when you listen to a song in a foreign language

[Alpo]

You listen to a song. Some or all of it is in a foreign language. You know what they're saying - either you're fluent in that language or, more likely, you found out the translation for the lyrics of this song.

 

When they're singing do you just listen to the foreign words, or does your mind automatically translate them into English?

 

I was listening to a song the other day. Una Paloma Blanca. For those that have absolutely no Spanish, that means one white dove.

 

Those are the only Spanish words in the song. That line is repeated twice in the chorus, and the chorus is sung twice, so that line is sung four times. Everything else is in English.

 

And while I absolutely knew what was being said, when I listen to it what I hear is Una Paloma Blanca. I don't hear one white dove.

 

La Bamba. I spent a lot of time trying to find out what Ritchie Valens was saying. Part of the problem was I was not understanding the words he was saying, which made it real hard to translate. Me and my sister-in-law was listening to it one day and she says, "he said something about money - dinero".

 

He didn't say anything about dinero. He said marinero - sailor. Yo no soy marinero - I am not a sailor.

 

But I finally learned the translation, and I learned the correct Spanish words. And when I listen to the song, or when I sing the song, all I'm hearing is the Spanish.

 

A couple of times I've tried singing it in English, and that's a pain in the butt. The rhythm is wrong, because there's not the same amount of syllables in the words.

[Blackwater 53393]

Try this one!!  It was a pretty big hit in 1963!!

 

The English translation appears in closed caption!

 

 

[Alpo]

I love Sukiyaki. I can play it. I can't sing it, but I can play it. And I hear - not so much the English translation but a paraphrase of the English translation. Because to my ear the Japanese is just noise.

 

And it makes so much sense - looking up when it's raining so the rain washes the tears off your face and your friends don't think you're a wuss.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Usually in my received pronunciation of the foreign language. 

 

 

 

 

[Alpo]

I wish I knew the lyrics to this. I have read the translation. So it's nice to know what he's saying, but I wish I could sing it

 

 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

22 minutes ago, Alpo said:

I wish I knew the lyrics to this. I have read the translation. So it's nice to know what he's saying, but I wish I could sing it

 

 

 

 

Moi et la belle on avait été au bal

On a passé dans tout les honky-tonk

On a revenu le lendemain matin

Le jour était après s'casser

J'ai passé dedans la porte d'en arrière

L'après-midi, moi, j'étais au village

Je m'ai saoulé que j'pouvais pus marcher

Ils m'ont ramené back à la maison

Y avait d'la compagnie, c'était du monde étranger

J'ai passé dedans la porte d'en arrière

Mon vieux père, une fois quand j'arrivé

Il essayait de changer mon idée

J'ai pas écouté, moi j'avais trop la tête dure

"Un jour va venir mon neg', tu vas avoir du regret"

T'as passé dedans la porte d'en arrière

J'ai eu un tas d'amis quand j'avais d'l'argent

À c't'heure j'ai pus d'argent, ben y venons pus m'voir

J'étais dans l'village et moi, j'm'ai mis dans l'tracas

La loi m'a ramasser, moi, j'suis parti dans la prison

On va passé dedans la porte d'en arrière

 

https://www.cajunlyrics.com/?lyrics=83

K98

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

And then... there's this piece below, published a bunch of years ago under the title "A song that depicts how English sounds to non-English speakers...."  

 

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

"Komm, gib mir deine Hand" und "Sie liebt dich"

[Alpo]

3 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Moi et la belle on avait été au bal

On a passé dans tout les honky-tonk

On a revenu le lendemain matin

Le jour était après s'casser

J'ai passé dedans la porte d'en arrière

L'après-midi, moi, j'étais au village

Je m'ai saoulé que j'pouvais pus marcher

Ils m'ont ramené back à la maison

Y avait d'la compagnie, c'était du monde étranger

J'ai passé dedans la porte d'en arrière

Mon vieux père, une fois quand j'arrivé

Il essayait de changer mon idée

J'ai pas écouté, moi j'avais trop la tête dure

"Un jour va venir mon neg', tu vas avoir du regret"

T'as passé dedans la porte d'en arrière

J'ai eu un tas d'amis quand j'avais d'l'argent

À c't'heure j'ai pus d'argent, ben y venons pus m'voir

J'étais dans l'village et moi, j'm'ai mis dans l'tracas

La loi m'a ramasser, moi, j'suis parti dans la prison

On va passé dedans la porte d'en arrière

 

https://www.cajunlyrics.com/?lyrics=83

K98

That's not a lot of help there Joe.

