As a pretty new beginner, how can I leverage my love for a song to learn Japanese?

I started learning Japanese these past few weeks. I’ve got hiragana down, shaky on the katakana, partway through Lesson 1 of Genki, dabbled with Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide, and almost zero kanji learned. I’m still going to stick to my 30 minutes a day of core studying with Genki, but when I have free time I would love to use my love for Japanese music to further my Japanese learning.

For example, I’ve been obsessed with アイドル by YOASOBI. It’s been stuck in my head for the past few weeks and I still have not gotten sick of it. I am dying to understand it! From the first line, 無敵の笑顔で荒らすメディア, I’ve learned that 無敵 (むてき) means invincible and 笑顔 (えがお) means smile, and I can apply the tiniest bit of grammar that I know to see that the の implies the 笑顔 is the main idea and 無敵 modifies that idea. Boom! I learned a bit more thanks to this song!

I would like to apply this enthusiasm with the rest of the song, though I’m not sure what’s the best way of doing so. I’m thinking of adding all the vocab words via Yomichan to Anki and then learning the words from the song over time. Looking up grammar sounds a bit more difficult, but I’m hoping that by going through Tae Kim’s grammar guide I can over time learn why the grammar is how it is.

Do y’all have any suggestions on how I can supplement my Genki learning with trying to decipher this song? I appreciate the help!

2 comments
  1. Like the enthusiasm and think everything you said is fine. Just be aware that a lot of the words you pick up this way like 引き立て役 are going to be extremely situational or rare and not at all likely to be of much use early on in your studies.

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