I really like to hear music just as it first appeared in the world .... in someone's front room, or their granny's back garden on a sunny afternoon, or as it came to them while they were noodling around with a piano or just walking down the road. So, here's a few examples of just that sort of thing.... starting with Zahara doing En La Habitación ... ..and here's Niños Mutantes with Mi Mala Memoria ... ..and here's a lovely acoustic version of En que estrella estara by Nena Daconte with Kim Fanlo on guitar .... pretty much, I would imagine, as it was first played ! Terrific song this. And the last one for now .... Vetusta Morla with the exhilarating A Tientas .... what a song !!
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Well, here's a beautiful song .... in my opinion Love of Lesbian are the Bruce Springsteen of Spanish music ! This seems an odd juxtaposition, but so many of his songs are long, sinuous things full of mood shifts, often highly thoughful and introspective ... and then you listen to Springsteen's JungleLand and you think ... hmmm ... yes ! (Or, perhaps, no !! ) Oh .. the song is Nadie por los Calles ... bloody terrific ! True,there are lots of hefty differences too .... muscularity, massive guitar and sax solos, multi-thousand crowds, subject-matter ... but who cares ! If you want, have a listen to the aforementiioned Jungleland ... as far as I know there hasn't been a Spanish version. So there you are .... it's a thought though isn't it ?
Now, we'll be getting on to Spanish in a moment, but I'm starting off today with a French book .... about "Le Prince de Motordu" He's constantly making silly mistakes .. you can see he is wearing a castle ( chateau) as a hat ( chapeau) .... and his flag ( drapeau) is actually a toad ( crapaud) and his fields are full of buttons ( boutons) rather than sheep ( moutons). Motordu, by the way, is "twisted word ( mot tordu) .. as I'm sure you noticed. Obviously these very funny ( and beautifully illustrated) books can't be directly translated into other languages because those same pairs won't be confusable in that way..... BUT .... a great project for us learners of Spanish would be ... [a] to find lots of pairs of Spanish words that could easily be confused like those up there. or, for more advanced people ... [b] to use some of them to make a mini- ( or maxi-) story. He also gets whole word-groups muddled too .... As you can see, he eats in the "salle-à-danger" rather than the usual salle-à-manger . That gives you more advanced types a bit more to do. Well, I'll let you get on with that, should you wish to accept the challenge .... but here's a bit of music to soothe the busy brain ... it's the lovely Amaral with Sin ti no soy nada .... he's not worth it dear ! Sin ti no soy nada,
una gota de lluvia mojando mi cara mi mundo es pequeño y mi corazón pedacitos de hielo solía pensar que el amor no es real, una ilusión que siempre se acaba y ahora sin ti no soy nada sin ti niña mala, sin ti niña triste que abraza su almohada tirada en la cama, mirando la tele y no viendo nada amar por amar y romper a llorar en lo más cierto y profundo del alma, sin ti no soy nada los días que pasan, las luces del alba, mi alma, mi cuerpo, mi voz, no sirven de nada porque yo sin ti no soy nada sin ti no soy nada sin ti no soy nada me siento tan rara, las noches de juerga se vuelven amargas me río sin ganas con una sonrisa pintada en la cara soy sólo un actor que olvidó su guión, al fin y al cabo son sólo palabras que no dicen nada los días que pasan, las luces del alba, mi alma, mi cuerpo, mi voz, no sirven de nada qué no daría yo por tener tu mirada, por ser como siempre los dos mientras todo cambia porque yo sin ti no soy nada sin ti no soy nada sin ti no soy nada. Entrevistas ..... they're terrific for us learners to watch and listen to. You've got heaps of advantages....mainly the ability to listen to bits over again, or all of it, to just pick out tiny bits you didn't quite get, to stop and look things up, to go away for a minute/hour/day/decade till your brain cools down ... what luxury! Plus, because they are relatively short, unlike, say, films, you won't lose your concentration ... and, of course, because I'm going to pick lovely people whom, I'm sure, we will all admire and really really want to listen to, it's win-win-win.... Today we will watch and listen to lots of interviews with Zahara ...are you sitting comfortably ... then we'll begin ! we start with Zahara out in the open air .... in between some pretty fast Spanish she plays El Leñador y a mujer América and, later on, El mujer mayuscula y el mar ... Here she is again .... Here's a 2014 Zahara ..... Here's another 2014 Zahara .... To round that all off, here she is doing a lovely cover of Paloma san Basilio's Luna de miel ... Nunca sabré cómo tu alma ha encendido mi noche
