Castellano
Posted: August 27th, 2011 | Author: Mike | Filed under: Music, Spanish | No Comments »I’m learning Spanish. Mostly just because I’ve always wanted to learn a second language, and partially because it would make sense seeing how I live in South Florida. One of my sisters also inspired me. She’s living out in Texas and has been taking Spanish classes. She just got back from a six week trip to Guatemala where she tutored English between hiking and exploring the country. Talking about it with her before and after her trip rekindled my interest and inspired me to give it a shot as well.
My methods are mostly boring, so I won’t talk much about them here. They involve Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, and various books. One of the books is the Spanish version of “The Alchemist” by Paulo Cohello. I also have and love the English version. When I’m at the point where I’m not completely lost, I plan on going through it line by line, making sure I understand everything, grammar and all. It’s kind of a self-immersion via book method I suppose. If anyone reading this is interested in the book Cohello makes it freely available on his site in every translation available. He does this in hopes that the book will spread and that anyone who likes the book will end up purchasing it anyway. It’s an experiment in sharing/pirating and it can be found here. If you like it, buy it.
Something else that I’m doing is researching Spanish Music that I would like. I’ve found TONS. It’s kind of funny thinking I’ve come along way with Spanish only to listen to a song and realize I only know a tiny handful of words. I tend to listen to a lot of House Music (electronic music in general actually) and a lot of the beats in Spanish music are right down my alley. I have always been a “music person” in that I love all kinds and really let music take me away mentally and emotionally. A lot of the stuff I have been finding is really truly beautiful and unlike any English Speaking bands I know in terms of style.
I don’t even know what they are saying yet, but even if I never intended to learn Spanish, I think I’d still be downloading these artists’ albums
Belanova – Rosa Pastel
Ana Tijoux – 1977
Bebe – Pa Mi Casa
On a side note, I am now beginning to realize how frustrating YouTube must be for people outside of the U.S. On multiple occasions, I’ve clicked on a video only to be told that it’s not available in my country or region. First, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want your video to be seen everywhere. If you have justification for it to be seen in one country, wouldn’t that justification stand for any other country? Secondly, I don’t understand why the videos even show up in searches and suggestions. It seems like it would be easy enough to have them automatically filtered out of the results.
Anyway, that’s all for today.
¡Adios!