1A The Magic of Music
Moving forward, we are going to use song as tool for mastering both the movements and the meanings of our target language.
In the video below, I summarize the major differences and similarities between music and language. Then I explain why the combination of the two in lyrical song presents the ultimate practice arena for the language learner.
After watching the video, share your three biggest takeaways in the
#learn channel. 1B Sync with the Movement
You are going to engage a very powerful process for developing both your movement and meaning flow in your target language.
Since movement comes first, with the meaning emerging from it, the first step is to entrain the natural flow of movement into the muscle memory of your articulators.
To perform this quickly and thoroughly, you will need to engage everything you learned in the first part of this program. First you will sync with the timing of the syllables, then you will sync with the melody, then finally you will sync with the whole articulation.
You will start with the slow version of the audio to ingrain high quality movement, then you will practice at full speed. Once you have mastered full speed, send a recording of yourself syncing with the last few reps of the audio, then echo solo four times after.
Post a recording for each line to
#mimicry(click here to join new channel), then give yourself precise feedback in the comments (e.g. "My tongue is too high for the /a/ in /tΟa/"). 1C Decipher the Meaning
Now that the movements are in your body, you are ready to extract the meaning from them.
Below is a template for a google spreadsheet we will use repeatedly to store and practice meaning flow. There is a pre-made template for the song we're studying now, as well as a general template for you to use on any future song or script. There is also a link to a google translation of the lyrics you just learned.
Using the spreadsheet and google translation, you will first decipher words from the syllables. Then you will decipher the meaning of each word, and then finally the meaning of the entire line.
When you are finished deciphering everything, share a brief reflection of the experience in the
#learn channel. Please do not request editing access to the google sheet. If you go to "File" then scroll down to "Make a Copy", you can make your own version in your own drive, and edit the document there.
Templates
- πͺπΈ Spanish
- π«π· French
- π΅πΉ Portuguese (Pt)
- π§π· Portuguese (Br)
- π©πͺ German
Translations
- πͺπΈ Pies Descalzos Lines 1-4
- π«π· Papaoutai Lines 1-4
- π΅πΉ Portuguese (Pt)
- π§π· Portuguese (Br)
- π©πͺ German
1D Stack Words & Sentences
The ability to sing and know the meaning of a song is very rewarding in itself. But since it is a very specific context, these lines are not too useful to us for general conversation purposes. We can, however, use "Story Stax" to extract and re-organize the component words of our lines in a way that allows us to generate many more possibilities.
Just like "Elemental Sound Stax", and "Rhyme Stax", "Story Stax"is a simple but powerful way to categorize words by a shared feature. The feature of concern here is based on the universal grammar of human experience - Narrative Story.
You will extract each word from the lyrics and categorize it by the type of story element it is - character, action, object, setting, descriptor or connector. Then once you have all the words, you will generate as many sentences as you can mixing and matching these elements.
To train your memory, you will write all the words in english, but then copy-paste their IPA pronunciation from the song as a note for quick mouse-over reference. This will help you practice your memory.
It's important to note that we are NOT concerned with grammar at this stage. Even if you have the incorrect conjugation or syntax, you will always be perfectly understood as long as you clearly pronounce all the key story elements in the context.
After you have generated all your sentences, record yourself translating them out loud in the target language. For extra challenge, use a metronome to force your speed of recall.
When you're done, post your recording to
#meaning (click here to join new channel), along with a short reflection of how you found the activity. 1E Memorize the Lines
Now that you've learned both the movements and their meanings for each separate line, the final task is to commit the full sequence of lines to memory.
The idea here is to build out a repertoire of high quality speech that you can practice anytime without any external aid. The repertoire will provide you much greater opportunity to get more repetitions on the language. It is also very useful to recite songs from your repertoire to active your language alter ego and prime yourself for spontaneous conversation.
First you will practice the first two lines, then the second two lines, then the transition between lines two and three, and then finally the full quatrain.
Be sure to be patient, and to not allow yourself to get frustrated. As long as you take your time with the repetitions, and give yourself sufficient rest for the brain to develop new pathways, you will be able to commit the whole thing to memory, and it will feel very rewarding.
After you've memorized the full sequence, record yourself syncing with the last few repetitions of the audio, and then echoing solo after for a single rep. Then submit a recording to
#mimicry (click here to join new channel)along with a brief reflection on the experience.