Why should I learn nursery songs? Aren’t baby songs for babies? Well, yes and no.
One excellent reason for learning nursery songs is that the words are basic, the music is easy, and you can find hundreds of songs online at sites that are in both Spanish and English. Here is one music teacher’s advice for using Spanish nursery songs to learn Spanish online.
Start With Simple Lullabies
Why start with a lullaby? The musical answer is simple. A lullaby is a slow song sung to babies to calm or sooth them to sleep. Usually, the tune is simple and the words easy. What makes a lullaby perfect for learning Spanish is the slow speed for pronouncing the words correctly, and the easy tune to help remember the words. Most important of all, though, is that a lullaby repeats over and over again. It is often short, so that a mother can repeat the song many times until the baby sleeps. Repetition and review is the best way to learn something new, and of course, this is true for music and language.
Here’s a traditional child’s song (cancion infantil) to get you started:
Estrellita (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)
Estrellita, donde esta?
Me pregunto que seras.
En el cielo y en el mar,
Un diamante de verdad.
Estrellita, donde esta?
Me pregunto, que seras.
Translate The Main Spanish Vocabulary, Then the English Version
If you look at the lullaby above, and you first translate the main vocabulary, you will find that the Spanish words do not exactly match the English translation. That’s the way it is with languages. You can understand the basic meaning by having the translation. But, if you learn the main vocabulary first, you will be able to use it in other sentences than just the song. You can see how learning the song becomes much more valuable to you than just learning the song itself.
Use the Nursery Song Vocabulary in New Contexts
For example, “donde esta?” will be a phrase you can use at any time when you need to find something. Vocabulary like “un diamante” is understood universally when speaking about a woman’s jewelry. You can also make a leap towards Spanish fluency by using phrases like “me pregunto?” as in ” I wonder”. In this way, you can see that Spanish nursery songs are great online tools available to use as you learn Spanish online.
Try More Than Lullabies
Now that you have the basic idea about how to use nursery songs to learn Spanish, just take some online time to find any of a number of websites that offer Spanish nursery songs. You will be able to find them focused on songs from Spain and Latin America.
Often, the melodies will be shared with folk tunes from other countries. That makes the learning part even easier.
Have Fun, Learn More! (This part really doesn’t need an explanation at all!)