Nunca sabré cómo vino esta luna de miel La luna brilla en tus ojos con mi desvelo Besa tu suelo, reza en tu cielo, late en mi cien. Nunca sabré por qué siento tu pulso en mis venas Nunca sabré en qué viento llegó este querer Mi vida llama tu vida y busca tus ojos Besa tu suelo, reza en tu cielo, late en tu cien. Ya siempre unidos ya siempre Mi corazón con tu amor Yo sé que el tiempo es la brisa que vive en tu alma ven hacia mí, así el día vendrá Que amanece por ti La luna de miel. Nunca sabré qué misterio nos trae esta noche Nunca sabré cómo vino esta luna de miel La luna brilla en tus ojos y con mi desvelo Besa tu suelo, reza en tu cielo, late en tu cien. Ya siempre unidos ya siempre Mi corazón con tu amor Yo sé que el tiempo es la brisa que vicia tu alma Ven hacia mí, así el día vendrá Que amanece por ti La luna de miel. Ja, ja, ja, ja, ja ¡Hey! Nunca sabré cómo tu alma ha encendido mi noche Nunca sabré el milagro de amor que ha nacido por ti Luna de miel. I dare say that many of you out there have wondered about the name of this humble blog about Spanish and the learning of it. Well, I nicked the idea from that book up there ... the justly famous "Learn Greek in 25 Years" by the excellent Brian Church. Let's face it, Brian was one of the first to stem the tide of ginormous overoptimism in the language-learning field .. wherever that particular muddy meadow might be .... a little delving has found .... ... a bit slow that ! It's easily beaten by ... Now that' more like it ! However, it only gets a "could do better I'm afraid .... Well done Dagny Taggart ! Who would have thought that Japanese was 13 x easier than French ? Anyway, back to the serious business ... so, I nicked his title, but felt he was himself being a tad overoptimistic ... he admits it quite early on in the book ... " Learn Greek in 25 years ? .. No chance!" Another brilliant thing about this book, apart from its brutal honesty, is it's sensible down-to-earth approach. He knows what we need to know ..... let's take a look at some of his chapter headings .. Lesson One ... Welcome to Greek ! you haven't a chance. Lesson 4 .........Getting on the bus.(Key phrase "what colour is this bus?) Lesson 5 ..........Getting off the bus.( Key phrase "get out of the bloody way") Lesson 10 .........Sweet, succulent and just asking for it. Lesson 17 ..........The Bible Lesson 18 ...........An army of lips Lesson 21 ...........Bishop takes Aunty Gladys:Improving your chess.[no to drugs.Yes to chess] Lesson 25 ..........The Yes, lesson 25 is JUST about "the" !! So ... what is the lesson from all of this hyperbole, exaggeration and downright swindling? The message is, as far as I'm concerned .... don't think of your language learning in terms of "time." Just think of it as a process which, with ups and downs along the way, gradually increases your skills ..... and remember , Life is not an EXAM ! On your gravestone it's not going to say " he was crap at Spanish" , but it might well say "she loved Spanish." Er .. it's all got a bit serious and mawkish now ... I do apologise .... we'll move on quickly to music ... this is quite stirring ... Vanessa Martin and Trampas ... A veces me pregunto si mal si bien A veces me cuestiono las decisiones A veces me desvelo de madrugadas... pongo trampas en la cama, cayandome la voz. De pronto me doy cuenta que el mar nos tragó me voy a costumbrando a esta realidad... pero otras veces me revelo y te aprisionan los critales y mi habitacion... [Estribillo] Me da pena, tenerte y no tenerte... me da pena, por que te busco entre la gente. Me da pena, saber que todo escapa... Me da pena, ni siquiera mirarnos a la cara... Después de aquello nada más se supo, después de tanto como me gustabas, pero hay momentos en que tal vez no es el tiempo de arriesgar por que hay heridas que cerrar en mi interior. De pronto una canción me lleva a ti, de nuevo hay un pellizco en este corazón. Y yo.. y yo sigo con mil trampas en la cama, echandome agua a la cara cada vez que oigo tu nombre... [Estribillo] Me da pena, tenerte y no tenerte... me da pena, por que te busco entre la gente. Me da pena, saber que todo escapa... Me da pena, ni siquiera mirarnos... Me da pena, tenerte y no tenerte... Me da pena, por que te busco entre la gente. Me da pena, saber que todo escapa, me da pena, ni siquiera mirarnos... (bis) Bah ! Double bloody BAH !!
