jiveworld Español improve Spanish?

It depends on what you are learning. If you are looking to improve listening and reading skills in Spanish, it is the best app for it. Further, it provides cultural insights for many Latin American countries. This platform also please no space for teaching different slang used in it. If the ultimate goal is to teach these aspects, look no wear than this platform. On the other hand, if you are looking to correct your pronunciation, I want you to check some other apps.

Is Jiveworld best for you?

To find out the answer to this question, first answer these two questions: 

• Are you planning to travel to the little American countries where Spanish is spoken? 
• Do you want to improve your listening skills only? 

After answering this it is very easy to know if the platform is worth it for you or not. 

How? Let me show you.

If the answer to the first question is no, there is no fun in working on this platform. It is because there are no Spain-related stories and dialects used on it. 

The platform itself states that it only focuses on listening comprehension. Thus, if your focus is only to improve your listening skills, this platform will definitely benefit you. However, if your ultimate goal is to learn all aspects of the language, you must use other resources as well.

On the other hand, if the answer to both the questions above is yes, you may be wondering if the pricing is worth it or not. It all depends upon you. If you can spend money on improving a single skill, then go ahead with it. The paid content is very useful in improving listening skills.

Let me share the things that I like and dislike about this platform-

Pros	Cons
It has a lot of content to improve listening skills.	No exercises for improving pronunciation and writing exercises.
Each lesson teaches some new vocabulary and phrases in it.	Do not follow the spaced repetition of words.
There are a lot of Slang taught on the platform.

Jiveworld Alternatives

This platform is all about teaching Latin American dialogues and cultural insights related to specific countries. But the person who is planning to travel to Spain or wants to improve the pronunciation, cannot rely on it. Therefore, below I have mentioned the alternatives to using Jiveworld-

1. Baselang

Baselang is a platform that focuses only on learning Spanish. It is the ultimate solution for learning Spanish. This platform focuses on learning Spanish with the help of Spanish tutors. The platform is a subscription-based platform of ring grammar less program and conversational practice program. I suggest you take the conversational practice program (real-world subscription plan). It will give you access to unlimited life classes to practice conversations with. 

2. Speaky

A platform like Speaky is the solution for practicing conversations freely. It is like a language exchange program where you connect with other native speakers to practice language skills. Two inbuilt features make it easy to connect with them. This platform has given me partners of my own age. 

3. Duolingo

Want something that is free and could teach you the language from basics? If yes, Duolingo can be a perfect choice. It is a platform that is well known for following a gamified approach. I myself loved this platform a lot. It is because there are a lot of features that help me stay motivated in completing the task. Each exercise is a game in itself. As much as you play them, you get some exciting rewards. In addition to that, there are Duolingo podcasts designed to teach the language properly.

Conclusion 

Jiveworld (previously known as Lupa) is an app that is created in the form of a podcast. There are stories based on real-life incidences in Latin American countries. The stories are interesting and sometimes impossible to believe. This platform is a perfect choice for anyone traveling to these countries and wanting to improve their listening comprehension skills. Every story is divided into different chapters, giving new words and slang for it. However, if your ultimate goal is to travel to Spain or improve your pronunciation, you will need to have some other options like Tandem or Duolingo.

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