I love music and one of the best ways I use to learn languages is to listen to music in the language. So for example, with Spanish I listen to Spanish romance songs and left-wing Latin America folk music, especially the Nueva Canción figures like Inti-Illimani, Alí Primera, Los Guaraguaos, etc. When it comes to German I’m a big fan of the German folk singer Heino, who is perhaps the single most famous singer within Germany. I play his big hits like Blau blüht der Enzian, Die Schwarze Barbara and Karamba, Karacho, ein Whisky, religiously every single day. As a matter of fact I’m tempted to purchase his autobiography and use it to improve my German reading skills.
Who else believes music is an effective tool for language-learning?
You can learn some things from it but a song really doesn’t contain many words at all. In my experience, no matter how much you keep repeating something there is no guarantee you will remember it all. Also songs can have a strange word order and they can use words that no one would ever use in colloquial or even standard language just to make something rhyme or fit the meter. Of course it’s all about enjoying the language you learned in the end so keep on listening to music, but I really would recommend consistently reading something over time in order to build up vocabulary. Maybe even use i-Talki to gain active experience with the language if that’s what you want. I really don’t think listening to music in itself is a very effective way of learning a language.
Yes, listening to songs is a good additional material for language studying, but they can’t replace reading and listening to lessons and podcasts because they have only quite limited vocabulary and many exceptions from the normal grammar rules.
The songs can be also a good trigger to start a new language. For example, in my case, the songs of The Beatles and Rolling Stones woke my interest in English.
My wife always comments that i have this stupid ability to be able to sing along to any song i know, even if i’ve not heard it for 15 or 20 years. I can put whole albums on that i’ve not heard for years and remember everything.
This doesn’t translate to language learning for me. Listening to French music (the very small amount of it that’s not rubbish) doesn’t help me learn French. You’d think it would due to my lyric-remembering skills but it doesn’t for some reason.
We also have to realise that songs are not often real language. Lyrics will be modified to fit the tune or the time signature, there will be clever turns of phrases and things like that.
Check out this opening from ‘Bye Bye Badman’ by the mighty Stone Roses:
Soak me to my skin,
Will you drown me in your sea,
Submission ends and I begin,
Choke me, smoke the air,
In this citrus sucking sunshine,
I don’t care, you’re not all there.
That doesn’t mean an awful lot to an English learner, in my opinion.
Yesterday I wanted to look for the lyrics of the famose song because I could never recognize all words.
I was surprized I knew all the words but could not imagine the song is like abut nothing
She is crazy like a fool
What about it Daddy cool
She is crazy like a fool
What about it Daddy cool
I’m crazy like a fool
What about it Daddy Cool
Daddy Daddy Cool
Daddy Daddy Cool
Daddy Daddy Cool
Daddy Daddy Cool
She is crazy like a fool
What about it Daddy Cool
I’m crazy like a fool
What about it Daddy Cool
Daddy Daddy Cool
Daddy Daddy Cool
Daddy Daddy Cool
Daddy Daddy Cool
She is crazy about her Daddy
Oh
She believes in him
She loves her Daddy
She is crazy like a fool
What about it Daddy cool?
I’m crazy like a fool
What about it Daddy Cool
Daddy Daddy Cool
Daddy Daddy Cool
Daddy Daddy Cool
Daddy Daddy Cool
You mention some good points, Evgueny. I listen to music in my target language casually, don’t count it as learning time. I import a small amount of songs into Lingq and work with them, otherwise I just enjoy observing how as my familiarity grows I understand more and more of what the songs are about. Singing along is also a nice way of training your language output hardware to produce the unfamiliar sounds the new language contains.
Steve said it some times, too, that songs consist of just a small amount of words. I don’t second that. Yes, you see certain words all the time, in comparison to everyday language this is accentuated. But if you choose the right kind of music, you still get a lot of useful words. The second issue remains, though. You really have to be careful not to forget about the grammar differences to prose or spoken language.
The most useful aspect of using music as a tool is that I can listen and pay attention to it many times, something no regular lesson will ever offer.
But, joking aside, yeah, I think it’s a good idea to listen to songs in a target language - over time things can become ingrained in our minds if they are set to music.
I have somewhere around 1200 + hours of German music listening in a bit over a year. I can say hands down that music has been the biggest motivator in continuing to learn German. Even though I am not fluent, with many things I am able to speak with a “fluent” pace because of music. I often just sing random songs, that I just make up as I go, all the while using correct and well put together German. For me, my brain is able to “connect” something with the words and the music and I am able to remember very well. I’d say around 2000 - 3000 of the words I know have been learned from Music. If it works for you too, keep going because I know for sure that I will.
I also think that listening to music is especially beneficial if you sing along. I like to sing Italian songs and I must admit I have already memorized some of them without any effort.
