First things first. Watch the video.<\/p>\n
The video is almost the same as the English version<\/a>, except that Rihanna isn’t in it, so there’s more time for Shakira to rub herself up against\u00a0the wall in a red tasseled dress. Also, the lip-syncing in Spanish is much more believable than in the English version.<\/p>\n Now that you’ve enjoyed Shakira playing guitar in a slightly flooded room (Is it a room? Why is it flooded? Why can’t we make sense of this scene?), you can try to work out the lyrics verse by verse.<\/p>\n Here’s the first verse in Spanish:<\/p>\n Me temo que s\u00ed<\/em> Now, you might think you could just cheat and look at the English version, but the English is actually quite different, so no such luck. You worked it out? Compare what you got with this:<\/p>\n I’m afraid that yes Now you’ve got one verse down, you can carry on and try and translate the rest. As you’ll probably realize, the song is about Shakira trying to forget someone but she keeps forgetting to forget, which causes her such distress she takes most of her clothes off and rolls around on a bed\/up against a wall.<\/p>\n Poor Shakira.<\/p>\n Useful vocabulary in this song includes suele suceder<\/em>. <\/em><\/strong>The verb soler\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>means “to usually do.” So\u00a0suele\u00a0suceder<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>would be “what usually happens,” or more likely, “what always happens.”<\/p>\n Useful grammar includes real-life use of the grammar point we all love to hate, the subjunctive.<\/a> Examples of this: donde tu vayas, sabes que voy yo. Vayas<\/em> is the subjunctive of the verb\u00a0ir\u00a0<\/em>and is used here because there is an element of doubt about where the person Shakira is talking to will go.<\/p>\n Don’t know this one? Wondering who Man\u00e1 are?<\/p>\n Again, watch the video first.<\/p>\n This song came out in February of 2015 and features a heavily pregnant Shakira singing around a campfire with Mexican band Man\u00e1 (who are huge in Latin America, even though you might not have heard of them). They appear to be in some sort of underground tunnel filled with giant letters of words like verdad<\/em>\u00a0and oasis<\/em>.<\/p>\n The song is a typical love song, and talks a lot about how much lying and cheating there is in the world, and how\u00a0eres mi verdad<\/em>\u00a0(you are my truth).<\/p>\n Like the last song, it’s a good idea to look up the lyrics (you’ll have to look at them in Spanish as this song doesn’t exist in English) and try to work them out verse by verse. Then you can practice singing along.<\/p>\n The lying vocabulary is probably the most useful part of this song. So you can learn\/revise words like enga\u00f1o<\/em><\/strong> (cheating), mentiras<\/em> <\/strong>(lies) and\u00a0ocultar<\/em> <\/strong>(to hide). This might be useful if you do ever end up in an argument with your own Latin lover. Also, Spanish music is full of this language.<\/p>\n The song is in the\u00a0present tense<\/a>, so it’s a good chance to revise the basics.<\/p>\n Other useful Man\u00e1 songs include “Como Quisiera”<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and Man\u00e1’s collaboration with Santana,\u00a0“Coraz\u00f3n Espinado.”<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n “Suerte,”\u00a0<\/em>or as you probably know it, “Whenever, Wherever,”\u00a0propelled Shakira to fame outside of Latin America in 2001, and she hasn’t looked back since. In the video, she moves her hips in the way that she soon became famous for, rolls around in the mud and generally dances around a lot on top of a mountain and in the desert. Oh, and she’s surrounded by a load of galloping horses.<\/p>\n The Spanish version of the song is similar to the English one in a lot of ways, but the chorus is pretty different.<\/p>\n Let’s take a look at it:<\/p>\n Contigo, mi vida<\/em> She repeats this twice in every chorus.<\/p>\n As you can see, there’s no mention of the words “Whenever, Wherever,” which were made up for the English version.<\/p>\n Try figuring out the Spanish before checking with this translation:<\/p>\n With you, my life (or my love) Other useful vocabulary includes burlemos<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(“let’s\u00a0laugh at” or “let’s make fun of”), so burlemos las distancias\u00a0<\/em>means “let’s\u00a0laugh at the distances” or “let’s make the distances not\u00a0important to us.” This is a reference to Shakira’s ex-husband, who’s from Argentina.