Get some of your favourite songs with lyrics
It might not be too good for your neighbours who are already putting up with your TV blaring out movies in an unknown language (yep, the louder you have your telly on, the better you understand what's being said sometimes) but it's good for your language acquisition as rhythm, rhyme and melody help you retain sung words and whole sentences in your memory.
Tricks
As very often singers do not think of spelling it out for poor foreigners who use their musical masterpieces for their own little needs of learning a language, you will most definitely need lyrics for the songs you love and would like to sing yourself. These can be found easily on the Internet. Otherwise you might end up singing something completely different from the original text! And Madonna's virgin will turn into 'touched for the thirty-first time' instead of 'touched for the very first time.' Oooh, those Freudian slips!
If you struggle to remember particular words no matter how catchy the tune is, drop them into a vocBlock and run some Memoriser sessions so that next time you need to sing the word 'extra-terrestrial' picturing yourself as Katy Perry you could actually pronounce it properly.
And make sure you truly understand the meaning of the lyrics. Well, at least if you are inserting famous quotes here and there. This can be real tricky at times and even with the text in front of you, you might have no idea what it's all about. 'Lucy in the sky with diamonds?' What the hell?
Also, try to use the vocabulary acquired this way appropriately and don't tell your macho mates that you (have) got (to) kiss yourself you are so pretty just because Bruno's song is so damn catchy!
Don't miss the next tip in the upcoming post, the things are about to get serious ;)
Feel free to post your comments below - we would love to hear what songs you are humming to learn the language you are learning!
You might also like other tips and tricks:
Tip 1. Choose a good and fun study book
Tip 2. Get a good self study grammar book
Tip 3. Get some fiction books you would love to read
Tip 4. Choose some non-fiction read including newspapers
Tip 5. Choose some movies, TV series and comedy shows you would love to watch
Tip 7. Connect with someone who has good level of your target language, native speaker ideally
Pressed for time and cannot read it all? Check out our slides with these tips and tricks.
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