Singing to help language learning?

Guest   Mon Jul 23, 2007 8:49 am GMT
Do you think that to sing is helpful for acquiring a good accent? It's simply that, singing is much different from speaking, so it could not help.
Earle   Mon Jul 23, 2007 3:08 pm GMT
Listening to and imitating German folk songs is the way I began learning German. I have a stack of vinyl records about six inches deep. I found it very helpful, but it might not be to all...
Skippy   Tue Jul 24, 2007 4:34 pm GMT
Yeah I've been listening to Killerpilze, Pohlmann, and Sportfreunde Stiller to try and keep up my limited German.
K. T.   Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:11 pm GMT
If you are musical, it will help you. It helped me mainly with memory, vocabulary and verb tenses.
Kendra   Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:17 am GMT
listening to popular music is an inconvenient way to learn some bad grammar:

If I was a rich girl (Gwen Stefani)
What if God was one of us (J. Osborne)
If I ain't got you (Alicia Keys)
I can't get no satisfaction (M. Jagger)
Ain't nobody (Rufus and Khan Chaka)
Me and you are supose to be together (Ashley Tisdale)
K. T.   Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:51 am GMT
I would agree if you were in the English forum, Kendra, but I hope language teachers would be able to choose music for learners of foreign languages without making that kind of error. Still, you have a point. Choose wisely.

For Japanese, there is

http://www.amazon.com/Sing-Japanese-Fun-Approach-Studying/dp/4770018665
Hepcat   Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:08 am GMT
Yeah I found listening to Brazilian music helped me a little with my pronounciton in Portuguese, but I always found listening to internet radio shows(news or talk shows) helpful too.
Guest   Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:04 am GMT
Franco   Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:49 am GMT
True, but what about accent rather than grammar?
Jérémy   Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:12 pm GMT
Be careful because in English songs, tonic accents are often misplaced (a least not placed where they should be in a normal speech), and therefore the vowels may also be different.

Just one example: the word "secret". Normally pronounced /'sikrit/. In some songs, the accent is on the second syllabe, therefore the second vowel in not /i/ nor schwa but /e/ like in "bed": /si'kret/. That notably enables the singer to sing a long note on that syllable. But in normal speech you wouldn't pronounce it this way.