Learning Spanish through songs? Probably you’ve heard already this language learning technique, or maybe you also practiced it, but to what extent?
Did you ever think that this could be the main (if not the only) technique that will allow you to easily learn the Spanish language?
Hoy va a ser el día menos pensado
Nos hemos cruzado, has decidido mirar
A los ojitos azules que ahora van a tu lado.
Resumiendo con prisas tiempo de silencio,
Te juro que a nadie le he vuelto a decir
Que tenemos el récord del mundo en querernos.
A que llegaras con rosas, con mil rosas para mí,
Porque ya sabes que me encantan esas cosas,
Que no importa si es muy tonto, soy así.
Imaginando que vuelves a pasarte por aquí,
Donde los viernes cada tarde, como siempre,
Me pediste que te diera un beso,
Con lo baratos que salen mi amor
Qué te cuesta callarme con uno de esos
Un placer coincidir en esta vida.
Allí me quedé, en una mano el corazón
Y en la otra excusas que ni tú entendías
A que llegaras con rosas, con mil rosas para mí,
Porque ya sabes que me encantan esas cosas,
Que no importa si es muy tonto, soy así.
Imaginando que vuelves a pasarte por aquí,
Donde los viernes cada tarde, como siempre,
Que el amor verdadero es tan sólo el primero
Y es que empiezo a sospechar
Que los demás son sólo para olvidar
A que llegaras con rosas, con mil rosas para mí,
Porque ya sabes que me encantan esas cosas,
Que no importa si es muy tonto, soy así.
Imaginando que vuelves a pasarte por aquí,
Donde los viernes cada tarde, como siempre,
Here’s the official, gorgeous version (a cover) of the same song:
Learning Spanish Through Songs: The Many Benefits of This Learning Approach
From a specifically linguistic point of view, we can only draw up a partial list of the possibilities and potentialities offered by the song text. Learning Spanish through songs allows, indeed facilitates:
- learning and memorization of phonemes, vocabulary, and morphosyntactic structures thanks to the repeated listening of a text without lowering or losing motivation thanks to the different tasks that can be assigned
- effective work on pronunciation thanks to the appropriate use of rhythm in the song
- enhancement of basic communicative skills:
a. listening
b. speaking (in tests of comprehension of the text listened to, in singing the proposed song),
c. reading of the transcribed text,
d. rewriting of the text; and integrated communicative skills: commentary, summary, paraphrase, inter register translation, etc.
- learning through the involvement of the whole body. The action of singing, in particular, allows the phonatory apparatus to be exercised with different activities, but also allows the dramatization of text and context.
- learning poetry: the use of the text of the song, of the songwriter’s song in particular but not only, is to all intents and purposes the use of a literary or poetic text, with its rhetorical figures, the specific vocabulary of literature and poetry, the rhimes, etc…
In today’s songs, in particular, the importance of the text is often predominant over the pleasantness of the melody because it has become one of the privileged channels for conveying emotions.
- learning the culture of which language is an integral part: the uses of a song for the cultural aspects contained in it: civilization, history, geography, customs, and habits of a country. You can learn songs about political commitment, society, women, love, work, etc…
the use of a song for independent learning of a foreign language; - learning geography & history, not only the culture: Through song lyrics and accompanying videos, you can learn about a foreign country even without visiting it. How many young people around the world, in the 1960s in particular, learned about England and the English language through the songs of the Beatles, and how many people around the world who have never visited Italy see it through the words of ‘Nel blu dipinto di blu’?
Me Voy (Julieta Venegas)
Porque no supiste
entender a mi corazón,
Lo que había en él.
Porque no tuviste el valor
De ver quién soy.Porque no escuchas
Lo que está tan cerca de ti,
Sólo el ruido de afuera
Y yo, que estoy a un lado
Desaparezco para ti.
No voy a llorar y decir
Que no merezco esto, porque
Es probable que lo merezco,
Pero no lo quiero, por eso…
Me voy, qué lástima pero adiós
Me despido de ti y me voy,
qué lástima pero adiós
Me despido de ti.
