Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Absorbing Song Lyrics

 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio Post Reply
21 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3 
patuco
Diglot
Moderator
Gibraltar
Joined 7006 days ago
3795 posts - 4268 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, English*
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 17 of 21
05 July 2011 at 4:41pm | IP Logged 
Splog wrote:
I am very good at not listening. My wife accuses me of it all the time. Perhaps I have a genetic defect

More likely that it's just a useful side effect of being married.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Bao
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5
Joined 5757 days ago
2256 posts - 4046 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 18 of 21
05 July 2011 at 9:54pm | IP Logged 
Splog wrote:
Perhaps I have a genetic defect, in that I don't hear conversations unless I am paying attention to them - or unless they are annoyingly loud and I can't ignore them.

I wish I had that skill. I only can not listen when I am absolutely engrossed in something, or when I actively concentrate on processing a different language. And not even then I manage to not listen whenever I want to. That is, when I'm with my grandma I sometimes manage to let the things she says just flow over me, because there's no way I can remember what she did with which neighbour when and what their children did and who married and which street name you have to follow to reach which street name to reach which street name to reach which street name to reach your destination.

When I listen to music, I usually want to block out outside sound, especially the sound of people talking. I don't actually 'absorb' the lyrics to a song, but it certainly does influence my thought patterns - the other day I was on my way home, happily engaged in a Japanese mental monologue with myself, and when a Korean song came on I involuntarily switched to Korean.
When I listen to music sung in German or English, I can't easily not pay attention to the lyrics (unless it's screamo or death metal, that's just fine.)
What happens is that because I very often want to block outside noise, I listen to music a lot, and that's usually music I like sung in my weaker languages, as I really like the sound of human voices. When I have nothing else to do, during my commute or waiting somewhere or even when my concentration drifts away from what I've been doing, I start to pay attention to the sounds, suddenly understand a word or a sentence, and then I start to pay more attention to the lyrics. It's not that I absorb the lyrics without paying attention, it's that I don't need to deliberately pay attention and therefor don't notice how much time and repetition it takes me to learn the lyrics to a song - it's fun, and just happens in my down time.
Because of the structure of sung music, songs invite to sing along, or don't they?
2 persons have voted this message useful



leosmith
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6541 days ago
2365 posts - 3804 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 19 of 21
11 July 2011 at 2:54am | IP Logged 
Jeffers wrote:
Cainntear wrote:
   maybe there's been a time when you overheard something in a conversation
and wanted to stop listening, but simply couldn't.


That would be simply because you are concentrating on the conversation in your attempt to stop listening! If I tell
you not to think about a banana, you can't help but think of a banana (unless you don't know the word or what it
refers to).

Not at all. You're talking about the "whatever you do, don't think of bunnies" syndrome. Cainntear is talking about
something that applies to learners of foreign languages. The same thing happens to me. I think it happens not
because I'm trying not to listen to it, but because my ears have been given strict orders to seek and understand the
L2 under any circumstance.
1 person has voted this message useful



Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4900 days ago
2151 posts - 3960 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 20 of 21
11 July 2011 at 10:48am | IP Logged 
leosmith wrote:
Jeffers wrote:
Cainntear wrote:
   maybe there's been a time when you overheard something in a conversation
and wanted to stop listening, but simply couldn't.


That would be simply because you are concentrating on the conversation in your attempt to stop listening! If I tell
you not to think about a banana, you can't help but think of a banana (unless you don't know the word or what it
refers to).

Not at all. You're talking about the "whatever you do, don't think of bunnies" syndrome. Cainntear is talking about
something that applies to learners of foreign languages. The same thing happens to me. I think it happens not
because I'm trying not to listen to it, but because my ears have been given strict orders to seek and understand the
L2 under any circumstance.


You and Cainntear are, of course, absolutely correct in the general principle. That is the experience of many people, but not all. I was just amused when he wrote that he, "...wanted to stop listening, but simply couldn't". If you're actively focused on not listening to something, I very much doubt you're going to be successful.
1 person has voted this message useful



infosim12
Newbie
Russian Federation
songtalks.wordp
Joined 5495 days ago
14 posts - 16 votes
Speaks: Russian*
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 21 of 21
20 October 2011 at 12:35pm | IP Logged 
Songs are great language input. If I like the song I listen to it many times. We may
retell the song without rhyme and make it a song based story. Then we may add questions
and answers to the story, so that we may give answers and hear the correct one that
follows. All that is not for music haters of course:))


1 person has voted this message useful



This discussion contains 21 messages over 3 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 

If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.2656 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.