A friend wrote:
You know, pop music played a HUGE role in enriching my English so I’ve got a sort of Pavlovian reaction: a lot of what’s said in English prompts memories of some song.
I did exactly the same. My cassette tapes were worn out by all the times I pressed play-rewind-play-rewind while trying to catch and write down the lyrics to countless songs. The next step was to sing them and get the pronunciation perfect.
Spoken English was the hardest. I would learn lines from movies and try to practise them to perfection.
That was the night that I died, and someone else was saved.
Someone who was afraid of water, but had learned to swim.
Someone who knew that there would be one moment when he wouldn’t be watching.
Someone who knew that the darkness from the broken light would show the way.
I repeated it over and over again until I got the pronunciation and intonation just right and I could hear no difference between my voice and Julia’s.
The result?
Well, there are some sentences I can say perfectly. There are some words I can only say with a certain accent and other words I just can’t say right. Also, since I learned pronunciation by mimicking others I tend to unintentionally do the same when I meet people. Even in my own language I can’t help but pick up the accent or dialect of the person I’m talking to. I don’t mean to, and I can only hope that nobody takes offense.
Anyway, I have to say that music and movies have helped me tremendously in learning foreign languages.
How about you?
I learn’t Italian the same way. Claudio Baglioni and Lucio Dalla over and over again…
If I could speak Italian as well as you speak English I would be the happiest expat in the boot!
That is how we learned French when I was in high school back in the dark ages! Maybe, I should try it with my Italian.
I listened to a lot of music and watched a lot of movies to help with Italian. I’m with you on the accents though because I do the same thing, even in English. I have some English friends who come here a couple of times a year and I have to actually work hard not to use their accent because I don’t want them to think I’m making fun of them.
Ja! Att titta på dubbad Tv var en stor hjälp när jag bodde i Spanien. När jag läser en engelsk bok läser jag högt hela tiden för att testa orden.
most definitely! There are several Elisa songs that I’ve memorized looked up the translations, and now know so many words I am not sure I would have learned on my own otherwise!
That is funny about you mimicking accents-I find myself doing the same thing. My husband learned / perfected his English with songs and movies, as well. The result? Him asking me if I was his “shorty” and saying a lot of inappropriate slang!! ha ha