I love music and I try to translate the Japanese music when I listen to it. (I mostly listened to Enka and that sort). I believe that it has a positive effect. I learn new words, kanjis and uses of language. But just to check my approach, I would like to ask to you, what do you think about this method? Of course, this is not the solitary thing I do but a supporting one. Could there be any negative effects? Such as when a learner watches too much Anime, s/he might use a vulgar and offbeat language.
7 comments
I mean… young people ain’t gonna be cool with your music choices, but that’s about it.
It’s worthwhile but is going to be very difficult… I tried this too, but Japanese music uses a lot of sentence fragments and frequently drops verbs. Or it has ridiculously complex doubly qualified nouns and dense metaphor. See “Lightin Up” by Yoshida Minako:
ゆるく滑り込む夜を待ちきれず動き出す炎
Translation: The flame can’t wait for the loosely-sliding night and starts to move.
Meaning: The streetlights come on before the sun goes down.
Edit: fixed incorrect kanji
Yeah this works for me & jpop but I’m not sure about enka?
I’ve done this. It’s hard, but the rewards were great.
The pitfalls I ran into was either due to grammar or idioms, puns, proverbs, and things like that where I lack the cultural connection to understand them. You will probably come across unnatural phrases as well since lyrics can take quite a bit of liberty with phrasing and stuff to make it, well, musical.
I’ve never done it with enka though, but I don’t see why not. You could also look up [Sarah Moon Japanese on YouTube and look for her song translation videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf_ad3ClMRI&list=PLZZRLam3SpTPKFY6LkHtkf6BEbFmDbgfS&index=1). She goes over various anime song translations in detail so it can help you kind of know what to look for when you’re translating (she’s a Japanese to English translator by profession).
I translate Japanese music as a hobby (although haven’t had much time lately) and as a study aid. It’s helpful but less so than many other forms of interaction with Japanese. I find reading books and news much more helpful. I also subtitle movie trailers and find that more useful as well. Lyrics often take a lot of liberties with grammar. With movie scripts, books, and news you will meet typical / natural Japanese usage much more often than you would reading and translating lyrics.
That said translating lyrics is pretty fun! Also, maybe my hearing is bad but I have difficulties sometimes picking out lyrics even in English music. So it’s nice to sit down and get a complete picture of a song’s lyrics.
At the end of the day, pick what “interactions” with Japanese interest and excite you, and the learning will follow. But more importantly, you’ll stick to it if it’s fun and engaging. Good luck!
I never studied using Japanese music but I learned some vocabulary from it. As others have said, some of the phrasing or vocabulary isn’t what you’ll hear in everyday conversation but it’s not going to hurt you to learn new words and kanji. Good luck!
Lyrics are real language. Anything you do with it will help you. Keep going.
If you’re interested, the musician SHING02 has his lyrics up in English and Japanese for many of his songs on his website https://www.e22.com/shing02/