How I Learned to Rap in Spanish

This is my first foreign language!

I’m putting this video up mainly for two reasons:

• To show that one can indeed rap in a foreign language
• To show how memorizing song and rap lyrics is infinitely more fun than memorizing flash cards and conjugation charts.

Aside from being more fun than these more “traditional” (my euphemism for “ineffective”) ways of studying language, these activities are superior for many other reason, including but not limited to…

Vocabulary 

Since music has such a mnemonic power, I will never forget any new words I learned from this song.

More, I am more likely to incorporate these words into my speech since I’ve already practiced saying them so much in song. I often find myself using words I’ve learned from songs without any conscious effort.  

Grammar

As a linguist, I am already familiar with Spanish grammar as a, but there is no limit to the variation in ways of expressing things.

Aside from learning slang expressions from the song, I’ve increased my ability to learn the meaning from new expressions in general.

So next time I hear a new slang expression I will have some framework for guessing its meaning and be able to mimic and incorporate it into my speech.

Dialect Comprehension

I’m sure a lot of readers who already consider themselves fluent in Spanish will have a very difficult time understanding the Pacific-Colombian accent.

Not only are words pronounced different from other parts of the Spanish world, but they change more in rapid speech, as in rap.

But once you learn the song, your general ability to make out words in this specific dialect increase dramatically. I now have little problem understanding thick, Pacific-Colombian accents.

Speech fluency

I’ve already learned several Spanish songs, but with each one I learn, I can physically feel my Spanish ability taking a noticeable leap forward.

This is because the act of rapping in a foreign language is more demanding on your language production abilities than just speaking.

This is especially the case with rap songs, since they are rhythmically more complex the melodic singing AND normal speech.

Song Meaning

If you’re interested in learning the song’s meaning. I’ve attached the lyrics and a personal translation below, along with the original music video. If you wish to learn this song on your own though, be careful using the actual lyrics. As I’ve written in a previous post about the evils of written word, using these lyrics will only confuse you, since the artists rarely pronounce things as spelled.

Click here to go to the lyrics.