Song lyrics you didn't understand before in your new language!

Language Love
#1

Hi there!
Something that is very powerful to me and probably most of you is music! :musical_score:
I am a native English speaker but when I first arrived to Germany I fell in LOVE with German music. The best memories I have from that time are of me happily singing all the song lyrics completely wrong because I didn’t understand the language.
Here’s a song that I sang completely wrong at that time and now I can sing and understand it fully!

Zusammen

Die Fantastischen Vier

Wir sind zusammen groß
Wir sind zusammen alt
Komm lass 'n bisschen noch zusammen bleiben
Nehmt die Flossen hoch
Und die Tassen auch
Wir feiern heute bis zum Morgengrauen

Denn nur zusammen ist man nicht allein
Komm lass uns alles miteinander teilen
Denn nur zusammen ist man nicht allein
Komm lass 'n bisschen noch zusammen bleiben

Have you all had any similar experience with the language you are learning? Do you have a song to share or recommend?
:earth_americas: :musical_score: :writing_hand: :star_struck:

14 Likes
#2

Hahaha I can totally relate @AryoryKarakus !
When I was very young, my parents’ German friends gave us CDs of the group Die Prinzen (their acapella album is fantastic! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:) and I always sang parts of the songs by ear, for years.
When I took my first German class in 2017 I finally understood some of what I was singing haha!
Check out this awesome and totally cheesy video of their hit MillionÀr or Gabi und Klaus :laughing:

6 Likes
#3

Haha yes, @AryoryKarakus, I’ve definitely had this experience too!

Recently I discovered the song ‘Insel’ by Juli, and for a long time I thought first line of the chorus was “Dein Herz ist meine Insel”
 I thought it was so romantic. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: But I didn’t really listen to the rest of the song properly


Then one day I looked up the full lyrics and realised the song actually goes like this:

Niemand der mich sucht
Und niemand der mich hört
Niemand der mich kennt
Und niemand der mich stört

Mein Herz ist eine Insel
Auf einem blauen Meer
Mein Herz ist eine Insel
So weit von dir entfernt

Not so romantic after all! But still a great song I think. :slight_smile:

:headphones: Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6cuEtk-7WY

6 Likes
#4

Thank you, Amandine for your awesome response! I will definitely check them out :slight_smile:

1 Like
#5

Hi Maddy! The song sounds quite interesting haha I will definitely try and check it out, thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

#6

I also love music in different languages @AryoryKarakus!

Back in the 1980s when I was young, one evening I heard the strangest and most incredible sounding song on a college radio station: Ca Plane pour Moi. Because this was before the web, I didn’t know who sang it, what the words meant, or anything else besides the crazy faux-punk tune and chorus. That may have been the moment where I fell in love with the French language.

I would catch it occasionally in a movie scene or on the radio in the years that followed. Eventually I learned that it was a Belgian singer, Plastic Bertrand, who sang the song. (Well, it turns out it wasn’t Plastic Bertrand who sang it, although he claimed it as his!) Now there are hundreds of covers of this song.

Anyway, the lyrics are full of slang so I can only understand them with someone else’s translation, although I enjoy catching random words or phrases I recognize when I listen to it!

5 Likes
#7

Hi @AryoryKarakus :slight_smile: I love this topic!. I remember many years ago when I was learning English I used to sing one of my favorite songs really wrong :sweat_smile:.

The song is Hero from the Foo Fighters and in the chorus it says:

"There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He’s ordinary"

But what my ears heard was:

"There goes my hero
Watch him Mexico
There goes my hero
Extraordinary" :rofl:

When I finally got to check the lyrics I was really happy to finally get to sing the chorus right :face_with_hand_over_mouth:.

Years later learning French I came across with Stromae’s songs. One of them was Ta fĂȘte . Although it sounds like a party and a happy song I love how he plays with the meaning behind faire la fĂȘte Ă  quelqu’un and how it can also mean to give someone a hard time but if one hears it without knowing this meaning one would think “How nice they want to party”. Stromae is an interesting artist when it comes up to the lyrics.

5 Likes
#8

Hey! I just listened to the song to make sure I knew which one it was haha it’s definitely super funky! Also, thanks for informing us a bit on its background :smiley: very interesting!

1 Like
#9

Hi Sandra! Thank you for sharing, I can definitely agree and say that some songs like this one, (more on the Alt side are harder to understand) Even for me sometimes if I don’t listen too close haha Stromae is such a great artist and even though my french is not great, his lyrics are quite impactful :smiley:

3 Likes
#10

Hi @AryoryKarakus, this topic is too good not to respond to.

Even before I understood German I liked Silbermond - Unter der OberflĂ€che purely for the “Broken-hearted Rocker” vibe it gave me, from its opening drum riff to the electric guitar, and the vulnerability I heard in the lead singer’s voice.

Looking back now, I am pretty sure that I was just subconsciously projecting my own feelings onto the song. But now, having learned a bit of German, I appreciate that the song talks about a good kind of vulnerability, and I get “Whole-hearted/cheerful Rocker” vibes now!

TL;DR: German will fix your broken heart, learn it and listen to this song Silbermond - Unter der OberflÀche

Wir treiben die Eisberge
Durch diese Straße
Was wir von uns zeigen
Ist nur kalte Fassade
Wir ziehen durch die Clubs
Und die NĂ€chte der Stadt
Auf der Suche nach Liebe
Wir graben nach Gold
Und fischen doch mitten in TrĂŒben

Kommst du mit
Unter die OberflÀche
Ich zeig’ den Kern von mir
Und was ich sonst verstecke
Unter der OberflÀche

6 Likes
#11

Hi Iggi! Just from the lyrics I can tell this song is gonna be great to listen to :smiley: It’s incredible how much the language learning experience opens us up to deeper realizations, I can definitely relate! Looking forward to checking this song out :musical_note:

1 Like
#12

Hi @AryoryKarakus,

yes great topic thanks for posting.

Pretty different music, but did you ever listen to Nina Hagen?

Here is one of “her” songs and I think it’s probably the most German song ever:


and by the way I used to try to translate Tanita Tikarem’s song “Twist in my sobriety” than I tried to learn English as a teenager. 
not sure until now though if I really understood the title correctly :thinking: :laughing:

1 Like