Well, some people have been asking me
which language I'm going to learn this year,
so I've decided to make this video to
tell you a little bit about what I intend
to learn in 2017.
In fact, I don't have any plans to
learn any languages per
se, but I'm very committed to
learning what some people call
the universal language which is music.
Those of you who follow me on other social media know
that last year I bought a guitar,
but to tell you the truth, I've only taken lessons
for only a month and then, I stopped
practicing completely because it was a little
hard to carry it around. So I
traveled, spent months without playing, and when I
came back, I had already forgotten all
I had learned because just like in the
case of languages, to learn music,
you also have to practice every day.
And then, talking to a friend
about the problem of carrying the
guitar, he suggested: "why don't you
buy an ukulele?"
So...
Ta-da!
Since the first time I
touched this instrument, I fell in love with it.
It's small, portable, it produces a beautiful
and sweet sound, just like I like it.
And as I've mentioned before, there are
many parallels between learning a
language and learning to play an instrument
and two of the parallels are embarrassment and fear.
Many times, we end up
feeling embarrassed to speak a foreign language
because of the fear of making mistakes. And when we
have been studying a language for a long time,
it can get even worse because we
think:
"gosh, I've been studying English for
ten years, I should be fluent by now, but
I'm not," so that ends you blocking
us even more. So in this video, I'd
like to encourage you to every time
you start learning a
new skill, take a risk
since day one because there's
less pressure, the expectations are
lower,
we accept mistakes as normal and
the more mistakes we make, the more
we learn. Having that in mind, I
decided that I'm going to play a song for
you
in this video and be seen by thousands of
people
even though I've started learning to play
the ukulele only a few weeks ago. Am I
fearful and embarrassed?
Of course. But I've decided I won't
let fear control my
musical journey,
I won't let fear control my
learning of this new language.
Well, I'm going to play an excerpt of a
song called "Loving Strangers" by a
Spanish singer called Russian Red,
she is Spanish, but she plays...her songs
are in English and she plays a
music style which is totally
different from the latin style of the style
we usually associate with Spain
and I love unpredictable people and I
think Russian Red is one of them,
so if you don't know
her work yet, go check it out
because what she does with her voice is
unbelievable, unbelievable .
♪ I’ve got a hole in my pocket ♪
♪ Where all the money has gone ♪
♪ I’ve got a whole lot of work ♪
♪ To do with your heart ♪
♪ ‘Cause it’s so busy, mine’s not ♪
♪ Loving strangers, loving strangers ♪
♪ Loving strangers, oh oh ♪
♪ Loving strangers, loving strangers ♪
♪ Loving strangers, oh oh ♪
♪ It’s just the start of the winter ♪
♪ And I’m all alone ♪
♪ But I’ve got my eyes right on you ♪
♪ Give me a coin ♪
♪ And I’ll take you to the moon ♪
♪ Now give me a bill ♪
And I’ll kiss you so foolishly ♪
♪ Loving strangers, loving strangers ♪
♪ Loving strangers, oh oh ♪
♪ Loving strangers, loving strangers ♪
♪ Loving strangers, oh oh ♪