My Spanish progress + my current favorite spanish songs #6 :

Hi friends ; 

Learning a new language can get really hard, at some point you lose motivation to continue, and even if you force to continu you don’t feel any progress, and I kind of feel like that with me learning Spanish lately, it’s like a hit a wall but I’m trying be positive again and chase all the negativity, I have a lot of free time those days, so I’m going to consecrate some of it even if only an hour in my day to Spanish.

Currently I'm reading this book named "La Ciudad de las Bestias" by ISABEL ALLENDE, it's a YA novel which made me think I can handle reading it, but no it's a bit hard for me to understand what’s happening, I use the dictionary and it helps a lot, I’m also planning to do on this blog some Spanish tags even film videos of them, I already did one before and it was so much fun, it's just me answering some questions and they can be book related my favorite subject, I'm excited about the tags, and to make this plan work and more fun I’m now exclusively listening  to music in Spanish let’s cross fingers that I would stick to this plan and improve even a bit my level.

Talking about music, I love summer because during this period a lot of hits are in Spanish, and it’s not always easy for me to find music in Spanish that suits my taste, so those are five of my favorite songs that I really enjoy listening to lately:

#1 Carlos Vives, Shakira - La Bicicleta:

Lleva, llévame en tu bicicleta

Óyeme, Carlos, llévame en tu bicicleta

Quiero que recorramos juntos esa zona

Desde Santa Marta hasta La Arenosa

#2 Chino y Nacho - Andas En Mi Cabeza ft. Daddy Yankee: 

Andas en mi cabeza nena a todas horas

(No sé cómo explicarte)

El mundo me da vueltas, tú me descontrolas

(No paro de pensarte)

Por tí me la paso imaginando que

(Imaginando que)

Contigo me casé

(Oh Yeah)

Y por siempre te amé

(Love you girl, girl, girl)

#3 Romeo Santos - Yo También ft. Marc Anthony:

Quien eres tú

Para sentirte superior dueño de ella

A ti te quiso a mí me amo algo de veras

Como Colón yo navegue toda su piel

#4 Enrique Iglesias - DUELE EL CORAZON ft. Wisin:

Con él te duele el corazón

Y conmigo te duelen los pies

Con él te duele el corazón

Y conmigo te duelen los pies

And I saved the best for the last my Prince

#5 Prince Royce - La carretera:

¿Dónde estarás? ¿Dónde estarás?

¿Todavía piensas en mí?

¿Dónde estarás? ¿Dónde estarás?

Yo sigo pensando en ti

My progress in spanish + my current favorite spanish songs #2

"Hola, me llamó merieme, tengo veintiún anos, vivo en agadir, es un cuidad en el sur de marruecos, agadir es muy agredable sobre todo en verano, trabajo como camarera, es mi trabajo este verano.  

Aprendo espanol por dos anos, pero mi nivel es no bueno porque me estudiando solo en mi casa utilizando internet y a veces me aburro.

Pero este verano intento trabajar mas y estudiar mas, y mi gol es leer un libro entero en espanol espero que si."

So this is all I could say in spanish when I recorded myself, and I know it's not a good thing since it doesn't reflect my work, and it's a little frustrating, but I'm not giving up I'll learn this language one day.

One of the tips I found on the internet about learning any language is to diversify my learning resources, so I have been searching for and trying different resources; I have found this app called Duolingo, it's a great app to learn vocabulary and I love using it, and I started listening to a new podcast Showtime spanish and I like it so far, I also began to watch this telenovela La que no podia amar the site where I'm watching it provides english and spanish subtitles witch is so helpful. I'm the type to get easily bored so using different resources helps me a lot.

Now to music;

this month I have been listening a lot to some old but yet so good songs by enrique iglesias.

Ayer:

Hey dime a donde vas                                             Hey tell me where you're going

y si sabes tu distino                                                  and if you know your destity

Ayer cabais en mi corazon                                      yesturday you fit in my heart

y te escondiste en un rincon                                   and you hid in a corner

del otro lado                                                               of the other side

yo se que la vida nos dejo                                        I know that life let us 

saber que nuestro amor                                           know that our love

no esta acabado                                                         is not over

                                          

Enrique Iglesias feat. Juan Luis Guerra-Cuando Me Enamoro:

Cuando me enamoro                                               When I fall in love

a veces desespero                                                     Sometimes I get desperate

Cuando me enamoro                                               When I fall in love

Cuando menos melo espero                                   When I least expect it

me enamoro                                                               I fall in love

