Hello, everyone and welcome back to my blog! Though it has been a while since I last posted on here, I am excited to talk about a topic that I hold very dear to my heart: practicing multilingual worship to grow in my faith as a Catholic. No matter what your religious background is, I highly encourage you to read this post in its entirety, as it may benefit you, or someone you know.
For those of you who know me, I am very involved in our Christian and Catholic groups on campus. In fact, I am currently a Worship Team leader for our Intervarsity chapter on campus. So far, our worship team has sung songs in Spanish, French, Italian, German, and many different African dialects, but I hope to make our space even more diverse and inclusive during my last semester at Dickinson.
I have found that my faith has been spiritually, physically, and emotionally healing over the years, especially this past year, as I have been suffering from chronic migraines. That being said, I found worship music and specifically contemporary Christian songs to be my saving grace.
While I was abroad, I lost one of my grandfathers in Italy and had to pray for over a month for my health to get better in Cameroon. Though both of these instances were very emotionally draining, music healed me. It gave me hope that someday I would be cured and that I would feel better.
Given that languages are one of the most important parts of my life, I find international Christian music to be even more empowering. Not only am I increasing my vocabulary, but I am also working on my pronunciation, cadence, and tone. As I am sure most of you have noticed, learning a language is hard, but singing an entire song in a language that is not your first language is even harder, but even so, if you push through the highs and the lows throughout your language-learning process, you will persevere. You can even learn how to change your voice and the rhythm of a song when you become fluent in a language. That is one of the most rewarding parts of the process for me.
A lot of you have asked me what means the most to me and that is hands down my faith, so if you are currently on a faith journey, feel free to join me in this journey together. You may just be in the process of understanding what Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, or another religion means to you and to your identity, or you may be comfortable with that part of who you are. No matter where you find yourself, I highly encourage you to start incorporating worship music into your life.
You may be asking yourself, "That's great, Laura, but exactly how can I do that?"The easiest way to do so is by typing up "([INSERT RELIGION] worship songs" in your target language. Start listening to some songs that pop up. They will most likely be some of the most recent, or popular worship songs for your particular religion and once you start feeling comfortable with some of the songs that you listen to, make it a goal to learn a song by heart.
Start off by looking up unknown words to slowly build your vocabulary. Practice it consistently and take it as slowly as you need to. It may take you a day, or three months to fully memorize a song, but the point is to never give up. Who knows? Maybe you will even develop a closer relationship with God, or with a higher being in the process.
As a bonus, I am sharing the link to my favorite Italian worship song that I sang while I studied abroad in Bologna, Italy in Fall 2017 (SEE ABOVE).
I have been meaning to write about listening to songs in
foreign languages for months now, but wanted to wait until I found enough
international singers and songs that I liked that I could share with you. As
Olly mentions in the video below, songs are one of the best ways to increase your
vocabulary in another language, but aside from that, you can also learn what some
typical contractions of words are, and can even use them to practice your
pronunciation.
I am a big proponent of songs, because as Olly says, “the
kind of vocabulary you get in songs is not the same, often, as the kind of
things that you will say when you are speaking the language.” You may be asking
yourself why that would be positive, but do not worry, I will get to that in a
little bit. When you first learn song lyrics, you have to be aware of the fact
that people do not typically talk like that. In words or phrases that are found
in songs, you should notice that it can be difficult to easily drop them in conversation.
“It is important to ask yourself questions such as: "Is this normal
language? Do people actually speak like that’”? More oftentimes than not, the answer
will be no.
I agree with Olly, in that most
songs that are in English are not like the way that we speak on an everyday
basis. For example, in the song “Echo” by Jason Walker, he says:
“Cause my echo,
echo
Is the only
voice coming back
Shadow, shadow
Is the only
friend that I have"
I am sure that you could notice
that most people do not usually burst out those words.
Since the words that are found in songs
are not generally the most common words that are used in everyday speech, you get to
learn complex ways of expressing yourself and describing the world around you in
a more meaningful, and, oftentimes, more poetic, or romantic way. If you want to increase your
vocabulary, when you are learning a song and you see a lot of words that you
want to use in conversation, you have to write them down. Whether you use
flashcards, read a lot and give yourself as much as exposure as you can with
new words, or write them down in a notebook, the most important part of the
process is to be consistent. I cannot stress enough how much the application
Anki has personally helped me in my language-learning journey. I will continue
to refer to my post "Foreign Language Vocabulary Builder Using Anki (Application)" from 6/25/16, because I strongly encourage you to download the
application and to make it a habit to regularly use it. I have yet to find a method that is as fun
and immersive as Anki.
