Learn English With Music: Can you do it? How? Is it a good idea?

99,029 views ・ 2017-06-09

Speak English With Vanessa


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hi.
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I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
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How can you learn English with music?
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Let's talk about it.
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Before we talk about this topic, let's see can we learn English with music?
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Is it possible?
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I often get emails from people asking me is this a good way to learn English?
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Is it normal, a daily conversation, common vocabulary?
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I want to answer this question first.
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Can you learn English with music?
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And the answer is a big yes.
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Yes, you can definitely learn English with music, but you might not be learning daily
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conversational English.
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You'll certainly be learning English, but it might not be the kind of English that we
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often use in conversation, because songs are poetry.
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They use words to fit the rhythm of the song.
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They use words to fit a certain style of music, so the words aren't exactly like daily conversation,
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but you're going to learn a lot, and there's something in our human brains that links music
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and this tune and melody with memory.
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It's a great way to remember things.
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So certainly, you can learn English with music, but how can you do it?
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What's a good method?
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Well, the first step is to find music in English that you like.
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There probably are already a couple bands or a couple popular songs that you like, so
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I recommend listening to them a lot.
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For me, when I want to learn the words of a French song, I usually listen to it a couple
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times and then I go online and I try to find the lyrics of the song.
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The lyrics are the words of the song.
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And because I've already heard the song a couple times, I read the lyrics.
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Sometimes, if I really love the song, I'll print the lyrics and try to sing the lyrics
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with the song.
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Who cares if you have a terrible singing voice?
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Maybe you have an amazing singing voice.
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The purpose is to train your speaking as well as your listening skills.
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So when you use the lyrics, it's kind of like subtitles, or like a transcript.
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You can really hear each word.
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And after you practice with the lyrics a couple times, you can probably sing the song without
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them.
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And then when you're driving, or taking a walk, or singing in the shower, you can really
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use English like a native speaker because you have memorized those same sentences, the
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same lines that a native speaker is using.
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If you want to learn something that's specifically conversational English but you don't want
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to go back to elementary school and practice really basic songs about the weather, or about
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colors, well, a good way to do that is to use musical theater.
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If you have ever seen Phantom of the Opera, or Les Miserables, or this kind of sound of
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music, a style of singing and talking at the same time, they often have conversations while
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they're singing.
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And maybe the style of music is not your favorite style of music, but if you want to learn conversational
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English with a tune, this is a good way to do it.
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If you've never used musical theater before to learn English, or if that's just not your
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style, I want to give you one song recommendation just to introduce you to this kind of fun,
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conversational way to use music.
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This song is called My New Philosophy, and it's from the musical You're a Good Man Charlie
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Brown.
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Maybe you know Charlie Brown, or Snoopy, he's a famous comic character, cartoon character,
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and there is a musical, a whole play, a theater based on those characters.
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In this song, two characters have a conversation while they're singing, so in your mind you're
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using that musical memory plus conversation together.
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And even though this isn't the only way to learn conversation with music, it's just one
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recommendation.
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I will post the link to this video in the description below this so that you can check
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it out and see if you can catch each word.
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If you enjoy it, try to read the lyrics.
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Try to sing along and imitate that fun, crazy conversation that they're having.
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And now I have a question for you.
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What kind of music do you like in English?
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Give us some recommendations.
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If you have a link to another YouTube video that's from this band, or from your favorite
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song, let us know.
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Let's share together and learn with each other's musical interests.
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Thanks so much for learning with me, and I'll see you the next time.
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Bye.
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The next step is to download my free ebook, 5 Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.
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I want to help you master English and speak fluently.
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Feel free to subscribe so that you don't miss new English lessons.
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Thanks so much for learning with me.
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Bye.
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