Remember that BLURBS game I showed you a while ago ... well, another one in the same vein was where someone takes a short poem, jumbles up all the words and you have to try to recreate it ! Well, that's a bit steep I think ...though you would probably be better employed using the words to make an entirely different poem. However, this did remind me of some questions in one of my Welsh coursebooks where we you were given jumbled-up sentences to reconstruct. I'd never seen questions like that before in a language textbook. Well, because Welsh has a pretty rigid sentence structure ( Verb-Subject-Object) they weren't actually too tricky.... but I suspected they would be harder in Spanish. So .... I thought I would make some and let you have a go. I tried to persuade my significant other to prepare some for me so I wouldn't know the answer and could try them for myself but... she wouldn't. That's how things go sometimes with relationships .... that initial spirit of adventure, excitement, passion and mutual admiration collapses in time into a heap of old sludge ! But enough of domestic matters .. on with the things that I have called JUMBLES. Because that's what they are. If it helps, these are all sentences from Los Recreos del Pequeño Nicolás ... a few have been slightly adapted .... and I have tried to put them roughly in order of difficulty ... also Francia and Agnan are people, as is Mamá ......... [A] boca no llena la con hable [B] de después escuela y los otra la llegaron [C] ahora mi marca las siempre reloj cuatro [D] preguntarle eso que qué papa decir a tendré quiere [E] si un no contenta Mamá te tarro muy llevara se alguien estaría [F] cuando empezó Francia de llena la explicarnos a estaba maestra galos de historias [G] hemos comprar todos los a entre cotizado la regalo un maestra para compañeros [H] nada haya que después Agnan modo importa que no de o antes a maestra la avisado Well, the best of luck with those ... and I would be interested to hear your opinions about how tricky they were, or how easy they were ... I just can't think of a way to make some that I won't know the answer to .... except by waiting for ages until I have forgotten most of them or doing hundreds of them and therefore not ever remembering any of them. (!) Here's Carla Morrison ... Una Salida .... Yo tengo
una ilusión dentro en mi corazon seco que humedece de tí yo pienso que tu luz es mi ejemplo que eres bello por dentro y me derrito por tí (coro) y no quiero aceptar y lo voy a negar pero es tan grande que me voy a explotar de tí estas clavado en mí y no te voy a querer y me hechare a correr negando todo sentimiento que me delate ante tí aunque siento que voy a morir buscando una salida yo estoy tan perdida buscando una salida yo estoy tan perdida yo siento que dudas y consejos que me pueden salvar pero me cuesta escuchar yo miro y me invaden suspiros que tienen ya tu nombre tatuado sin fin (coro) y no quiero aceptar y lo voy a negar pero es tan grande que me voy a explotar de tí estas clavado en mí y no te voy a querer y me hechare a correr negando todo sentimiento que me delate ante tí aunque siento que voy a morir buscando una salida yo estoy tan perdida buscando una salida yo estoy tan perdida I've been reading the " Petit Nicolas" books in French lately .... and they are amongst the funniest things I have ever read ..honestly! So, I was very pleased to find that they were also gettable in Spanish ! Result ! Mind you, the Spanish versions are a bit more expensive ... but well worth it. The strange thing is, I bought 3 of the French ones years ago but never got around to reading them.... which was serious error of judgement. Nicolas is a schoolboy, probably about 8 or 9, and basically every little story starts all peaceful and calm, and finishes up in chaos! It reminds me of those farces where someone turns up with a giant cake and you just know that, sooner or later, that cake is going to be... ruined! He and his equally feckless lumpkins can turn gold to lead in seconds! So ... now I'm reading him in Spanish and enjoying it just as much. I think this would be really motivating for young people learning Spanish .... and adults too. The ridiculous antics of this bunch of kids will strike a chord with every reader throughout the world. Very few books have ever made me laugh out loud, but these do it on nearly every page. There's lots of enthusiastic reviews of these books on Amazon ... here's a few appreciations from readers of the English versions ... My sons (age 6 & 9) love this book, and I really enjoy reading it with them. We laughed so much at 'Playing Cowboys' that we had to stop reading (even second time around!), and we also loved 'Jocky', 'A Game of Football' and 'The Bike'. There is a great cast of characters, especially Nicholas and his friends: fat Alec with his pocket full of croissant and teacher's pet Cuthbert are particularly memorable. As with the best children's books (and films!), there were things I found funny and other things my children liked, so it succeeded all round. The book is beautifully presented, with lovely line drawings - and, of course, all that French culture... My Mother bought this wonderful book for my daughter (8 "almost 9")and she has rushed to bed every night to be read to from it. She remembers all of the catch phrases and character traits of the characters and begs me for one more chapter. We finished reading it last night and she has asked for me to start again. The author has captured the mind of a child so beautifully which just goes to show that some things do not change over time and generations. My daughter is already asking for more of the books in the series. My six year old son, Joshua, thinks this is the funniest book ever - particularly for the story "Jocky" in which the boys use some Naughty Words ("Great fat nit!") which are endlessly repeated by the foreign boy who (apparently) doesn't know what they mean. The stories each follow a similar formula - the children cause mayhem, have a great time, and are then baffled by the despair of the adults - but never become repetitive, and they show deep understandning of childrens' (and adults') behaviour. We are promised more, and I can't wait (it'll be "Jocky" for us here every bedtime until then!) Well, I've told you so you can't say you've never heard of the wonderful world of Nicolas .... but now it is music time ... this is an old Shakira song sung by a much younger, and less famous, almost yodel-free Shakira .... Donde estas Corazon ... Donde estas corazon?
