J
jwschang
Guest
Hi Mak and all
In one exchange, I was bantering with TDOL about a Texan who did some "chadding" in Florida (I wonder why he's not known universally as Florida Bush, as in Billy the Kid).
And it brought me to thinking that the lyrics of songs are a great way to speak (or sing, if you like) in English. Grappling with grammar may be a necessary chore but songs give a real flavour to any language, and the nuances of the cultures behind it. And the language becomes IMHO easier and enjoyable to learn.
Like, one can learn and enjoy the lyrics (sentence structures (!!!) to stuffy grammarians) of the Yellow Rose of Texas, which goes:
Oh the Yellow Rose of Texas
That I am going to see
Her eyes are bright as diamonds
They sparkle like the sea....
Or: Carry me back to old Virginee, That's where the corn n' cotton and 'tatoes grow, There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime....
Or the old Scottish: Hark! When the night is falling, Hear, hear the pipes are calling, Loudly and proudly calling down thru the glen, There's where the hills are sleeping, There's where the blood's a-leaping, High as the spirits of the old highland men...
Or the Irish: Oh the days of the Kerry dances, Oh the ring of the piper's tune, Oh for one of those hours' of gladness, Gone alas, like my youth too soon....When the boys began to gather in the glen of a summer's night, And the piper's music make us long with wild delight, Oh to think of it, oh to dream of it....
Or another Irish: Down yonder green valley, Where streamlets meander, Where twilight is fading, I pensively rove.....All at the bright noontide, In solitude wander, Amidst the dark shades, Of the lonely ashgrove....
The English themselves don't seem to sing a lot, though, except perhaps for one Posh Spice aka VB.
Cheers!
In one exchange, I was bantering with TDOL about a Texan who did some "chadding" in Florida (I wonder why he's not known universally as Florida Bush, as in Billy the Kid).
And it brought me to thinking that the lyrics of songs are a great way to speak (or sing, if you like) in English. Grappling with grammar may be a necessary chore but songs give a real flavour to any language, and the nuances of the cultures behind it. And the language becomes IMHO easier and enjoyable to learn.
Like, one can learn and enjoy the lyrics (sentence structures (!!!) to stuffy grammarians) of the Yellow Rose of Texas, which goes:
Oh the Yellow Rose of Texas
That I am going to see
Her eyes are bright as diamonds
They sparkle like the sea....
Or: Carry me back to old Virginee, That's where the corn n' cotton and 'tatoes grow, There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime....
Or the old Scottish: Hark! When the night is falling, Hear, hear the pipes are calling, Loudly and proudly calling down thru the glen, There's where the hills are sleeping, There's where the blood's a-leaping, High as the spirits of the old highland men...
Or the Irish: Oh the days of the Kerry dances, Oh the ring of the piper's tune, Oh for one of those hours' of gladness, Gone alas, like my youth too soon....When the boys began to gather in the glen of a summer's night, And the piper's music make us long with wild delight, Oh to think of it, oh to dream of it....
Or another Irish: Down yonder green valley, Where streamlets meander, Where twilight is fading, I pensively rove.....All at the bright noontide, In solitude wander, Amidst the dark shades, Of the lonely ashgrove....
The English themselves don't seem to sing a lot, though, except perhaps for one Posh Spice aka VB.
Cheers!
