{"id":387,"date":"2012-01-25T14:57:11","date_gmt":"2012-01-25T14:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/?p=387"},"modified":"2013-08-19T14:37:46","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T14:37:46","slug":"things-i-didn%e2%80%99t-know-before-my-spanish-lessons-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/things-i-didn%e2%80%99t-know-before-my-spanish-lessons-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Things I Didn\u2019t Know Before My Spanish Lessons (Part II)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Lots of Music and Foot Tapping<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When I first arrived to South America I stuck to the bootlegged English language CDs which are on sale in countries such as Ecuador. However, one bright day I decided to expand my horizons and buy some Ecuadorian cumbia. It was unspeakably awful but I realised that Spanish music could supplement my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/spanish\/\">Spanish courses<\/a> by teaching me new words. This way I got hooked on Ricardo Arjona, Jose Luis Perales and Fito Paez. I am sure that I got yet more funny looks off passersby as I would sit in the plazas, tap my feet and nod my head while listening to music on my headphones.  If you haven\u2019t ever listened to music in another language then it is a brilliant experience to discover wonderful songs which generations have grown up with but which you are hearing for the first time. Just avoid the cumbia and you will be fine.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>New Food<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have mentioned food a couple of times before but it was without doubt one of the first things to strike me as being completely different. I remember standing in a shop in Quito \u2013 where I was getting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/spanish\/\">Spanish classes<\/a> \u2013 and trying to decide whether to buy a type of pastry which I didn\u2019t recognise or else some strange looking bread. In the end I bought both and by carrying on with this bold approach have since sampled some amazing stuff  I never even knew existed before. When I travelled back to the UK for a spell I tried to encourage a friend to try some yerba mate and a few plantain bananas but he just looked at me as thought I had finally lost my marbles. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.geekets.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/chica-mp3.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lots of Music and Foot Tapping When I first arrived to South America I stuck to the bootlegged English language CDs which are on sale in countries such as Ecuador. However, one bright day I decided to expand my horizons and buy some Ecuadorian cumbia. It was unspeakably awful but I realised that Spanish music(\u2026)<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-12 text-right\">\n\t \t\t\t\t<a class=\"btn btn-primary btn-xs\" href=\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/things-i-didn%e2%80%99t-know-before-my-spanish-lessons-part-ii\/\">CONTINUE READING &raquo;<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[23,21,22],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everyday-language","tag-language-experience","tag-learn-spanish","tag-spanish-lessons"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Things I Didn\u2019t Know Before My Spanish Lessons (Part II) - Listen &amp; Learn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/things-i-didn\u2019t-know-before-my-spanish-lessons-part-ii\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Things I Didn\u2019t Know Before My Spanish Lessons (Part II) - Listen &amp; Learn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lots of Music and Foot Tapping When I first arrived to South America I stuck to the bootlegged English language CDs which are on sale in countries such as Ecuador. However, one bright day I decided to expand my horizons and buy some Ecuadorian cumbia. 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