Learning the words (lyrics) to English songs
A good way to keep motivated for learning English is to do lots of different things. If you just do grammar exercises every day, then it’s bound to be boring and you will get demotivated pretty quickly! Mix it up a bit!
Something completely different is working out and learning the lyrics to an English song. Then sing-along, of course!
But don’t just go to a website and download the lyrics. That makes it too easy. The challenge for your English is to see how many words you can accurately write down just from listening, before you see the proper, full version of the lyrics.
So here’s a challenge for you for today….Don’t say I’ll do it tomorrow – it never happens! DO IT TODAY!
Watch this video by Terence Trent D’Arby and write down as many lyrics as you can. It’s nice and slow, but it will still be difficult to get all the words correct. When you can’t understand a line, or word, listen again a few times and just write down what you think he is singing.
When you think that you’ve got all the lyrics, send me a reply and I will send you the correct version of the whole song. Then you can sing along at home, on the bus, at work…..wherever. Don’t worry about singing while you are on public transport: people will just think that you are practising to be a rockstar…and no-one will sit next to you either, which is always a bonus!
If you don’t like this song, then choose any song that you want and work out the lyrics to that one. Send me a link to the video and your version of the lyrics (NOT FROM A WEB SITE) and I’ll see how accurate you were.
WARNING: This video is 80s-tastic!!!
Posted by Bren Brennan on Oct 19 2010. Filed under English Tips.
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Interesting article…
Hi Bren,
Unfortunately, I got the following message:This video contains content from Sony Music Entertainment. It is not available in your country.
Can you please propose another video!!
In the following sentence taken from you article”then it’s bound to be boring”, did you use bound for certainty.
Thank you for your articles Bren, it is really encouraging me to do more, a little every day but it makes the difference.
Regards
Walida
Hi Walida,
I was in London last week when I wrote this blog, but now that I am back in Germany, I can’t see that video either for the same reason!
However, here is another link where you can hear the song. Unfortunately, you can’t see the 80′s-tastic video (it’s just a photo, not a vid) but that means that you will just focus even more on the lyrics, won’t it???
BTW, don’t look at the description on the youtube video…it’s got all the lyrics written there! Don’t be tempted! Do the exercise and email me the lyrics that you think you can hear.
Bren
very beautiful song,love it. feels good in the heart.