Am I the only one that finds Japanese music incredibly hard?

[Brody]

I've just started really listening to Japanese music and I must say I find it very difficult to understand the lyrics. I can't catch anything until I look at the written lyrics and then as I follow along I can catch it all.

I guess it comes down to the fact that the words are being sung, so many words are not "spaced" normally, and the singer's voice is rising and falling constantly. Plus, the fact that all the music is in the background as well.

Movies are pretty hard too. Actors have the lines prepped and specially prepared so it is sometimes hard to follow. I think it's the same thing as with music because even though I am a native speaker of English, if I watch a movie from England, I sometimes have trouble catching what's being said because of different accents.

Oh well...the music is still really good even if I can't really understand it. I'm sure it gets better with practice.

[Alan]

Singing does seem to be voiced differently from normal speech. Most notably all the syllables are often sung, so the word sounds different. Everythings in informal. The grammar, while not complex, can get a bit twisted to fit the metre of the song. And then there's all those English words thrown in for good measure. There's also a lot of vocab that keeps cropping up repeatedly in jpop songs, e.g. kokoro, koi, yume etc. The more banal the lyrics, the better my chances. Repeated listening gradually pulls the words out of the mush, even without the lyrics! It's just learning how things are pronounced all over again that's the barrier.

When anime songs have japanese subtitles in romaji, I often write them down and translate to learn new words and spruce up my grammar.

Movies don't give me any difficulties beyond lack of vocab. Ok they speak fast, but provided I know the words, my brain goes straight to the meaning without translating through english. Accents definitely are a problem though, particularly on historical samurai movies. I can recognise Kansai-ben when it's spoken, but that's about as far as it goes so far.

[Brody]

Hmm, good to hear. I guess I'll just wait and see how I do.

[Ulver_684]

I've just started really listening to Japanese music and I must say I find it very difficult to understand the lyrics. I can't catch anything until I look at the written lyrics and then as I follow along I can catch it all.

I guess it comes down to the fact that the words are being sung, so many words are not "spaced" normally, and the singer's voice is rising and falling constantly. Plus, the fact that all the music is in the background as well.

Movies are pretty hard too. Actors have the lines prepped and specially prepared so it is sometimes hard to follow. I think it's the same thing as with music because even though I am a native speaker of English, if I watch a movie from England, I sometimes have trouble catching what's being said because of different accents.

Oh well...the music is still really good even if I can't really understand it. I'm sure it gets better with practice.

Hi Brody-san how are you?

We haven't heard from you since ilove!

I guess your the only one who finds it hard!

It's very easy and good I really enjoy it!

I'm practicing my voice so I can sing like those beautiful Japanese! ahhhh