Work with the sweet murmur of Spanish behind you: RNE Radio 3

As someone who is sure to be a lifelong student of Spanish, I have good news and bad news.

The good news is you'll be astounded by how quickly you can improve your Spanish living in a Spanish-speaking country. Before I moved to Spain, I used to pop over regularly for immersion courses - a month here, 2 months there- and even then I was amazed by how important immersion is to language learning. Speaking a language. Listening to it, all day long. Hearing it in the background, having to spit out that sentence if you want to buy a train ticket.

The bad news is that even after years, it still takes work to keep my Spanish in shape. To communicate the way I want to.

I was whining to my Spanish teacher about all the time I spend writing in English (because that's how I pay my bills) recently. I told her feel the impact of all of that English on my ability to be quick and fluent and funny and well, me, in Spanish at the end of the work day.

And she gave me the perfect prescription: RNE Radio 3

RNE is Spanish national radio, and you can tune in over the internet, free, from wherever you are. During the course of a broadcast day Radio3 moves from blues to cinema to British rock to flamenco to folk - a rich, everchanging variety of music, interviews, discussions, readings, commentary and all the witty chattering you could want to keep you thinking and listening in Spanish. It's a great place to pick up colloquialisms, as well. You'll hear hosts and interview subjects and callers all speak off the cuff, off the top of their heads.

Once you arrive at the Radio 3 site, click on Programación to explore individual programmes, and Escuchar to listen in, live.

I now spend my days typing in English while I blissfully banter with Radio 3, over on the other side of this Spanish/English brain. It's made all the difference for me.