Spanish songs are hard for me. Why?
Everyone suggests listening to Spanish music to help learn, but for me, it's harder. Maybe because the music makes it hard for me to hear the words, or maybe because the words are elongated and so I'm not hearing the word the way I know it. Am I the only one who struggles with songs? WHAT IS MY PROBLEM?!! I've been studying for about four months now.
7 Answers
A piece of advice: Look for slow songs with a low background music. I'm sorry if you don't like ballads, but they are the ones that will help. Here some :
"Solo tengo ojos para ti" / "Estrellitas y duendes" - Juan Luis Guerra (Dominican Republic) "Con los ojos cerrados" - Gloria Trevi (Mexico) "Mi corazón" - San Luis (Venezuela) "Aunque sea poco" - Voz Veis (Venezuela) "Moscas en la casa" / "Inevitable" - Shakira (Colombia) "Cuando los sapos bailen flamenco" - Ella Baila Sola (Spain) "Quiero ser" - Amaia Montero (Spain) "Ojalá" - Silvio Rodríguez (Cuba) -not so slow but extremely beautiful song
Others like Alex Ubago may be useful too.
Latin Spanish has -in my opinion- softer sounds than Spanish from Spain (you can tell by the different pronunciation of z and j. Anyway it may be a good idea to listen to a little bit if everything.
Well, for example, I have been watching kids shows, Spanish version of "The Backyardigans" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfFip4vBxXs) and "Raggs" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDNYCeYFRFw). Every time they sing, I have no idea what they are saying (okay maybe 10%), unless I read the subtitles. And forget it if they sing fast...
I've watched a few telenovelas as well, and when they sing a love song (any song really), again, I go blank, lol! I thought of trying to listen to pop Latin, but I fear my vocabulary is probably too limited. I thought the above (kids and love songs) would be easiest.
I've been studying for about three, and I can only make out about 5% of Fonseca's songs (well, except Tú eres mi sueño, in which I figured out about 20% or so). What I usually do (and remember that I've only heard four songs so far) is:
1) Listen, trying to understand as much as I can. I occasionally rewind parts that make me think "Hey, was that 'papel'?" or "I think I got a snatch of that! It ended with -ado and could be a participle".
2) Look up the song's lyrics (letras de la cancion) online and compare to what I had figured out.
3) I learn a few lines by rote (and understanding their meanings), and then play the song again, focusing on those lines and trying to sing along (in my horrible, horrible voice).
4) I try to guess more lyrics by association. 'Doy gracias al cielo' should be followed by something like "for letting me eat chocolate or something". Sure enough, next time, I realize that it says "por poder quererte". Awesome. I hear a trailing 'como', so I rewind and check again.
5) Repeat 1 to 4 till I can sing the whole song.
6) Sing occasionally and shock my peers. Though I don't know if it's the foreign language that impresses them, or my sheer guts for singing after being labeled 'most horrible singer of the family'.
Bueno, eso depende de la canción ¿cual has escuchado?
My advice, is change that to some other type of listening... maybe watching a movie etc...
Apparently, you are not too kin to listening to music, much less in Spanish.
jaja no se por que me has echo acordarme de esto jaja que tiempos...
Dragones y Mazmorras
Songs can be difficult because of the use of slang and the liberal breaking of grammar rules in order to make the words "fit" the music. Try looking for songs with the words and then read and listen at the same time. Then translate the words. Do this for a lot of songs from different artists. Look for ones where the music is not overpowering and where the words are clear.
It is hard work but very rewarding when you start to understand songs in Spanish.
