How to Learn Spanish Intonation Without Boring Yourself to Death
I have thus far been taking a fairly “academic” approach to learning Spanish, i.e., following the Pimsleur program it its listen-and-repeat mode. But there’s a problem.
In an academic approach, everything feels more like a drill and is fairly boring, honestly.
Now, drills can be a very good thing to do. But, with LiveMocha, I have started to learn more organically by interacting with native speakers. This makes it much more exciting and spontaneous to learn. Learning in the moment when you need to do something is just fantastic.
Sometimes I have chatted with native Spanish speakers over Skype, which enables both audio and written modes of exchange…. much better than only having audio capability or only having written capability. This is the best way to learn– talking with another human!
However, this is not always possible… sometimes you don’t have a human to practice with. So here’s a suggestion I received from one of my language partners on LiveMocha (you can tell she is learning English):
I recommend you to listen as the same you try to sing music in spanish… following the lyrics. Andrés Cepeda (he is pretty much clear when he sings) …. hope it works for you ….let me know if you want more recommended artists.
I responded by saying it was a great idea and could she send me some links to music. She responded:
I tried to select low speed songs. Hope it works for you…
Try them to practice different sounds. If you like the method I can suggest you more songs and artists.Andrés Cepeda–Día tras Día:
http://www.musica.com/letras.asp?letra=1563479
ACepeda–Voy a extrañarte todo el tiempo
http://www.planetadeletras.com/index.php?m=s&lid=85711
Bacilos– Tabaco y chanel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSUy9Bj99L8
http://www.lyrics007.com/Bacilos%20Lyrics/Tabaco%20Y%20Chanel%20Lyrics.htmlCarlos Vives– La cartera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgqRFBhFVHY
What a great suggestion! She is one of the more generous people I have found on LiveMocha. She took the time to find the videos plus the lyrics and to include the links. I thanked her very much.
So I have begun to listen to these songs as a way of learning Spanish intonation without boring myself to death. I like it better than Spanish TV at this point because the songs are simple and repeatable. With a song, once I learn the lyrics I can have some idea what it means as I am saying it. With a TV show, there really is no genuine learning of the conversations.
Who knows, I might be able to sing along with Spanish radio one day 
If you have any other suggestions for more creative ways to learn good pronunciation, please leave a comment below!
