The problem of audition in language learning

[Paul B. Gallagher]

[Resending because I didn't realize Konstantin was diverting replies to 
his private address]

First, I would like to thank those who took the time to share their
thoughts with me, both on-list and off. So far, I haven't found the
"Holy Grail" of a magic answer, but I'm still listening. I hope those
who were away for the weekend will have something to add.

Goloviznin Konstantin wrote:

> Hello, Paul.
> 
> I've been doing on this problem the following. We use in perception
> three chanals: eyes, ears and the tongue. Then, we can load all this
> three at the same time with what we like and  get what we need. For
> example I like songs by "Nirvana". Words in original singing in this
> songs are difficult to distinguish (even for ears of english-speaking
> person). But taking printed lyrics of the songs for singing along
> with the original singer puts all the things to their places.
> 
> More effective, IMHO, using plug-ins (like "MiniLyrics") to computer
> audio-players. At replaying a song it downloads the text of this song
> from Internet and synchroniously scroll it on the monitor of your
> computer.
> 
> For example, once upon a time I decided to know what Mireille Mathieu
> sings in her  "Pariser Tango". I started replaying this song in
> WinAmp, my MiniLyrics told me the text of this not found on the
> MiniLyrics' site. So I downloaded the plain text of this song from
> other site to the MiniLyrics' editor, stamped it with time-tags and
> uploaded to the site of MiniLyrics. After all started this song
> replaying again and listenned (to the song), saw (the text on the
> screen) and sang (the song)  - really tasty.
> 
> Probably, those tricks can be applied to Korean music.

It sounds like fun...

The problem with sung language, even though I enjoy it, is that it
doesn't sound the same as spoken language. Every language has certain
conventional adaptations that apply to song but not to speech. For
example, French tends to aspirate /p,t,k/ in song but hardly ever in
speech; Korean often substitutes /i/ for /ɯ/ (high back unrounded vowel)
in song, but never in speech; and so forth. I don't recall the Russian
conventions offhand, but the operas I've heard have not been nearly as
easy to follow as spoken Russian.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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