Que Onda Guero

I am floored by the new Beck album. I have recently started listening to some Beck on my Launchcast player, I had never been into his music before. I think I have mentioned that I used to like a lot of crappy music and my music tastes have changed in the last 3 years. Of course I was always a fan of 'Loser'....who wasn't? But that was literally the only song by Beck that I could name. However, I accumulated the new album this morning and I now suddenly feel the need to go back and listen to all things Beck to see if he was always this good.

The new album is called 'Guero' which is apparently slang for white boy. Therefore, the song I have chosen can be translated to mean "What's up, Whitey?" The first listen through the album, I picked this as my favorite (download it here). You would think that after 5 years of Spanish (3 in high school, 2 semesters in college), living in Miami for 4 years, and my dad being part of a Hispanic family for over 10 years, I would be able to speak the language, but no. Although, I do recognize the "bad" words when I hear them, and I believe I hear one in this song. I found one website with some lyrics, however, I'm not sure how accurate they are. The very last spoken line of the song is probably my favorite.

This song is the perfect example of the phenomena called Spanglish. I am not exaggerating when I say that almost every single person in Miami speaks Spanglish. I confess that I did it when I lived there as well. There are many words and phrases in the Spanish language that I used regularly. Some examples: entonce, bano, yo no se, a que hora, donde, como se dice, como estas, etc... When speaking Spanglish, there is also a slight Hispanic accent that will come out. I now realize that all my Spanglish tendencies have disappeared (other than an occasional "Como estas?" or "A que hora?"). Sometimes, when I am talking to my dad on the phone, he will start speaking Spanglish, and I think to myself, "What the heck are you speaking to me in a different language for?" It makes me a little sad that I have lost this part of myself. I can't imagine ever being fluent in Spanglish again.

Side note: I have a feeling that the spell check will not like me today.