Thoughts on Spanish

If you spend any amount of time on the Internets, you've seen the following video. It is a 'love song' in Spanish. The lyrics are a mishmash of the amount of knowledge one feller retained from one semester of college Spanish. It certainly is funny...at least I think so. If you've ever taken a Spanish class, you will certainly appreciate it.

I (Matt) speak Spanish. I am certainly rusty though when I try after not having spoken it for awhile. Then, within about a half hour, it flows back fairly quickly. I enjoy speaking with native Spanish speakers who appreciate someone who speaks their language. I get the feeling though, that many folks from Latin America who have been in the US for some time think Gringos are pandering/humoring them. So, I tend not to speak it unless I feel comfortable.

Outside the country is a different story. When Aimee and I are in a Spanish speaking country (four times so far), I speak to anyone and everyone. Native Spanish speakers in their own countries don't have too many preconceived notions about foreigners speaking their language, so the experience is enjoyable.

My favorite Spanish, by far, is Chilean Spanish. Why? Because that's how I learned it. It also sounds beautiful to me. At the end of this post, I added a video of a song by Violeta Parra, a famous Chilean folk singer. Aimee and I have one of her CD's and it's great. The song in the video is sung by some dudes and not Violeta, but you can get a sense of the power of her music, even if you don't understand. I actually have lot of trouble with some of the words, so I just listen to it with my English-speaking brain. If you don't know who she is, you can google her and learn about her influence on the music of the 1960's in the US.

First though, check out the goofiness.



Then, here is a REAL song in Spanish.