Porque sé que me
espera algo mejor
Alguien que sepa darme amor,
De ese que endulza la sal
Y hace que salga el sol.
Yo que pensé,
nunca me iría de ti,
Que es amor del bueno,
de toda la vida
Pero hoy entendí que no es
Suficiente para los dos.
No voy a llorar y decir
Que no merezco esto porque
Es probable que lo merezco
Pero no lo quiero, por eso…Because you did not know
how to understand my heart,
What was there in it?
Because you didn’t have the courage
To see who I am.
Because you don’t listen
To what is so close to you,
Just the noise from outside
And I, who am on one side,
Disappear for you.
I am not going to cry and say
That I do not deserve this, because
It’s probable that I do deserve it,
But I do not want it, that’s why…
I leave, what a shame but goodbye
I bid my farewell and
I leave, what a shame but goodbye
I bid my farewell to you.
Because I know something
better waits for me
Someone who knows how to give me love,
The kind that sweetens salt
And makes the sun come out.
Me who thought,
I would never leave you,
That it was real love,
lifelong love
But today I understood that it isn’t
Enough for the two of us.
I am not going to cry and say
That I do not deserve this because
It’s probable that I do deserve it
But I do not want it, that’s why…
Some Translation Notes from the Songlations Journal
Me despido de ti y = I bid my farewell and
Me voy, qué lástima pero adiós = I leave, what a shame but goodbye
despedirse de = to part company with, to separate from, to bid farewell to
adios = goodbye, farewell
This form of saying goodbye can sound long-term, like you won’t see someone again for a while, if ever.
Que es amor del bueno, de toda la vida = That it was real love, lifelong love
amor del bueno = the good kind of love, the real kind of love
Spanish Songs of the Kelly Family
Here are 2 wonderful songs sung in Spanish by Jim Kelly and his band. For those who do not know this singer is one of the many brothers of the famous Kelly Family that had great success in Europe in the1990s.
Jim Kelly is an Irish-American singer, but he was born in Gamonal, a small town in the province of Toledo, in the heart of Spanish Castile!
Yo vendo unos ojos negros quien me los quiere comprar?
I sell black eyes, who wants to buy them from me?
lo vendo por hechiceros, porque me han pagado mal.
I sell them for sorcerers, because they have paid me badly.
Los ojos de mi morena, tan negros como el carbón,
My brunette’s eyes, as black as coal,
me tienen como en cadenas, atado mi corazón.
they have me as in chains, tied my heart.
Mas te quisiera, más te amo yo, y todas la noche
The more I would love you, the more I love you, and all night long
la paso suspirando por tu amor.
I spend every night sighing for your love.
Cada vez que tengo pena voy a la orilla del mar,
Every time I am in sorrow I go to the seashore,
a preguntarle a las olas si han visto a mi amor pasar
to ask the waves if they have seen my love pass by
Brincan y Bailan (They Jump and Dance)
En el portal de Belén hacen lumbre los pastores,
The shepherds build a fire in Bethlehem’s crib
Para calentar al niño que ha nacio’ entre las flores
To warm the child who was born among the flowers
Brincan y bailan los peces en el rio,
The fishes jump and dance in the river,
Brincan y bailan de ver a Dios nacido.
They jump and dance to see God born.
Brincan y bailan los peces el agua,
They jump and dance the fishes in the water,
Brincan y bailan de ver nacida el alba
They jump and dance to see the dawn born.
En el portal de Belén hay un hombre haciendo miga,
In the Bethlehem portal there is a man making crumbs,
Los pajaritos le cantan y el agua se va riendo…
The birds are singing to him and the water is laughing…
Santa Maria (Holy Mary)
Here’s another Spanish song sung by the whole Kelly family in its golden age. The chorus of the song is actually sung in Italian as you can hear for yourself: “Santa Maria prega per noi” (Holy Mary pray for us).
Spanish LyricsEnglish Translation
Learning Spanish Through Songs: An Educational Songs about Reflexive Spanish Verbs
Speak Spanish Fluently 2020 – The Ultimate Spanish Learning Method
Ojos Negros (Black Eyes)