Understand Song Meanings without Translations - A New Method for English Learners

Explained in English

Website: https://explainedinenglish.com

Need help understanding? Use the text transcript below.

Sections:

(00:01) Introduction

(00:21) Who is Kiah?

(00:59) About the Explained in English project

(02:24) Why not just use translations?

(03:22) What level English should I have?

(03:53) How to use the podcast

(05:48) Try an explanation now (https://explainedinenglish.com)

[Transcript]

Introduction (00:01)

Hello and welcome to Explained in English, a new podcast for English learners and music lovers. Today, I’m explaining how to use this podcast, with music, to improve your English.

Who is Kiah? (00:21)

I’m so excited to finally share this podcast with all of you. I’d like to start by introducing myself. My name is Kiah, or Ki, for short. It kind of has a weird spelling, K-I-A-H. I’m from the state of Michigan in the United States, but I live and work in Italy. My job is an English teacher. I’ve been a language teacher for over 10 years now. I started teaching Spanish in the United States, but here I teach English.

About the Explained in English project (00:59)

Since I work with students who are learning English, I’m always looking for authentic, real ways for them to improve their English. Music and song lyrics in general are something that everyone seems to like. But, even my advanced students often find learning English with music and songs challenging. Sometimes it’s hard to understand what the singer is singing. Sometimes we lack cultural knowledge or history to understand the song properly, and sometimes we lack the motivation to sit down and look up the unknown words. Sometimes it just feels like a lot of work!

For all of these reasons, my students felt a little bit blocked in using music as a learning tool. So, this project, this podcast, is to fix that problem. This podcast is all about giving you the support that you need to enjoy and feel confident understanding songs, all in English. I go through and explain each line of the song, making the words, phrases, and grammar easy to understand and easy to remember.

Why not just use translations? (02:24)

Some people have asked me, “Why not just use translations?”, and my answer is: well, that depends on your goal or what you’re hoping to accomplish. For example, if you just want to understand the meaning of a song then I think translations are a great way. However, if you also want to improve your language skills, then you’ll learn and remember more if you learn all in English.

As an intermediate or advanced student, you want to train yourself to think, interpret, and speak in English, using your native language as little as possible. These explanations will help move you in that direction and get you closer to thinking, speaking, and interpreting in English.

What level English should I have? (03:22)

So, because everything is explained in English, this podcast is not intended for beginners. These explanations are really for intermediate to advanced students of English. If you can understand most of what I’m saying now, then you’re in the right place. If you are really struggling to understand, then this podcast is probably not for you yet.

How to use the podcast (03:53)

So, how should you use this podcast? To get the most of these explanations follow three simple steps. Step one:

1. Get familiar with the real song.

Even if you know the song already, I still suggest listening to it once before you go to the explanation. However, if the song is new or unknown, you should spend some time getting to know it; becoming familiar with the tune, the singer’s voice. Just getting comfortable with what the song sounds like. You don’t need to understand all the lyrics yet. After you’ve heard the song, you can move to step two. In the second step you...

2. Listen to the explanation audio.

You should preferably listen in a place free of distractions, where you can relax and enjoy the explanation. The goal of the explanation is for you to understand the song lyrics. However, you don’t have to understand every word that I say. I use a lot of examples, a lot of extra words to help you comprehend and understand the lyrics. You definitely don’t have to memorize all of the words in the explanation. Just focus on grasping the meaning of the song lyrics. At the end of the explanation you move to step three, the final step, where you...

3. Listen to the song again.

This time, you should be able to understand and appreciate the song in a much deeper way. Hopefully, understanding all of the words and the meaning of the song.

Okay! That’s it for this introductory podcast. In the future, I’ll likely record more in-depth information about how to use this podcast. But, for now, I invite you to try one of the explanations. Follow the three basic steps I mentioned before, and you’ll be all set to improve your English with music.

Thanks again and I’ll see you in the next explanation. Bye bye!

-Kiah

Website:

https://explainedinenglish.com

E-mail:

[e-mail]