I love to sing along in the car. You love the fact that you’re not riding with me. I have a moderately extensive playlist of Russian songs on my phone that I really like. I’d listen to Horoshee FM (Хорошее ФМ) in the car and when I heard a good song I’d grab a screenshot of the radio app displaying the title & author. Later I’d find it available for download (or rip from a YT video). Unfortunately they’ve changed their format and play a lot more English songs now. Fortunately I have a long list of titles that I’ve captured still pending downloaded.
Occasionally I’ll come across a new word in my reading and realize that I already learned it from a song. But that is rare. Often I find myself singing along not thinking about the meaning of the words, just enjoying the music, and I doubt that does anything for language learning. I do sometimes try to listen more closely to see if I can hear and recognize more words, particularly in songs that I’ve not been able to find the lyrics for, and I sometimes find that, yes, I can understand more now than previously.
Yep. Maybe some non-English-speaking fans of Frank Zappa would like to learn English. I recommend this little ditty.
Do you know what you are?
You are what you is
You is what you am
(A cow don’t make ham . . . )
You ain’t what you’re not
So see what you got
You are what you is
An’ that’s all it 'tis
A foolish young man
From a middle class fam’ly
Started singin’ the blues
Cause he thought it was manly
Now he talks like the Kingfish
(“Saffiiiee!”)
From Amos 'n Andy
(“Holy mack’l dere . . . Holy mack’l dere!”)
He tells you that chitlins
(Chitlins!)
Well, they taste just like candy
He thinks that he’s got
De whole thang down
From the Nivea Lotion
To de Royal Crown
Do you know what you are?
You are what you is
You is what you am
(A cow don’t make ham . . . )
You ain’t what you’re not
So see what you got
You are what you is
An’ that’s all it 'tis
A foolish young man
Of the Negro Persuasion
Devoted his life
To become a caucasian
He stopped eating pork
He stopped eating greens
He traded his dashiki
(“Uhuru!”)
For some Jordache Jeans
He learned to play golf
An’ he got a good score
Now he says to himself
“I AIN’T NO NIGGER NO MORE . . . HEY! HEY! HEY!”
"I don’t understand you . . . "
BWANA MA-COO-BAH
"Would you please speak more clearly . . . "
MERCEDES BAINNNNNNNZ
Who is who
(I don’t know . . . )
‘N what is what
(Somethin’ I just don’t know . . . )
'N why is this
(Tell me now . . . )
Appropriot
(That’s a funny pronunciation if’n ever I heard one . . . )
If you don’t like
(Where’d you get that word?)
What you has got
(Appropriot? The word is not . . . )
Drop it in the dirt
(Drop it yeah . . . )
‘N let it rot
(I can smell it now . . . )
Someone else
(Here de come, here de come . . . )
Will surely come
(I told you they was comin’)
‘N pick it up
(That’s right!)
Cause he wants some
(An’ he wants it for free . . . )
And when one day
(There will come a day . . . )
You wonder who
(I wonder too . . . )
You used to was
(Who I was anyway . . . )
'N what you do
(I used to work at the post office . . . )
You’ll scratch your head
(But I don’t wanna un-do my doo . . . )
‘N look around
(Just to see what’s goin’ on . . . )
But what you lost
(Can’t seem to find it . . . )
Will not be found
(A Mercedes Benz . . . )
Do you know what you are?
(I know . . . )
You are what you is
(I’m the kinda guy . . . )
You is what you am
(That ought to be drivin’ . . . )
A cow don’t make a ham
(A four-fifty SLC . . . )
You ain’t what you’re not
(A big ol’ red one . . . )
So see what you got
(With some golf clubs stickin’ out de trunk . . . )
You are what you is
(I’m gwine down to de links on Saturday mornin’ . . . )
An’ that’s all it is
(Gimme a five-dollar bill . . . )
YOU ARE WHAT YOU IS
(And an overcoat too . . . )
AND THAT’S ALL IT IS
(Where’s my waitress? Yeah . . . )
YOU ARE WHAT YOU IS
(Robbie, take me to Greek Town . . . )
AN THAT’S ALL IT IS
(I’m harder than yer husband; harder than yer husband . . . )
YOU ARE WHAT YOU IS
(I’m goin’ down to White Street, to the Mudd Club y’all . . . )
AN THAT’S ALL IT IS
(I’m goin’ down 'n work the wall 'n work the floor . . . )
YOU ARE WHAT YOU IS
('N work the pipe 'n work the wall . . . )
AN THAT’S ALL IT IS
(Some more . . . )
Even songs in Jamaican English (Reggae and Calypso) I consumed at home when I learned English at school couldn’t harm my grammar. There was very much I understood later but noticing the differences to British English grammar was easy.
My point was unless you’re aware of grammar already (through massive input) how are you going to know whether it’s right or wrong ? And are there better ways to go about learning a language ? I think so.
I agree that in certain occasions songs do not accurately represent the actual language. One such example may be like this song in particular which you may listen to in your discretion - YouTube