Se detiene el tiempo                                                 Time stops

me viene el alma al cuerpo                                     soul comes to my body

sonrio, cuando me enamoro                                  I smile, when I fall in love

Since I'm a big fan of Ricky Martin, I'm always listening to one of his songs, this month I have been listening to:
Tu Recuerdo by Ricky Martin & Mari Chambao:

Tu recuerdo sigue aqui                                          Your memory stays here
Como un aguacero                                                  Like a cloudburst
Rompe fuerte sobre mi                                          It hits me hard
Pero a fuego lento                                                   But slowly
Quema y moja por igual                                        It burns and soaks me all the same
Y ya no se lo que pensar                                        And I don't know what to think
Si tu recuerdo me hace bien                                 If your memory is good  
o me hace mal                                                         or bad for me

Ricky Martin - La Mordidita:

I enjoy listing to this song so much, so richy martin.

I saved the best for the last,

Solita by Prince Royce:

Tomando el autobús                                               While I was taking the bus

En un Diciembre a mi vida llegas tú                    In a December you came into my life

La niña que tantas veces yo había                        The girl of whom I’ve dreamed so many

soñado                                                                          times

Y como un loco, cada noche deseado                   And like a crazy, I desired her every night  

  

I'd like to mention that for the lyrics and the translation, I use this website that I like so much http://lyricstranslate.com/

Music and learning Spanish

Music is a great tool to learn any language, it's one of the easiest ways to discover new vocabulary and memorize it, just enjoy the music, then search for the translation , that's it.

Everyone has it's own technique to learn vocabulary through music, mine is that every time I listen to a song I like, and I know I'll be replaying a lot. I search for it's lyrics and translation on internet, then I copy down on my notebook the chorus of the song, and try to memorize it. the chorus is always easy to remember and has always some really interesting vocabulary. I tried before to copy down the whole song but I ended up not remembering a word from that song. and I don't know why, maybe it's just too much for my brain. so ya that's my way.

Even though spanish is a language that a lot of people speak, a LOT, when I first started learning it, I couldn't find songs that suits my taste, til now all I'm listening to are songs by Ricky Martin, Shakira, and Enrique Iglesias, and I really like those three, but I would like to discover more singers, that's why I'll be posting blogs about my favorite spanish songs, I'll try to make an effort and search for new musicians and songs that I didn't knew before, maybe those posts will be useful to someone out there!!!

My spanish learning journey

Today I wanted to write about my spanish learning journey, how I started and where I am now.

I started learning spanish in my first year of university, I didn't have a specific reason for this choice, it was just that I  wanted to do something useful in my free time, and also I thought it would be a good addition in my CV.

Since there was no spanish course in my majoring, I started learning it by myself at home, first I started searching for some free resources online, and that's where I discovered this really interesting youtube channel called SpanishDict, it's a great start for someone who knows absolutely nothing about the spanish language, the videos in this youtube channel are in english, they present spanish in a very easy way, I learned a lot of vocabulary from them.

It was a really useful learning resource for me, until that stage where the lessons become more about the grammar, I couldn't understand much of those lessons since the spanish and the english grammar are so different, so I stopped watching the spanishdict videos but I liked their page on facebook, every day they post a new vocabulary which is a good thing.

I didn't find much about spanish grammar on the internet, so I bought a book called 40 Leçons pour parler espagnol, this book contains 40 spanish grammar lesson explained in french, this book helped me a lot, mainly because there is a lot of similarities between the french and the spanish grammar.

I learned so much from this book from grammar to pronunciation; but it was so hard to learn just grammar; grammar is important but learning it is so boring, plus I kept forgetting the rules. so I gave up learning from this book around the lesson number 25, and I had to switch up to another  thing.

I returned to internet, and that's where I found about the podcast Notes In Spanish, and I downloaded their mp3 episodes from iTunes, they are free which is greet. they are presented by Marina and Ben, where they talk to each other about different subjects in spanish and english, I still listen to them, I think they are really interesting.

Now after two years of learning, I try to listen to a podcast every day, I listen to music in spanish like always, and every now and then I read a children's book in spanish, but I'm so far from being fluent, there is, on internet, some people who say they become fluent in spanish in three months, I don't know how those people did that, all I know is that it's not my case, learning this language is so hard, it needs patience, some days I lose all motivation to continue, especially that I'm doing it alone with no teacher, I took learning this language as a challenge, I wish this year I stay motivated enough to achieve it.