 

I appreciate you looking them up, but I've looked them up before. But just reading the lyrics doesn't allow you to sing. You have to know how to pronounce the lyrics. Like that first word?

 

Looks like MOY, but sounds like MWAH.

 

I first learned of that song in an online story. Several people that originated in Louisiana were now living in Alabama. They discovered that most of them played an instrument of some sort, and they started out as a jam session and the music went in all kinds of directions. And they enjoyed listening to "la porte d'en arrière", but two of the wives - from Alabama - decided they wanted to sing while their husbands were playing. So they got a recording, and for about 6 hours one of them's husband sat there playing it over and over and over, writing the words down phonetically, so the two women could sing it. So there they are - neither one of them speaks Cajun French, but they end up knowing three songs in Cajun French.

 

One couple is named Richards. His grandparents' name was Ree-shard. Another couple's name is Granger. His grandparents' name was Grawn-zchay (not sure how you write the phonetic pronunciation of the letter J in French, but I know it starts with a z).

[Subdeacon Joe]

2 hours ago, Alpo said:

But just reading the lyrics doesn't allow you to sing. You have to know how to pronounce the lyrics. Like that first word?

 

Read along as you listen.  It takes a lot of repetition, but you will get it. Just like your friends did.

Edited September 29, 2025 by Subdeacon Joe

[Rye Miles #13621]

I can’t listen to a song in another language. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

 

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

I can’t listen to a song in another language. 

I have trouble listening to a song in another language if I know the song in English. That silent night that the Marshall posted - I keep wanting to hear the English words and it's frustrating.

 

There's an Indian guy on another board and every December he will post Indians singing Christmas carols. In Cheyenne, in Apache, in Sioux. And when the music is obviously playing HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SING, but the words don't agree it - aaargh!

[John Kloehr]

2 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

I can’t listen to a song in another language. 

 

Even English can be difficult. Especially if translated to foreign languages and back.

 

 

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

 

[Pat Riot]

I try not to listen to songs in foreign languages unless they are just plain great songs regardless of language then I try to sing them or hear them in my mind as I hear them. 
 

There is an Italian rock band called Måneskin (Dutch for Moonlight). They do play songs with English lyrics but many of their songs are in Italian or a mix of Italian & English. 
 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

Songs in foreign languages don't bother me.  I mean,  I usually can't understand English lyrics anyway,  I might as well not understand in a language I don't understand.

 

Is the sound pleasing to me? That's usually all that matters to me.  

[Crazy Gun Barney, SASS #2428]

It is a lot more fun to make up the translation!  There was a song when I was in highschool that was on the radio all the time., 99 Red Balloons.  It was in German, but there was an english version that would play occasionally.  There was a comic Tim Cavanaugh that put out a "translation" for it, and it was so much better than the real lyrics.

 

Hey, have a lot of you heard the new song by Nena - "99 Red Balloons"? You know, I heard the German version of that song first, and I really liked it. But then I heard the English version, and I was really surprised to find that what she's singing in English and what she's singing in German are not even close. Uh, I ended up buying the record, and I listened very closely to the German version, and I've come up with a new English translation that I think is really much more accurate, much closer... I have to admit there are a couple of lines in this new English version that I'm not real sure about, but I think it's a much more accurate version. Now this is the new version, "99 Red Balloons".

