I’m trying to learn some Spanish, but with limited success so far. Although I must admit that I didn’t put a lot of effort in it. But I will…starting tomorrow. Or Monday. A Monday…

One simple way to try to learn a new language is listening to songs in that language and trying to memorize their lyrics. The problem is that most of the Spanish bands I know suck. Bad. I mean, except from Banderas’ “El Cancion de Mariachi” and the ode to the communist icon Che Guevara – Hasta siempre comandante, it was almost impossible for me to find a song I could really say I like.

Julio Iglesias isn’t all that bad, but it only works for those of us born in the first part of the 20th century.

This changed few days ago, when I heard a commercial on Spotify. They were promoting the new album of a Spanish metal band, called Mago de Oz – which translates to Wizard of Oz. I searched their songs and I’m impressed. They’re by far the best Spanish band I’ve ever heard. I totally love their sound. Just search on Youtube for Fiesta pagana, El rincon de los sentidos or Que el viento sople a tu favor and you’ll see – well, hear – what I mean.

Their lyrics are also quite interesting, not the usual “vamos bailar a la playa” intelectual blackholes found in most latino songs.

Rock on…

I decided that it would be good for me to learn some Spanish, because, after all, I’ve moved to Spain. And, unlike in countries in northern Europe, where speaking English is common sense, in Spain almost nobody speaks English. And it’s very hard when I want to buy something or ask for something in the restaurant, because after few minutes of “talking” my hands start hurting . I’m thinking of going extreme and asking for a haircut in a Spanish barbershop. See how that goes…

I decided to take it slow and I downloaded some Spanish podcasts from the Notes in Spanish website that I can listen to in the subway, during my daily commute. Perhaps something will catch on.

The podcasts are made by an English dude, called Ben, and his Spanish wife called Marina. They do a pretty good job with these podcasts, as the terms used are very well explained and seem quite useful so far. They also have course materials for sale on their site, but I’ll start with the free stuff, see how things go…