In The Easy Listening Method of Learning Spanish I was joking when I said it was a truly effective and lazy way to learn Spanish. Of course listening to Spanish music is not going to teach you much of the language if that is all you do to learn it. But as a support to your Spanish studies, listening to Spanish music and conversation is a way to apply what you have learned.

Watching Spanish news and sitcoms need a commitment of time unless the tv is just on in the background and you are not concentrating on it. I prefer listening to Spanish radio stations. I like Los 40 Principales because there is a Spanish and International mix of music and you’ll be hearing the same music in every cafe in the town. The dj speaks perhaps a little faster than you would hear in normal conversation but it is good comprehension practice.

So click on to Los 40 Principales and give it a bash. Like singer Conchita, you have ‘Nada Que Perder’ and you will soon be singing your heart out like talented Esther, the star of the video below.

Nunca se me dió demasiado bien poner las cartas sobre la mesa,
nunca se me dió demasiado bien
Y ahora nos volvemos a encontrar y me preguntas que tal me va

Quisiera ser capaz, decirte la verdad,
decirte que me va realmente mal,
no te logré olvidar, ni lo intente quizás
Quisiera ser capaz mirarte y no temblar,
decirte que aun nadie me volvió a besar,
no te logré olvidar, ni lo intente quizás.

Y en lugar de eso, sonrio y tiemblo,
y te cuento que ya acabe la facultad,
me puse a trabajar y, me volvi a enamorar
Y en lugar de eso, sonrio y pienso
porque no seré capaz de decir la verdad.
Te pierdo una vez mas

Quisiera ser capaz, decirte la verdad,
decirte que me va realmente mal,
no te logré olvidar, ni lo intente quizá
Quisiera ser capaz mirarte y no temblar,
decirte que aun nadie me volvió a besar,
no te logré olvidar, ni lo intente quizás.

Y ahora me quedan dos opciones,
quedarme quieta o echar a correr,
y me pongo a correr ¿ya que puedo perder?
verás es que no me va demasiado bien,
no te logré olvidar, ni lo intente quizá
y me pongo a correr ¿ya que puedo perder?
verás es que ya nadie me volvió a besar,
no te logré olvidar, ni lo intenté quizá

Y ahora ya te toca a ti acabar con esta historia
ahora ya te toca a ti decir las cosas,
pon un punto y final o besame sin mas.
Y ahora ya te toca a ti, ya no vale callar,
esta vez no volveré a perderte una vez mas,
no me voy a marchar sin saber el final

Nunca se me dió demasiado bien poner las cartas sobre la mesa,
nunca se me dió, no, demasiado bien.
Y ahora nos volvemos a encontrar y me preguntas, que, que que tal me va,
y yo ya no se, ya no se ni que contestar

Do you want to know the best way to learn Spanish in Tenerife? Have kids. No, really! Just have a couple of kids and pop them into a local guarderia until they are old enough to enrol  in the Spanish state pre-schooler programme and Bob’s your uncle – in no time at all they will be coming home with garbled messages from the teacher that you are going to have to interpret.

You’ll be learning Spanish nursery songs and sooner or later a magical spell about a frog’s bottom that heals all bumps and bruises (Sana sana colita de rana si no sanas hoy sanaras mañana). There will be  books about Pepo, Pablo, Lua or Tico and possibly a class log in which you will have to make a long entry describing your family life and including photos and colouful doodles.  In Spanish, of course.

Your little one will start correcting your Spanish pronunciation. “No! Not ‘otra vez, otra veh’!” Thanks son, you’ll say between gritted teeth doing your best not to remind him that it was only yesterday he asked you to sing ‘Oh Flower of Iceland’.

Other mothers will rush up to you in the playground and gush a great spurt of words all over you. If you are not to drown, you must get a sprinkling of Spanish vocabulary to hang on to like floats in a swimming pool. Once you’ve gotten used to picking words out of the raging torrent, it will get a bit easier. Instead of floats, now you have stepping stones to help you wade through the conversation.

Your Spanish/English dictionary will become your best friend because as soon as your child progresses to reading comprehension homework you will hear questions like “What does ‘chiflado’ mean?”.  (Though I suspect that she was taking the mickey on that one!) After a wee while of this your mother tongue will be  Spanglish: “Right! Now I am enfadada. Get to bed!”

So there you have it. Forget the expensive language courses. Rip up the timetable for your Spanish course at the Cultural Centre. Just get pregnant and you’ll be speaking Spanish in no time (well, in about five years actually.).

Seeing as how in my last post I admitted that I only got round to cleaning my desk because the computer was down thanks to Tenerife’s electricity blackout I think the following quote from IBM is warranted except in my case, instead of the computer being a product of my laziness it is the cause of it

El ordenador ha sido hasta ahora el producto mas genial de la vagancia humana

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How is your memory? Lately Gaga has convinced herself that she is losing hers – though losing her mind is probably more accurate, given her current obsessions with all things beady.

According to Norman Wisdom as you get older, three things happen:

The first is your memory goes, and I can’t remember the other two…

Everyone has had one of those blood-stopping moments when some fundamental thing floats back into consciousness and you slap your hand over your mouth in horror at your own forgetfulness but to English playwright and actor John Osborne having a poor memory was not altogether a bad thing…

El que tiene mala memoria se ahorra muchos remordiniento

It seems the Sopa de Letras sugar sachet was a hit. I even got an email asking for the address of the cafe where I found it – Las Ninas in Las Galletas if you really want to know. Here is another and this time you are looking for the name Ortega plus 6 ‘nombres de hombre’. I can only see four so feel free to tell me if you get all six.

Look what I found. Sugar Sachet Spanish with a difference. Word search puzzles are called Sopa De Letras in Spain and one local café has sugar sachets with mini-Sopa de Letras puzzles printed on them.

With each you must find the name Ortega plus 6 other words depending on the topic. For this one find Ortega plus six insects…

El que sabe no lo cuenta.
El que lo cuenta no lo sabe.

There is a bit of a mystery over Lao Tse. Did this Chinese philosopher actually exist or was the use of the name Lao Tse which roughly translates to ‘Old Boy’ really just a convenient way to gather together a collection of wise sayings and adages, the origin of which has long been forgotten?