Spanish & French Music
One thing my friends all know about me is that I love learning new languages. I grew up speaking Korean at home and English at school, and throughout my schooling years I’ve learned Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and French so far. I want to keep expanding too–I’d love to learn Italian, Arabic, and Portuguese next.
I attribute my interest in learning new languages to my early upbringing in my Hong Kong. I’m very grateful to have been exposed to the beauty of diversity from an early age. Since then, I’ve always wanted to get to know the world and all of its cultures.
The first foreign language I learned was Mandarin Chinese, which we learned as a second language at my elementary school. In addition to classes in school, I had an extracurricular tutor named Miss Snow, who according to my father, liked me a lot as a student because I excelled in her classes. And while I have very little recollection of doing well in her classes, I’m still grateful to have been exposed to one of the most difficult languages in the world at an early age because I think it set the tone for the rest of my language-learning endeavors.
The next language I learned was Spanish. In the sixth grade going up to the seventh, our class had to pick a foreign language to learn. We had three options: Spanish, French, or Chinese. I thought I was naturally going to pick Chinese given that I had already started learning it earlier on in my life, but because my best friend at the time was planning on taking Spanish, I made the spur decision to ditch Chinese and start learning Spanish. Goodbye stroke order, hello conjugations.
Finally, the most recent language I’ve been learning is French. In my senior year of high school, I was pretty much finished with learning Spanish in terms of classes given that I was taking the AP course. I had a free spot in my schedule, so I decided to start taking French I because I had always wanted to learn French because I’m inspired by a lot of French fashion, art, and love French desserts. I continued to learn French when I got to SU and now take 300-level courses.
While, to my dismay, my Chinese seems to be slowly dissipating by the day (I will pick it back up one day, I promise), one way I’ve continued to strengthen and maintain my Spanish and French is through watching TV series or listening to music. It’s not an irregular occurrence for my playlist to be a mix of several languages––even looking through my current favorite songs playlist, I see songs in all four languages that I can speak proficiently.
With that being said, here are my favorite Spanish and French songs. Some take me down memory lane and some are recent discoveries:
“No vaya a ser” by Pablo Alborán
The first song is “No vaya a ser” by Pablo Alboran, a Spanish artist that my 10th grade Spanish teacher, Señora Bohcali, introduced to me. She humorously described him as “too old for you, too young for me.” The title roughly means “there will not be” for a lack of a better translation, and in the song, Alboran describes the ups and downs of an on and off relationship.
“Por fin” by Pablo Alborán
The next song is another one by Pablo Alboran, but different to the last one, this song is much slower but nonetheless just as emotional. This song describes the euphoric and heartwarming feeling of being in love intensely, and you can hear the emotion in Alboran’s voice. “Tú me has hecho major, mejor de lo que era,” he sweetly professes that his lover has made him better than he has ever been.
“Tu t’en iras” by La Zarra
The first French song on this playlist that I’ve been listening to is Tu t’en iras by La Zarra. This is the first song I’ve heard from her, and it describes a love that moved too quickly and burned out. She sings “Tu t’en iras de mes bras, tu t’en iras comme tous les autres hommes avant toi, je n’attendrais pas ,” which means “you will leave from my arms, you will leave like all the other men before you, I will not wait for you.” But she ends the song off on a hopeful note with « mais tu grandiras » (“you will grow”), which is a takeaway that everyone can get from love.
“Si Te Atreves” by J Balvin and Zion & Lennox
The next song is by Colombian artist J Balvin and Puerto Rican duo Zion & Lennox. The title roughly translates to “If you dare”, again for a lack of a better translation. Playful and upbeat, it gives listeners the courage to pursue that person they’ve been interested in but are too shy to approach.
“Balance Ton Quoi” by Angèle
I had to add in a song by Angèle in here. Angèle is a Belgian artist and I admire her for using her platform to speak up about political causes that matter to her. “Balance ton quoi” is a reference to “Balance ton porc,” the French rendition of the #MeToo movement. In the song, she hopes to bring to light the hypocrisy and gender inequality in Francophone society.
“La Santa” by Bad Bunny and Daddy Yankee
One artist that I’ve been getting into a lot recently is the ever so popular Bad Bunny, who hails from Puerto Rico. The title translates to “the saint,” and is a collaboration with Daddy Yankee. The two boricuas say in the song, “no te hagas la santa,” which roughly translates to “don’t act like you’re a saint” to someone they’ve been romantically involved with, but not with the purest of intentions. While not the ideal situation to be in love, the classic ¾ reggaeton beat and Daddy Yankee’s adlibs make it a fun song to sing along to with your friends to.
“Rojo” by J Balvin
The final song is “Rojo” by J Balvin, which means “red.” J Balvin said he named this song “Rojo” because red is the color of passion, love, and pain. This song is J Balvin’s most pop-sounding track off of his album “Colores” and it talks about the joys of love being reciprocated in every sense.
Here’s all the songs in a Spotify playlist for those that want to listen:
