Learn Chinese Through Songs

[Singing Mandarin]

Hi everyone! Newbie here☺️  I've just started a website that teaches Mandarin in a fun and engaging way through Chinese pop songs. If anyone here is interested, feel free to check out the website at: singingmandarin.com or follow the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/singingmandarin

Cheers! ?

[roddy]

Welcome to the site. I like the look of what you're doing. 

 

One suggestion - in the lyrics on the page, you have the pinyin properly separated by word (ie yòu huídào le yuándiǎn ). In the videos it's more huí dào le yuán diǎn. I'd do the videos like you do the words, even if it does mean the pinyin getting out of line with the characters.

[Singing Mandarin]

@roddy thank you for the input! I've actually been debating with myself on that pinyin issue as well. My only concern is that it may be visually disrupting to the viewers, especially with faster songs where words tend to fly by really fast. But now that you brought it up, I might actually reconsider changing the layout format... In any case, major thanks! ?

[amytheorangutan]

Really love this idea as I currently just go to random sites from google search. One thing that would be really great if you can do a traditional characters version as I’m learning traditional characters. I must say I love learning through songs mainly because the sentences are fairly short and they give me a sense of satisfaction when I realise I understand a few lines at a time. Plus they’re super catchy so I can repeat them as many times as I like. 

[Singing Mandarin]

21 minutes ago, amytheorangutan said:

Really love this idea as I currently just go to random sites from google search. One thing that would be really great if you can do a traditional characters version as I’m learning traditional characters. I must say I love learning through songs mainly because the sentences are fairly short and they give me a sense of satisfaction when I realise I understand a few lines at a time. Plus they’re super catchy so I can repeat them as many times as I like. 

@amytheorangutan  I only know simplified characters, so that'll be a bit difficult! ? And yes, that's the beauty of learning through songs isn't it? I remember growing up listening to Jay Chou , Wang Leehom and Teresa Tseng (with almost zero knowledge of Chinese at the time), only to end up learning so many Chinese words without even trying to! I'm still an intermediate Mandarin learner myself, so I'm actually learning so much just from translating these songs! ?

 

[Shelley]

This sounds like a fine idea but how do you deal with tones?

 

I have always wondered how you can learn from songs when learning a tonal languages.

 

I once asked one of my best teachers this question - What happens to tones when you sing and her response was basically that the tones go out the window. I have since then, been wary of trying to do anything more than enjoy songs and not try to really learn anything.

[amytheorangutan]

Hi @Shelley

 

I personally use songs to learn new vocabs, sentence paterns, reading and just see if I can understand the meaning of a song by reading the lyrics. I do ignore the tones but they help me remember new words a lot due to the repetitions and context contained in short phrases and sentences.

[roddy]

As long as you don't ALWAYS ignore the tones, it won't matter. Sing your little lungs out at the karaoke, then add the new vocab to your flashcards as usual. Unless all you do is sing you won't do yourself any harm.

[Singing Mandarin]

7 minutes ago, Shelley said:

This sounds like a fine idea but how do you deal with tones?

 

I have always wondered how you can learn from songs when learning a tonal languages.

 

I once asked one of my best teachers this question - What happens to tones when you sing and her response was basically that the tones go out the window. I have since then, been wary of trying to do anything more than enjoy songs and not try to really learn anything.

@ShelleyLike you said, tone does get thrown out the window in Chinese songs! ? Nevertheless, I think they can still serve as great supplementary learning tools, provided that you do your own research of the actual tones of the words. Like, I remember way back when I barely knew any Chinese, the one word I would always recognize by ear was (strangely enough) the word 代表 (dàibiǎo) because the song 月亮代表我的心 (The Moon Represents My Heart) was the go-to karaoke song at my family gatherings!

But then again, the effectiveness of songs probably varies for different individuals. From my personal experience, it's such a treat to be able to bop along to your favorite tunes while learning new words at the same time ?

 

[Shelley]

@Singing Mandarin Thanks for your reply. I think that if you make it clear that people will have to research and learn the tones as an extra it would be a fun way to add vocab. Have fun.????