 

Hello Bobby my old friend.
It's good to see you once again.
How's your mother, how's your aunt?
How's your father's skin diving suit?
(That's one of the lines I'm not real sure about, but it goes something like this.)

I've got something you should see
Back at my place; come with me.
I've got some brand new furnishings,
Plus 99 dead baboons

99 dead baboons
Sitting in my living room.
Not too functional it seems,
But quite a conversation piece.
This one's Jake, that one's Dinah,
There's big Ned in my recliner.
No it's not a lazy boy.
Can't you see it's a dead baboon?

Dead baboons, dead baboons.
Dead baboons, dead baboons.

How they got here I'm not sure;
Woke up one day, there they were.
Luckily I've got a lease
Allowing pets if they're deceased.
I'm just thankful they're not apes,
'Cuz apes would clash with the drapes.
No more napkins at my parties -
Wipe your hands on a dead baboon.

Dead baboons, dead baboons.
Dead baboons, dead baboons.

Dead baboons are lots of fun;
Playin' water balloons I've always won.
You can keep your dead giraffes and swine,
I'll take dead baboons every time.
There's just one problem I have found:
It's finding Purina Dead Baboon Chow.
But what a happy snorkelling device...
(That's another line I'm not real sure about, but it's somethin' like that)
With 99 dead baboons.

Dead baboons, dead baboons.
Dead baboons, dead baboons.

[Alpo]

Lawrence Welk used to have a Mexican girl - Anna Connie (I'm sure that is spelled wrong but I have no idea how her name is actually spelled and that's how otto decided to spell it).

 

Something she sang several times on the show was the song called quando caliente el sol. That translates to "when the Sun is hot".

 

She would sing a verse in Spanish and then she would sing two verses in English and then she would sing another verse in Spanish. For years I thought the middle two English verses were the Spanish verses translated. Ain't got a single thing to do with a Spanish verses. Also ain't got nothing to do with the sun being hot.

 

The song starts "quando caliente El Sol aqui en La playa". That's "when the Sun is hot here on the beach". I have no idea the rest of the Spanish lyrics. I just learned the first line.

 

The English lyrics were very pretty.

 

Love me with all of your heart, that's all I want love

Love me with all of your heart, or not at all

Just promise me this

That you'll give me

All your kisses

Every winter

Every summer

Every fall (actually that word is drawn out so it would be "every faaaaalllllll")

 

When we are far apart, or when you're near me

Love me with all of your heart, as I love you

Don't give me your love

For a moment

Or an hour

Love me always

As I've loved you

From the start (again, drawn out - "from the staaaarrrrrt")

With every beat of your heart

 

 

The English lyrics are pretty. Don't have anything at all to do with the Spanish lyrics.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

La Macarena was sung in Spanish.
Never tried to translate it, just leaned back and enjoyed the music.
A local DJ cued up 99 Luftballoons with 99 Red Balloons, synced them perfectly ... the result, both played together, was ghostly, spooky, beautiful.

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

I'm certainly not fluent in Gàidhlig, but I can tell what's going on. I listen to some music in Gàidhlig and I'm not translating in my head. The better you get with a language, the more you think in that language.

 

If you've ever seen the kids' movie "Brave," the person who sang the sound track is Julie Fowlis. It's the only time I've ever heard her sing in English; she speaks Gàidhlig at home and that's what she normally signs in. 

[Sedalia Dave]

 

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

2 hours ago, Alpo said:

Lawrence Welk used to have a Mexican girl - Anna Connie (I'm sure that is spelled wrong but I have no idea how her name is actually spelled and that's how otto decided to spell it).

Anacani

 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

I have eclectic tastes in foreign language songs, although I'm drawn more to Slavic languages than, say, French.  Latin is also pretty nice.
 

 

 

Or Irish

 

 

But I've often wondered how a somewhat bawdy student drinking song became the hymn of Academia
 

Right...long live those warm, loving women!

But I still keep coming back to those lovely Slavic sounds.
 

 

 

 

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

If it’s a foreign instrumental I’ll listen😂🤣