Ayer te busque Entre el suelo, y el cielo, mi cielo Y no te encontre Y puedo pensar que huyes de mi Porque mi silencio una corazonada Me dice que si Donde estas corazon? Ven regresa por mi Que la vida se me vuelve en ocho Si no estas aqui Y quiero pensar Que no tardaras Porque en el planeta no existe Mas nadie a quien pueda yo amar [coro] Donde estas corazon? Ayer te busque Donde estas corazón? Y no te encontre Donde estas corazon? Saliste de aqui Ay buscando quien sabe Que cosas Tan lejos de mi Y puedo pensar Y vuelvo pensar Que no tardaras Porque en el planeta no existe Mas nadie a quien pueda yo amar [coro] Te busque En al amario En al abecedario Debajo del carro En el negro en el blanco En los libros de historia En las revistas Y en la radio Te busque por las calles En donde tu madre En cuadros de botero En mi monedero En dos mil religiones Te busque hasta En mis canciones Here's a brilliant Zahara song ... Pregúntale al polvo ..... Isn't that smashing ! Here's the words ....
No soporto tenerte cerca .. ni tenerte que imaginar, aunque diga lo que quieres escuchar. Me he cansado de verte, me he cansado de amar .. pero vuelvo cada tarde al suicidio universal. Ahora confusa bebo, pero nunca te confieso .. por qué, mi amor .. por qué. Y en el agua .. pregúntale al agua .. si somos agua .. ¿seremos agua? Al agua .. El drama de un jugador que termina mis bebidas .. es la historia de tu vida .. mía no. Te has cansado de verme, te has cansado de amar .. Nunca fuiste tan valiente .. sé que no dispararás. No hace falta tanto esfuerzo .. pues ya amanecimos muertos .. ¿Por qué, mi amor? ¿Por qué? Y en el polvo .. pregúntale al polvo .. si somos polvo .. ¿seremos polvo? Y en el polvo .. pregúntale al polvo .. si somos polvo .. ¿seremos polvo? Al polvo .. pregúntale al polvo .. si somos polvo .. ¿seremos polvo? Al polvo .. Blurbs is a neat literary word-game which can be done at any level and which encourages inventiveness and wit ! Here's what you do .... somebody reads out, or gives you a copy of, the "blurb" from the back cover of a book. You then try to write the first sentence of the book! Don't panic ... this is not a memory game of appalling difficulty! No-one expects you to get it right. What you are expected to do is come up with an "opening sentence" for this book of some sort.....and it's nice if it can be appropriate, or maybe wildly inappropriate, and maybe quirky/funny as well. Played competitively, that's what will win. Not accuracy. If all the Spanish you know is " Zas!" then that could be your opener! If you know a bit more, you could use the little you have... Paulo le mira por uno momento. Obviously you can tailor your response to your ability .... as you do in real life. So ... I'm going to give you a couple of blurbs, and you can have a go at thinking up a "first sentence" for them .... answers later.Have fun.... BLURB A ..... Durante la dictadura militar argentina, un activista político y un homosexual comparten la celda de una cárcel bonaerense. Para paliar la soledad y el continuo miedo a la tortura, ambos presos conversan largamente. Mientras el activista político rememora su pasado y fantasea sobre su futuro, el homosexual se aferra a una realidad diferente, romántica y soñadora. BLURB B ... Un marino sin barco, desterrado del mar, conoce a una extraña mujer que posee, tal vez sin saberlo, respuestas a preguntas que ciertos hombres se hacen desde siglos. Cazadores de naufragios en busca del fantasma de un barco perdido en el Mediterráneo, problemas de latitud y longitud cuyo secreto yace oculto en antiguos derroteros y cartas náuticas, museos navales, bibliotecas... Right then .. off you go .... if you like, you can put your sentence(s) on here as a comment. But before you do that, have a listen to today's top music selection.... it's Jesse and Joy with !Corre¡ Me miras diferente Me abrazas y no siento tu calor Te digo lo que siento Me interrumpes y terminas la oración Siempre tienes la razón Tu libreto de siempre tan predecible Ya ya me lo se Así que corre corre corre corazón De los dos tu siempre fuiste el mas veloz Toma todo lo que quieras pero vete ya que mis lágrimas jamás te voy a dar Así