Luchador
Luchador – Elijah Emanuel
Lucho por el día.
Lucho por la noche.
Lucho por mi madre.
Lucho por mi arte.
Lucho por mi tío y mi abuelita.
Lucho por familia.
Lucho cuando duermo.
Lucho con mis sueños.
Lucho para ganar el dinero.
Luché ayer y lucho hoy.
¿Quién es luchador?
Yo soy luchador.
Nací de una familia de luchadores.
Una familia con fuertes raíces.
Mi bisabuelo luchó toda su vida.
Mi abuelito luchó toda su vida.
Mi mamacita luchó toda su vida
y mi tío luchó toda su vida.
Por eso yo, yo lucho hoy.
¿Quién es luchador
Yo soy luchador.
Visión Persistente
Visión Persistente – Elijah Emanuel
Muchos años escribiendo.
Muchos años cantando.
Muchos años ensayando.
Muchos años preparándome.
Muchas montañas hay que subir.
Muchas visiones ya en mí.
Muchos caminos para viajar.
Muchos misterios para revelar.
Paciencia corazón paciencia.
Paciencia mi mente paciencia.
Paciencia mi espíritu paciencia.
Paciencia mi alma.
Visión persistente
Yo lo tengo
Visión persistente
Para compartir
Visión persistente
Está en tu
Visión persistente
Actitud
Muchos años he llorado.
Muchos años he tratado
De cantar mis canciones seguidos.
Calumniadores han venido.
Muchos vendrán con sus guitarras.
Muchos vendrán con sus tambores.
Muchos los que son llamados
y poco son los aceptados.
Si lo puedes percibir
lo puedes lograr.
Immersion Bubble
¿Qué pasa mi gente?
Today I want to write about how I am creating a Spanish environment for myself in a country that primarily speaks English. I refer to this as an “immersion bubble”.
1. Don’t speak English when you don’t have to.
I notice the most improvement in my Spanish is when I stop speaking English. Every second of my life that I can speak or practice Spanish, I am doing so. I just start speaking whenever I can with whomever I can wherever I am. Friends, co-workers, family, new acquaintances, whomever. At the grocery, at the mall, at home, wherever. In my experience, most all of the people I speak with are 100% happy with the fact that I am learning their language, are supportive of my language mission, are patient enough to talk to me, and most importantly correct me when I’m wrong. The only time I allow myself to speak English is with my non-spanish speaking family and at work (unless it’s on my break or the person I’m talking to is comfortable speaking spanish at my level).
There has also been some cases where the person I was helping at work only spoke Spanish and was grateful that I was able to communicate with them. This situation threw me right in to the fire (so to speak) and forced me to use the language. The ability to speak with natives is invaluable when learning and there are plenty of native Spanish speakers here in the United States, like Kim’s family, who are very supportive. I also have plenty of Spanish-speaking co-workers that speak with me at appropriate times during the work day. This has been helping me a lot, and I always remember to kindly thank them.
2. When you do things you enjoy, do them in Spanish.
Every second I’m in my car, I have the radio set to my favorite Spanish station. Here in San Diego it’s Pulsar 107.3. When I watch TV, I watch TV in Spanish. I’m currently hooked on the novela El Clon with Sandra Echeverría. When I watch movies, I watch them in Spanish. There is a great movie on Netflix right now called Innocent Voices that is entirely in Spanish. I also switched the language on my iMac and my iPhone to Spanish. You get the idea. If you can’t be in the country, immerse yourself at home.
3. Music
Music is key for me because it has always been a big part of my life. Being a musician and a lover of music, it is important to me to immerse myself in music in Spanish. One of my all time favorite artists is Carlos Vives from Colombia. Learning the words to his songs and what they mean simply reinforce why I love his music. I also enjoy the music of Fonseca and Juanes, also from Colombia. I have a passion for Reggae music and enjoy the artist Elijah Emanuel who is from Panama but lives in my hometown of San Diego. While sharing his music with some friends, I was also turned on to the band Los Cafres from Argentina. Sharing my passion of music with others is part of who I am, and learning music in Spanish takes me one step further in my mission.
I will now leave you with two of my favorite Elijah Emanuel songs. I could not find the lyrics online, so I have transcribed them in the links below.
Refining My Resources
Hola. ¿Cómo te va?
I just got back from San Ysidro with mi prometida (Kim) and her mother. San Ysidro is a town right next to the border between San Diego and Tijuana. This was a great experience because a large majority of the people there speak Spanish. English is outnumbered, which is exactly what you want when learning a new language. I was completely surrounded by the language, and I didn’t have to leave San Diego. We spent the day at Las Americas which is an outlet mall a stone’s throw away from the border. Kim’s mother is a native Spanish speaker so it was great to be around her speaking with other natives. I was actually surprised at how much I understood. I still caught myself being afraid to speak (I’m still working on my goal of breaking my shyness). I wasn’t too hard on myself though, I just decided to make it a day of listening. If I wasn’t sure what something meant, I just asked.
I have been practicing speaking with other natives in my hometown since my last post, and one thing I noticed is that I generally begin my conversations in English unless I really know the other person I’m speaking to. I’m not sure if this is the best way to approach speaking with native Spanish speakers, but the last thing I want to do is to make it seem as if I’m assuming the other person speaks Spanish because of their appearance. Our national language is English, and many expats do a great job of immersing themselves our language. So for now, until they tell me they are from a Spanish speaking country, or I hear them speaking Spanish, I will begin my conversations in English. I mention this because in the past I have begun a few conversations with people I didn’t know in Spanish and they immediately switched to English making things really uncomfortable. This could be because of my horrible accent and they were just being nice by speaking English, but speaking English doesn’t help me learn. I’d rather avoid offending people in the states by politely asking where they are from first.
So, what am I doing to work on the goals that I have set out for myself?
First, I have to say that spreading the word about my Spanish learning is the best thing that I have done so far. I have received amazing feedback from Spanish speakers all over the world who are willing to help me and appreciate that I am learning their language. I have family, friends, and co-workers who now speak to me in Spanish whenever I see them and encourage me to practice and improve. This is a great feeling, and I would definitely tell anyone looking to learn another language to start by spreading the word about their journey.
Second, I have narrowed down the resources that I’m using to a select few that seem to help me the most. The main resources I am using are:
italki.com – A place where you can chat with native speakers and find a language tutor. I plan on starting with a Spanish tutor this week. My tutor will help me get to a level where I can get over my shyness start having some real conversations.
ankiweb.net – An online resource for creating flashcards which utilizes the Spaced Repetition System.
Livemocha – An online based learning system where you learn your target language while helping others learn your native language.
LingQ – Free podcasts in your target language that allow you to tag words you don’t know and save them as flashcards.
Notes in Spanish – A podcast targeted for Spanish learners of all levels.
Study Spanish – A website I primarily use to answer any grammar questions I have.
The utilization of these resources, along with the creation an “immersion bubble” in my home city, is the approach I will be taking en mi misión.
What is this “immersion bubble” you may ask? We’ll explore this in the next blog post.
Mi Misión 