Do you understand what you listen to?

Miz en Scène

Miz en Scène

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    When you listen to Japanese music, do you actually understand what is being said. Do you make an effort to understand? Have you ever wondered what the meaning of the lyrics were?

    I'm not saying that I understand Japanese fluently(though I'm learning).
     
    Most of the time, I simply listen to the music for its own sake. While I can understand some of the lyrics I hear, much of that understanding is based simply on rote memorization of translations from various sources.
     
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    I don't even pay attention to English lyrics half the time. If it's a song I like I'll put on headphones and stop what I'm doing to listen to the words and make sense of them. I'll maybe look up the lyrics, too, if my computer is handy, especially for those songs that go a mile a minute or the ones that use gratuitously garbled Engrish.
     
    Some times words do come up and i do understand the easy ones that i usually see often in anime english subtitle songs. But like i would love to learn the language.
     
    I just listen for the sound. The lyrics could be terrible and I would never know, which I kind of like that aspect of it. Occasionally I look up translated lyrics, but I really enjoy just not knowing.
     
    Scarf said:
    I don't even pay attention to English lyrics half the time. If it's a song I like I'll put on headphones and stop what I'm doing to listen to the words and make sense of them. I'll maybe look up the lyrics, too, if my computer is handy, especially for those songs that go a mile a minute or the ones that use gratuitously garbled Engrish.
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    ^ This.

    I don't make a habit of memorizing or even paying attention to lyrics in English and Japanese music is no different. Sure I can pick up on the words and meanings of English songs much easier but if I really try, I can usually get the gist of a Japanese song. If I'm super interested in its meaning, I'll just look it up.
     
    Whenever I listen to music, I am usually doing something else, so I don't hear the words, just the music. I'm more focused on what I am doing.
     
    I'm usually more focused on how the rhythm goes rather than actually understanding what it's saying, though sometimes I can depict words throughout some songs (like tsuki = moon, and so on and so forth). If I really wanna know what the song means, I'll go and look up the english translation for it.
     
    My attention is on the BGM most of the time, and instrumentals are what I like better. There's quite a lot of interpretion to BGM, so yes and no.
     
    Scarf said:
    I don't even pay attention to English lyrics half the time. If it's a song I like I'll put on headphones and stop what I'm doing to listen to the words and make sense of them. I'll maybe look up the lyrics, too, if my computer is handy, especially for those songs that go a mile a minute or the ones that use gratuitously garbled Engrish.
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    That about sums up what I wanted to say.
     
    The reason I prefer foreign music is that I don't understand it. I'll most likely look up a translation of the lyrics but as long as I can't understand as it's being said I'm happy.
     
    No, unless it was subbed. And when I hear the song, I usually look for a brief translation on what the song is about, so I guess I can picture it?
     
    Galatea said:
    I don't even pay attention to English lyrics half the time. If it's a song I like I'll put on headphones and stop what I'm doing to listen to the words and make sense of them. I'll maybe look up the lyrics, too, if my computer is handy, especially for those songs that go a mile a minute or the ones that use gratuitously garbled Engrish.
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    This.

    If I'm really interested in the song and wanted to memorize it for whatever reason howsoever, I'd go to a reliable website with English lyrics and romaji lyrics. :3
     
    U-hu! I like to sing along with musics I don't even know the lyrics, specially if they are foreign. When I check the real lyrics I get both shocked to see how great some musics are with their real words and disappointed because I just can't sing it right anymore. (I'll always sing Naruto's 4th opening with O-Kay instead of Yeah-Yeah, it's much better my way)
     
    I can only understand when they say something in English, another than that, I'm lost. Oh well, I listen to Japanese music for the sake of listening to Japanese music. :3
     
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