que corre como siempre no mires atrás lo has hecho ya y la verdad me da igual. Ya viví esta escena Y con mucha pena te digo no, conmigo no Di lo que podía, pero a media puerta Se quedó mi corazón Tu.... libreto de siempre tan repetido Ya no no te queda bien Así que corre corre corre corazón De los dos tu siempre fuiste el más veloz Toma todo lo que quieras pero vete ya que mis lágrimas jamás te voy a dar Así que corre como siempre no mires atrás lo has hecho ya y la verdad me da igual. Tu el perro de siempre los mismos trucos Ya ya me lo se Así que corre corre corre corazón De los dos tu siempre fuiste el más veloz Toma todo lo que quieras pero vete ya que mis lágrimas jamás te voy a dar han sido tantas despedidas que en verdad Dedicarte un verso mas está de más Así que corre como siempre q no iré detrás Lo has hecho ya y la verdad me da igual lo has hecho ya y la verdad me da igual lo has hecho ya pero al final me da igual Now here's a puzzle for you .... how come this video is on here a year before it even existed ? .... I'm a clever old Hector really !
One of the advantages of learning a "BIG" language like Spanish is .... the availability of many Spanish books in English .... and, conversely, the availability of many English books in Spanish. you might think that using this happy fact would be cheating ... but, done properly, it is a really good way to boost your Spanish. Let's say you happen to have picked up a copy of this William book in a Belfast second-hand bookshop.... like I did a while ago. OK, it's a book aimed at children, but the reading age is pretty high ,as you will find if you have a go at the Spanish version yourself. Often, despite your best efforts, there will be words you can't find the meaning of, there will be idiomatic usages you just can't find or fathom out ( "fathom out" must be right beggar for people learning English !) ( As must "right beggar") ..... and sometimes whole sentences or sections can be a bit of a mystery. It happens to the best of us. That's when you turn to the trusty English version ( William the Superman) .... So in fact, far from cheating, you are accelerating the learning process. That was just one tiny tiny example ..... you can get loads and loads of books in both English and Spanish, from the very very very simple to full-blown world novels! Oh yes ! And what's more, if you are learning other "big" languages like French, Russian, German etc you can get them in those languages too. Wow ! Well, here's some more books in Spanish that you can get in English too ... I'll let you work out what they are ! Well, that lot should keep you busy for a while ....and believe it or not, there's lots of others.But now, the music ..... it;s the beautiful Universos Infinitos by Love of Lesbian ...... Ahora dicen que hay muchos más universos
infinitos como el nuestro. Dime si no es para no volverse loco .. ¿no te sientes más pequeño? Dos espejos frente a frente crearán cien mil caras que observar, Puede que alguno de ellos sea el real lo tendré que investigar. Que empiece el viaje ya .. Infinita ingenuidad, ilusión centesimal, me creía tan capaz con mi cápsula de Albal. Mi torpeza fue total, de tan grande es demencial, no detecto una señal, nunca encontraré el lugar donde al fin me entienda. Me perdí en mi universo .. ¿y tú? Me perdí en mi universo .. ¿y tú? No volveré a hacerlo más, no he encontrado respuestas. ¿Y si no regreso jamás y este ruido no cesa? Mundos que van a estallar si mi vida está opuesta. Y yo ya no puedo hacer más siempre resta. Y yo ya no puedo hacer más siempre resta. Y yo ya no puedo hacer más siempre resta. Y yo ya no puedo hacer más .. y yo ya no puedo hacer más .. |
AuthorI'm just somebody learning Spanish like most of you reading this I suppose. This blog is mostly what I'm thinking about as I go along. There is some serious stuff on here, grammar, vocabulary etc, but there is also a lot of mucking about, peculiar insights and lots of homework and games and puzzles, and how could I forget, music. Lots of music..Whatever I do, I hope it will all be Terrific For Your Spanish! Archives
September 2018
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