They say immersion is the best way to learn a new language, but not all of us are able to pick up and go and holiday in a country that speaks our target language.
So how can we achieve immersion from the comfort of our own home?
Well, there are loads of ways. You can listen to the news, to the radio, to music. You can watch Netflix in your target language (check out our handy post on the best Netflix shows in each language we teach!) and you can also have conversations with native speakers.
Today we’re going to look at music and more specifically, to active listening and mimicking.
Even if you’re brand new to the Mimic Method, you might be able to guess that we advocate mimicking native speakers to master the sounds of a language and get your accent sounding awesome. Mimicking has a ton of benefits, but mainly it helps you get grips on how syllables flow together and form sentences.
One of the best examples of this is in music.
When you listen to music, you’re listening to the ways in which one word runs into the next, where the accent is in the word and how to combine potentially difficult sounds.
You need to engage in active listening
Active listening is where you deliberately pay attention to what’s being said and the rhythms of the person or people singing. You want to start to pick up on the beat, perhaps try and start recognizing words and getting an understanding of what the song is all about.
However, even if you’re brand new to a language, active listening is extremely helpful.
It will help you start to train your ear to the elemental sounds of the language and get you into the mindset of that language.
How Music Helps You Learn A Language
When you learn a language by ear, you go through three different stages:
- Stage 1: Capacity (Hearing & Pronunciation)
- Stage 2: Conversation (Speaking & Understanding)
- Stage 3: Command (Reading and Writing)
Listening to music in your target language means not only are you practicing your capacity for hearing and pronunciation, but you’re also (when you sing it back) practicing your spoken command as well.
Music is especially helpful with improving your syllable capacity. Syllables are the building blocks of speech, and some of them will be harder to pronounce than others based on which language you’re coming from originally.
This week, we’ve chosen our favourite 10 songs to help you learn French. We’ve chosen them deliberately because the lyrics are easy to pick out and the rhythm is pretty easy to follow. Some of them are harder than others, so start at the top of the list and work your way down. We’ve also included links to the lyrics of each song, which you can use to sing along with them.
The first time you listen to them, don’t worry so much about the lyrics. The second or third time you listen, start to try and sing along.
The best thing you can do with songs is trying to ‘flowverlap’ – which is where you record yourself singing alongside them and try and match the syllables exactly. Don’t worry if you’re not a great singer – that’s not important!
What’s important is that you’re mimicking the sounds correctly.
Our Top 10 French Songs
Let us know what you think!
1. Dernière Danse, Kyo
Lyrics: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/kyo/derniredanse.html
2. Ton Visage, Fréro Delavega
Lyrics: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/frerodelavega/tonvisage.html
3. Veronica, Vianney
Lyrics: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/vianney/veronica.html
4. Comme des Enfants, Coeur de Pirate
Lyrics: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/coeurdepirate/commedesenfants.html
5. Mon Héroïne, Fréro Delavega
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Frero-delavega-mon-heroine-lyrics
6. Tu Ne M’Entends Pas, Indila
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Indila-tu-ne-mentends-pas-lyrics
7. Tourne, Louane
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Louane-tourne-lyrics
8. J’ai Demandé à la Lune, Indochine
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Indochine-jai-demande-a-la-lune-lyrics
9. Le Chant des Sirènes, Fréro Delavega
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Orelsan-le-chant-des-sirenes-lyrics
10. Est-ce que Tu M’aimes, Maître Gims
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Maitre-gims-est-ce-que-tu-maimes-pilule-bleue-lyrics
Great post! Any chance on getting Mimicmethod’s Top 10 songs in (brazilian) portuguese? That would be awesome!
There’s Caetano Veloso, Cazuza, Legião Urbana, RPM.
New ones: Anita, Wesley Safadão, MC Catra.
I prefer the old ones
Sertaneja music is good, its usually slow enough that you can make out the lyrics to follow along! I like Henrique e Juliano, Luan Santana, and Jorge e Matheus. Gustavo Lima and Michel Telo are two of the more famous sertaneja artists of today. Paula Fernandes is also good! The first sentance I learned in portuguese was “Assim voce me mata” haha.
Hi Redmint, Thanks for replying! I didn’t see a notification or anything so I didn’t see the reply as of today 😀 I love sertaneja and the people you are mentioning have been the ones I’ve been listening and learning from 🙂 Assim você me mata were my first words in portuguese also hahaha!
Top 10 Spanish songs…?
Use Batanga radio (online radio, kinda like pandora) to explore new songs within the genre you like. Billboard has lists of their top latin songs, for tropical, dance,and a couple other genres I think so you can always start there. I like calle 13, which is political rap but at a speed that you can follow along
Thanks! I’ll check it out 🙂
Italian?
Where is Stromae?????
J’adore Stromae!! Ma chanson préférée de son est Papaoutai ^_^
#5 (MON HÉROÏNE, FRÉRO DELAVEGA) has weird acoustic problems, it might be better to pick a different version of the song. Also, #6 (TU NE M’ENTENDS PAS, INDILA) comes up as a 404 error. Feel free to delete my comment after fixing these. 🙂
Merci Samantha! I have fixed these 🙂
I’m French but have been leaving abroad for so long that I don’t know about the current French music scene. Thanks to you I now know about some cool new singers.
I’ve been doing this almost as long as I’ve been studying French. This is what I did:
I found a streaming station I liked, in this case, Chante France (http://chantefrance.radio.fr/). Like many other stations, Chante France puts their playlist and current song on line. This is important.
Then, when they play a song I liked, I made note of it. If I could remember the title, or the artist, or even the album the song came from, good!
Then I went to http://paroles.net/ This is THE lyrics site for all French chansons.
Then, I picked up the song on YouTube and got to work!
At least, I tell myself it’s work.
It’s very important to note that the best songs to use for this are usually YOUR favorites amongst the songs you hear. Don’t get too caught up in these “best songs” lists; don’t feel you have to use these songs to learn from if you’re not enthused with them.
If you love the songs, you’ll find a way to sing along with them. That’s guaranteed.
That said, I absolutely LOVED “L’Aventurier” by Indochine (a band on this list). It’s about the famous adventure novel hero (and series) Bob Morane. I enjoyed it so much, I started reading the books! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7X6oYg6iro
This is great! Is there a list for German?
Merci, Sophie.
Music serves as a wonderful memory hook. To guard against mishearing (and then mispronouncing) words, which can happen even our native tongues, it’s helpful to see the lyrics.
A caution: AZLyrics and other lyrics sites often contain malware. Best to stick with YouTube pages that contain lyrics (even though they’re not always 100% accurate). Even better, match the audio to the lyrics from the artist’s page. Celine Dion’s JE DANSE DANS MA TÊTE is catchy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY7A17Uq4L8
http://www.celinedion.com/music-details?dd_id=27