How to learn new phrases and vocabulary with songs

One of the common reasons why people start learning foreign languages is that they want to understand their favorite foreign songs. Thousands of people started learning French because they were obsessed with the song “Je suis malade” by Lara Fabian. And thousands of people fell in love with Spanish because of the famous song “Bésame mucho”.

If you love to listen to music and like to learn foreign languages, this article is right for you. Here you will read about how to learn vocabulary and new words with the help of your favorite songs in a fun way.

Why learning a foreign language with songs?

Before we start discussing different methods of language learning with songs, let’s take a look at three key benefits of these methods:

● Popular songs help to learn slang words, shortened words, and idioms

● Songs listening helps to pronounce unfamiliar words correctly

● Songs help to understand a different culture

Method #1 – Draw the meaning of the word

As the famous saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. And it’s so true when it comes to new vocabulary learning.

If you want to learn the words from the song, try to do the following:

● Print the text of the song on paper. Or, save the text as an image and open in Paint, Photoshop, or any similar app.

● Choose a few unknown words, preferably nouns, and try to draw what they mean. Let’s say you learn Spanish and want to memorize the word “corazón”. This word means “heart”, so your task is to draw a little heart.

● Read and translate the text of the song as often as you find it necessary. The images will help you not only to learn the chosen words, but also to understand the meaning of the entire song. Try this approach out, and you will be amazed at how it will facilitate your learning.

Method #2 – Watch lyric videos

Do you know what “lyric video” is? It’s a video in which lyrics of the song are displayed as subtitles. You can use this type of video to enlarge your vocabulary and learn new interesting phrases.

Here is what you should do:

● Find a lyric video of your favorite singer on YouTube and watch it.

● Every time you see an unfamiliar word - press a stop button. Add this word to your Reji app.

● Then try to watch the video one more time and sing a song (or, if singing is not your cup of tea, just read it). Pay attention to pronunciation. Try to pronounce unfamiliar words in the same way as a singer does.

● Repeat new words using the Reji app and sing songs using lyric videos as many times as needed to memorize all new words.

Method #3 – Use social media in a new way

Do you like to share your photos and videos on Instagram and Facebook? Do you publish new posts regularly?  If your answer is “yes”, this approach to new phrases learning is right for you.

Here is how it works:

● Next time you are going to publish a post, think about the song in the foreign language that matches your photo. For instance, if you learn Spanish and want to post a photo where you ride a bike, you can choose the song “La bicicleta” by Carlos Vives and Shakira (in Spanish, “bicicleta” means “bike”).

● Choose the phrase, or sentence, or entire chorus of the song and use it as a caption for your post.

● Translate the caption and add all unfamiliar words and phrases to your Rejiapp. Make sure that you understand the meaning of the text before publishing it online.Here is an example of the post for Instagram and the phrases you can learn:

Method #4 – Create a separate social media account for language learning

If you truly love to spend your time on social media and if you do love music, you can create a Facebook or Instagram account devoted to foreign songs. You can start your micro-blog and create content to share with your followers.

What type of content cam you share? Everything related to the chosen language and music. You can share lyric videos as well as images with the quotes from your favorite songs. For instance, you can post pictures like this one.

Micro-blogging will help to advance in language learning. Listening to foreign songs and picking interesting phrases for quotes, you will immerse yourself in a new language. And, as a consequence, you will memorize lots of new words quickly.

And the great news is that you will also help hundreds of language learners. The quotes and other content you create will be useful for everyone who wants to be fluent in a foreign language.

“Blogging in a foreign language is a brand new way to learn vocabulary and new words. Since language learners feel responsible for content creation, they have enough motivation to keep studying,” says Brittany Fierstein, an expert in language learning at PickWriters, a website with reviews of German to English translation services and other professional German translation services.

General recommendations

Whatever approach to new phrases learning you choose, you should follow these simple rules:

● Choose the song that you love.  You will have to listen to it many times, so make sure that you make the right choice.

● Spend at least 15 minutes a day studying new words. Yep, if you want to achieve high results, you should practice regularly.

● Pick songs that match your learning level. If you are a beginner, start with simple songs with a repetitive chorus.In conclusion

Your love to music is your key to your vocabulary expansion. So don’t hesitate to apply the tips given to advance in language learning. Try out different approaches and see what works the best for you. Find a way to facilitate your learning process and achieves the desired results.

Donald Fomby is a marketer with more than ten years of work experience. Currently, he is working on his first book about the impact of social media on the real estate industry. Apart from work and writing, he enjoys reading detective novels, traveling around Central America, and diving.