I find that studying words separately
by putting them onto Anki is the most efficient way to retain difficult
vocabulary that I come across in songs, while still remembering those words in
the context of the song (ex: the phrase in which it is used and the syntax
associated with it). You can oftentimes also indirectly learn, or review
grammar by looking at the ways in which words are put together. If you are learning
a language that has a case system, songs tend to be a less overwhelming way of
reviewing the endings of words. I have already taught myself several
songs in German and Russian and have found many grammatical patterns in them
without having to tediously review case charts. You can even find websites and YouTube channels that have
songs in other languages that are already translated for you in your native language,
which is very convenient! I also highly recommend printing out the lyrics of a song that you enjoy, looking up any unknown words by translating them from your target language into your native language if you cannot infer the meanings of certain words, and, finally, putting them onto Anki. Make sure to have the lyrics in front of you every time that you listen to a song for the first couple of times in which you try to memorize it. As you start to become more comfortable with what you are saying and can sing the song without looking down every couple of words, try to challenge yourself by singing it without the lyrics in front of you. Eventually, you will be able to understand every word. It may take you a day, or two weeks before that happens depending on your level in the language and on how difficult the lyrics are, but I promise that the process is worth it in the end.
As a bonus, I will add the names of
some of my favorite artists in 6 languages. Some of my
favorite genres of music are R&B, soul, hip-hop and alternative, and I also like songs
that are soft, soothing, or that talk about experiences and feelings that you
have other than love. Here is some of my favorite foreign music (Feel free to click on
some of these artists of languages that interest you, so that you can check out
their YouTube channels and songs):
French-Amir-Amir: "J'ai cherché", "On dirait" Coeur de pirate- CoeurDePirateVEVO: "Crier tout bas", "Tu oublieras mon nom"
Corneille- "Parce qu'on vient de loin" Grégory Lemarchal- "Je rêve" Hazerka- "En silence ft. Ornella Tempesta" Jonah-Jonah Music : "Pas Le Droit à L'Erreur" MAGIC SYSTEM- Magic System Official: "Magic In The Air Feat. Chawki" Moker- "J'trace ma route" M. Pokora - M. Pokora Officiel: "Le monde"
Zaho- Zaho Officiel : ": "Je Te Promets", "Tant de choses"
Zazie-Zazie - Topic: "Je ne sais pas", "Les contraires""J'ai cherché"
German-Andreas Bourani- AndreasBouraniVEVO: "Auf uns", "Eisberg" Die Toten Hosen- "Tage wie diese" Joel Brandenstein- Joel Bandenstein: "Diese Liebe", "Lebenskraft", "Polaroid" Lina Maly- Warner Music Germany: "Schön genug"
Mark Forster- markforsterVEVO : "Anna","Wir sing groß", "Zu dir (Weit weg)" Unheilig- "Geboren um zu leben" Wincent Weiss-Digster Pop: "Feuerwerk"
Xavier Naidoo-Xavier Naidoo - Topic : "Alles Kann Besser Werden", "Führ mich ans Licht", "Und Wenn Ein Lied", "War Wir Alleine Nicht Schaffen", "Wo Willst Du Hin"
This is just a small taste of some
of my favorite artists, bands, and foreign songs, but I hope that you enjoy
some of them and start listening to them. I am personally very picky with my
music, because I like purchasing and listening to songs that have meaningful,
poetic lyrics, so now you get a small taste of to what I usually listen. I will
be updating this post in the upcoming months to add more music that I enjoy, so
be sure to watch out for an update sometime soon.
What makes songs so amazing is that
when you learn them, they “exist in [their] own bubble inside [of] your head.” The
more times that you listen to a song, the more likely it is that you will not
forget it. After you have memorized the lyrics of a song and have truly
understood what it is that you are saying and the deeper meaning of it, it is
very likely that it will forever be ingrained in your memory. When you least
expect it, you will hear lyrics of songs that you know pop up into your head. That
is the power songs- they are like memories that never fade away, making them a
powerful language-learning tool. Good luck finding music that you like and do
not forget to have fun while doing so!