<\/p>\n The subjunctive <\/a>also pops up in this song, for example the first line “Suerte que en el sur hayas nacido<\/em>” (How lucky that you were born in the South, another reference to the Argentine ex). Hayas nacido<\/strong><\/em> is an example of the Spanish past subjunctive. The subjunctive is used in this case because it comes after suerte que<\/em>.<\/p>\n Here’s a language lesson based on the song from our YouTube channel<\/a>:<\/p>\n A smash hit across Latin America, “La Tortura”<\/em>\u00a0is a sexy hit featuring the Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz.<\/p>\n In the video, he\u00a0and Shakira exchange a lot of sultry looks, there’s some sexy action over some onions and tomatoes and she does her usual thing of shaking her stomach around in a bikini while covered in mud.<\/p>\n The song is about two lovers who haven’t always been\u00a0santos<\/em> (saints)\u00a0and obviously have a passionate, volatile relationship. They sing about how hard it is to lose each other (thus the title about torture). Try translating the lyrics, and\u00a0the relationship between the two becomes clearer.<\/p>\n Useful grammar here demonstrates the subjunctive and the present tense in action. For an extra challenge, try to translate and sing along to the faster bits:<\/p>\n Yo s\u00e9 que no he sido un santo<\/em> No solo de pan vive el hombre<\/em> Solo de errores se aprende<\/em> Mejor te guardas todo eso<\/em> Well, apart from the fact that she’s objectively amazing, the other benefits are:<\/p>\n It’s quite slow and isn’t peppered with loads of regional slang.<\/a>\u00a0It also sounds lovely.<\/p>\n This means that you can reference the English versions while you’re learning, and also impress your friends by singing along next time in Spanish.<\/p>\n You get to listen to her songs and watch videos while learning and experience some Shakira love. We looked at some songs you perhaps didn’t know\u2014and some more obscure hits from her very early days that you’ve almost definitely never seen or heard (spoiler: Shakira is a natural brunette!).<\/p>\n We’ve covered even more songs on our YouTube channel:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And with that last line, that’s about it for learning Spanish with Shakira for now.<\/p>\n As promised, we’re going to give you some videos that show Shakira as a brunette, back when she kept her clothes on and lived in Colombia.<\/p>\n Try “Pies Descalzos,”<\/a><\/em>\u00a0the live acoustic version of “Moscas en la Casa,”<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and, for a dreadlocked Shakira, check out “Inevitable.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n But apart from Shakira, you can let many many other singers teach you Spanish\u2014there’s a whole world of music to learn from. You can find plenty of Spanish hits on YouTube or on FluentU<\/a>, a language learning program that takes authentic Spanish videos (including music clips) and combines them with learning tools. FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n <\/p> \r\n You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app<\/a> or Android app.<\/a><\/p>\r\n P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)<\/a><\/i>\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n \n
\nSe trata de ti<\/em>
\nVoy a repetir<\/em>
\nEl mismo error de ayer<\/em>
\nY como es natural<\/em>
\nSuele suceder<\/em>
\nY no hay ciego peor<\/em>
\nQue el que no quiere ver<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
\nIt’s about you
\nI’m going to repeat
\nthe same mistake I made before (the\u00a0Spanish version\u00a0says yesterday, but we can imagine it’s more of a metaphorical yesterday)
\nAnd as is natural
\nJust like always
\nThere’s no worse blind person
\nThan one who doesn’t want to see<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n2. “Mi verdad”<\/em> (ft. Man\u00e1)<\/h2>\n
3. “Suerte”<\/em><\/h2>\n
\n
\nquiero vivir la vida<\/em>
\ny lo que me queda de vida<\/em>
\nquiero vivir contigo<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
\nI want to live my life
\nAnd what’s left of my life
\nI want to live with you<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n4. “La Tortura”<\/em> (ft. Alejandro Sanz)<\/h2>\n
\n
\nPero lo puedo arreglar, amor<\/em><\/p>\n
\nY no de excusas vivo yo<\/em><\/p>\n
\nY hoy s\u00e9 que es tuyo mi coraz\u00f3n<\/em><\/p>\n
\nA otro perro con ese hueso<\/em>
\nY nos decimos adi\u00f3s<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nWhy Learn Spanish with Shakira<\/h2>\n
Her Colombian Spanish is neutral.<\/h3>\n
Many of Shakira’s songs are translated into English.<\/h3>\n
She’s Shakira!<\/h3>\n
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