The Mild Fiancée and I like to listen to music. We don't have a TV in the house, so it's not uncommon for us to fire up a laptop to play some background music. The particular music changes from time to time, but we both appreciate having something playing while we cook, for example. It just makes the house a little more lively while we're going about our day.
Now, we don't like the exact same music all the time, but our tastes do overlap quite a bit. We both grew up with R&B, hip hop, and rap from the same time (we're only about a year apart in age), so it's not uncommon for both of us to recognize a song or an artist from that period. We're no strangers to Tupac. Or Elvis Crespo, for that matter (as an aside, we had some friends over, and we all unanimously decided that the video I linked to was one of the worst we've ever seen).
However, there are places where our music tastes diverge. It's never a problem, since variations on things we already like are met with warm regard. It's not like I'm going to be annoyed that she found another hip hop artist that puts out good music. If anything, it'll be the opposite. She'll play it, I'll nod along, and then I'll ask who that was, for future reference. It all works out pretty well.
Interestingly, the places where our music knowledge diverges also involves other languages. I don't know where she first heard it, but the Mild Fiancée is a fan of Ben L'Oncle Soul's "Soulman." The surprising bit about this is that the song is in French. Neither the Mild Fiancée nor I speak French. However, she has told me that she likes this song, and I found a video with sub titles to see what it was all about. Long story short, the guy says he's just a regular guy (a "soul man"), but he's comfortable being himself. All in all, it's a sentiment I can get behind.
So, I listened to it a few times (like I'm wont to do). As it turns out, I enjoy the song, too. I would never have heard of it were it not for the Mild Fiancée, but once I did, the song grew on me. So, it made its way into my rotation. Of course, me being me, I wanted to really know what he was saying. So, I started parsing it out a little bit. I watched, and listened to, a few other translation videos, enough so that I more or less understand what the lyrics mean.
In the process of doing that, I ended up picking out a word or two here and there. It's the same basic way that a baby learns language: they learn a word, pick it out from speech, make assumptions or learn another word in relation to that first one, and then repeat the whole cycle. From the outside, it looks an awful lot like I'm closing my eyes trying to get my ear closer to the laptop. The funniest part of this was that the Mild Fiancée noticed when this happened. She tends to be pretty perceptive, so she immediately realized why my head was cocked the way it was. Her response was classic, "are you trying to learn French?!"
I cracked up when I heard her question, though she wasn't wrong (I now know how to say "shoulders" in French). The whole episode stuck out in my mind, though, largely because I was so amused by the whole thing. So when the same basic pattern repeated itself with a Korean song (she spent some time in Korea), I was twice as amused. This time around, she introduced me to a song called "Sarangbi" It's a love song, but it literally translates to "love rain." Yeah, I chuckled at the title, too. Regardless, I ended up liking the song enough to listen to it a few times.
Just like the first song in French, I picked out a few words here and there. It's just how my brain works. I like to understand things, so I will try to decompose it and make sense of it. Plus, it's a bit of a challenge/puzzle when it's in another language. It just makes it a little more fun to actually figure it out when there's a language barrier.
And just like the first time around, the Mild Fiancée spotted me listening intently to this song. Her response cracked me up: "are you trying to learn Korean?!" This was doubly funny to me because it wasn't the first time she'd leveled the "are you trying to learn ..." accusation at me. I don't think I actually howled in laughter, but it sure felt like I did. The laughter was probably twice as strong as the first time.
That said, I think this whole songs-in-other-languages thing is good for me. I'm gradually chipping away at the odds that I'll be hopelessly lost in conversation with another human being. Now all I need is for the Mild Fiancée to find a song in Arabic or Hebrew or something. I'd love to be accused of trying to learn one of those.
Now, we don't like the exact same music all the time, but our tastes do overlap quite a bit. We both grew up with R&B, hip hop, and rap from the same time (we're only about a year apart in age), so it's not uncommon for both of us to recognize a song or an artist from that period. We're no strangers to Tupac. Or Elvis Crespo, for that matter (as an aside, we had some friends over, and we all unanimously decided that the video I linked to was one of the worst we've ever seen).
However, there are places where our music tastes diverge. It's never a problem, since variations on things we already like are met with warm regard. It's not like I'm going to be annoyed that she found another hip hop artist that puts out good music. If anything, it'll be the opposite. She'll play it, I'll nod along, and then I'll ask who that was, for future reference. It all works out pretty well.
Interestingly, the places where our music knowledge diverges also involves other languages. I don't know where she first heard it, but the Mild Fiancée is a fan of Ben L'Oncle Soul's "Soulman." The surprising bit about this is that the song is in French. Neither the Mild Fiancée nor I speak French. However, she has told me that she likes this song, and I found a video with sub titles to see what it was all about. Long story short, the guy says he's just a regular guy (a "soul man"), but he's comfortable being himself. All in all, it's a sentiment I can get behind.
So, I listened to it a few times (like I'm wont to do). As it turns out, I enjoy the song, too. I would never have heard of it were it not for the Mild Fiancée, but once I did, the song grew on me. So, it made its way into my rotation. Of course, me being me, I wanted to really know what he was saying. So, I started parsing it out a little bit. I watched, and listened to, a few other translation videos, enough so that I more or less understand what the lyrics mean.
In the process of doing that, I ended up picking out a word or two here and there. It's the same basic way that a baby learns language: they learn a word, pick it out from speech, make assumptions or learn another word in relation to that first one, and then repeat the whole cycle. From the outside, it looks an awful lot like I'm closing my eyes trying to get my ear closer to the laptop. The funniest part of this was that the Mild Fiancée noticed when this happened. She tends to be pretty perceptive, so she immediately realized why my head was cocked the way it was. Her response was classic, "are you trying to learn French?!"
I cracked up when I heard her question, though she wasn't wrong (I now know how to say "shoulders" in French). The whole episode stuck out in my mind, though, largely because I was so amused by the whole thing. So when the same basic pattern repeated itself with a Korean song (she spent some time in Korea), I was twice as amused. This time around, she introduced me to a song called "Sarangbi" It's a love song, but it literally translates to "love rain." Yeah, I chuckled at the title, too. Regardless, I ended up liking the song enough to listen to it a few times.
Just like the first song in French, I picked out a few words here and there. It's just how my brain works. I like to understand things, so I will try to decompose it and make sense of it. Plus, it's a bit of a challenge/puzzle when it's in another language. It just makes it a little more fun to actually figure it out when there's a language barrier.
And just like the first time around, the Mild Fiancée spotted me listening intently to this song. Her response cracked me up: "are you trying to learn Korean?!" This was doubly funny to me because it wasn't the first time she'd leveled the "are you trying to learn ..." accusation at me. I don't think I actually howled in laughter, but it sure felt like I did. The laughter was probably twice as strong as the first time.
That said, I think this whole songs-in-other-languages thing is good for me. I'm gradually chipping away at the odds that I'll be hopelessly lost in conversation with another human being. Now all I need is for the Mild Fiancée to find a song in Arabic or Hebrew or something. I'd love to be accused of trying to learn one of those.
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