Let’s get down to business – or, as they say in Spanish, hombres de acción:
This means “men of action,” and that’s my segue into today’s topic, which is: my New Year’s resolutions. Duh.
Much like deciding what to give up for Lent, I like to make my New Year’s resolutions very doable. For this year, my primary resolution is to watch a maximum amount of Disney movies in Spanish. Disney+ offers language tracks and subtitles for pretty much all their animated movies in both European AND Latino Spanish, and since I already know the context of the dialogue in English, Disney in Spanish should be a pretty good learning tool.
Also a good learning tool? Disney songs in Spanish! What I particularly like about these is the translations of the titles. Such as the above example from Mulan – I’m sure someone could have literally translated “Let’s Get Down to Business,” but they went with “Men of Action” instead. Similarly, it’s not that Megara insists that “I Won’t Say I’m in Love,” but rather that “I Will Not Speak of My Love:”
La Sirenita goes with the much more direct “Kiss Her:”
Scuttle’s terrible singing is somehow less funny in Spanish, but you should know that Coco is just generally a million times funnier (particularly Frida Kahlo. ¡Y CADA SOY YO!). Which brings us to Coco, of course, which you would think would be the exception, a one-for-one translation, since it’s already largely Spanish. For some songs that’s the case, but not for “The Beat of My Heart:”
There are countless other examples, but you get the idea. If you’re out there trying to learn a language, try folding some Disney in – it really does work for everything!
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