Translate Songs: Step-By-Step Guide To Learning With Music
Music is a powerful tool that drives us to explore languages we don't know, and you can use this power to accelerate your language learning. How? Just start translating songs.
Music doesn't know language barriers. It can make you hum the lyrics in a language you don't know and feel the meaning without translating a single word. It can even inspire you to learn a language.
I know what I'm talking about:
a) Despite living in Thailand for many months, I was completely indifferent to the Thai language. But a single Thai song I heard one night in Phuket Town made me start learning the language.
b) I studied Greek simply because I love Greek music.
c) Every time I hear any of Carla's Dreams songs, I feel tempted to grab a Romanian language learning course.
Your love for music can be an amazing driving force on your language learning journey.
So what happens when you actually translate songs in your target language instead of just being a passive listener?
Why should you translate songs in your target language?
There are many reasons to become an amateur translator. Just consider these:
Develop a heart-to-heart connection with your target language.
Find an inexhaustible source of inspiration for language practice.
Become an active and self-driven language learner.
Increase your vocabulary faster than ever.
Become a more attentive listener.
Understand foreign speech in all sorts of forms.
Comprehend different accents of your target language.
Match your pronunciation with that of a native speaker.
Become a master of idioms and proverbs.
Improve your writing skills.
Honestly, this simple practice of translating songs gives you a lot of aces up your sleeve.
You can easily find your own reasons. And if you do, don't hesitate to share them in the comments below and inspire other language learners!
The process: 10 steps to get an amazing translation and improve your language skills
Translating songs is not hard, but you can make it difficult if you approach the task carelessly.
To avoid wasting time, follow these 10 simple steps that will help you get a perfect translation in minimum time. Here's how I translate songs:
Choose a song
This is the hardest step, to be honest. You probably have dozens of songs you really like. What usually happens is that you grab a song, translate a few phrases, stumble over something "untranslatable," run out of steam, and move on to the next one. This is highly unproductive.
What I recommend is choosing a single song and not moving on to the next one until you've submitted a legitimate translation of the first. Just make it a rule.
Listen to the song multiple times
If you like the song, you've probably listened to it a hundred times, because that's usually how the idea to translate the lyrics comes to mind.
Still, this time you want to listen to the song carefully and attentively. You may detect phrases you already understand, and it will give you a boost.
Find the lyrics
This is not a "mission impossible," either. With Google, you can find the lyrics of any song in any language within seconds. There are thousands of websites that will give you either English transliteration or the lyrics in the original script of the language. Choose the latter option, as English transliteration will not help you translate songs.
However, if you use the original lyrics in the language of the song, you will always have a chance to check the meaning of any new word.
One last thing to pay attention to: ignore all existing translations of your song. Don't read them, not even a single line. It can be tempting, but if you do it, all your next actions will make no sense.
Save the lyrics on your phone
You will have to refer to the original lyrics pretty often when you translate the song.
So simply copy and paste the text into Evernote. As you will see in the next step, you want to mark the lyrics in various ways while translating the song.
5. Highlight All Words You Don't Understand
Yes, all of them.
However, what I noticed from personal experience is that, at first, the whole text seems incredibly hard, disconnected, and untranslatable. So you may want to go over it a few times before starting to highlight new words.
You may also find that you are familiar with a certain word but forgot its meaning. Highlight it with a different color.
6. Select a Piece
Once again, if you jump from the hook to the second verse to the bridge to the first verse, you won't do a great deal. This is not how people translate songs; this is how people procrastinate.
To avoid that, start with the intro and don't even look further.
7. Identify Sentences
You will notice that lyrics often have no punctuation at all. There are no commas, no stops, nothing. You cannot rely on intonation either. That's because rhymes and syntax do not always go along very well.
So identify sentences or just large chunks of meaning and put some basic punctuation to make it less confusing.
8. Find the Translation of New Words
This step is pretty obvious.
The only thing I recommend you keep in mind is that a word can have many meanings, especially if it is already a familiar word.
So if you cannot fit a certain word in the context, check its full list of meanings. There's a high chance that you will have to use the least evident.
Come on, if you translate songs, you should always expect the worst: the most obscure, rare, and poetic.
9. Repeat Steps 6-8
Now, pick the next verse and go over Steps 7 to 8 one more time until you have processed the full text.
10. Proofread Your Translation
You may want to leave your translation in a cool, dark place for a day or two.
Your brain will switch to the "problem-solving mode," so you may automatically find a better translation of certain passages.
Translating songs is not a long process overall, but it can take some time.
Just keep in mind that you don't have to translate the whole song at once. If you break it down into several pieces, translating songs can be a perfect language learning time-killer when you’re in public transport.
Finally, take the last step: submit your translation online.
Go public: The Best Platform to Publish Your Song Translation
Submitting your own work gives you an amazing feeling of accomplishment! But it’s always better when you get feedback or someone’s thanks.
Don’t miss this follow-up! Choose the right platform.
My choice fell on Lyrics Translate.
This website relies on volunteers who love music, languages, and the art of blending them together. It has the friendliest multilingual translation community on the internet. You don’t have to be fluent in the language to translate songs. Your translation may not be perfect, but you can always ask the community to proofread your work for you.
And what could be better than free proofreading by a native speaker?
Lyrics Translate has an enormous database of songs in any language. However, if you can't find the song you want to translate, you can submit the original lyrics yourself. Plus, there are always new translation requests, so you will never run out of ideas for your next works.
It’s very addictive. The more songs you translate, the higher your status in the system. And it’s extremely rewarding to see your achievements on your profile page.
The bonus: Lyrics Translate has developed a huge database of idioms in any language of the world. Remember Step 8? When you translate songs, you come across new idioms fairly often. In many cases, Lyrics Translate will have the translation of the idioms.
One more thing: like all good things, it’s completely free ;) So don’t lose momentum and add this practice to your language learning to-do list. You have one, don’t you?
Your Next Challenge:
By the time you complete these 10 steps, you will have learned the lyrics by heart. Take the next step and learn to sing this song!
