My personal approach to language learning is really quite simple.
In future videos, I will show you exactly this last step of mimicry actually goes down in practice. I will also discuss how I went about the first step of familiarizing myself with the component sounds of French.
For now, we'll focus on step 2 - teaching myself how to rap songs without understanding the lyrics. In this video, I teach myself the song "Soul Pleurer" ("Soul Cry") by the Old School French Rap group from Montreal - Dubmatique.
- First, I familiarize myself with the sound and articulation of each of the component sounds (phonemes) of the language.
- Then, I use Rhythmic Phonetic Training teach myself the lyrics of rap songs to develop my mastery of the Flow of that language and hone my mimicry skills.
- Next, I immerse myself in the place that speaks the language and learn through mimicry.
In future videos, I will show you exactly this last step of mimicry actually goes down in practice. I will also discuss how I went about the first step of familiarizing myself with the component sounds of French.
For now, we'll focus on step 2 - teaching myself how to rap songs without understanding the lyrics. In this video, I teach myself the song "Soul Pleurer" ("Soul Cry") by the Old School French Rap group from Montreal - Dubmatique.
Why I Learn to Rap a Language before Learning to Speak It.
The most important skill to have in any language is a mastery of its Flow. Flow mastery entails two things:
- The ability to effortlessly perceive (hear) the individual speech sounds (phonemes) at normal conversation speeds.
- The ability to effortlessly produce (articulate) the individual speech sounds at normal conversation speeds.
The other linguistic skills of expressing and understanding meaning all stem from the these fundamental, physical abilities.
This is why I refer to these skills as "phonetic infrastructure." Without it, the rest of your linguistic knowledge will sink into itself and serve you no use. You can know a million "vocabulary words", but if you lack the ability to process their sounds in normal speech, then this knowledge is useless.
This is why, before I learn any word or grammar concept, I focus exclusively on my understanding and mastery of the sounds.
So why do I focus memorizing rap lyrics instead of normal speech or other types of music?
To expand the last point, I could learn a slower, more melodic song and it would indeed help me train my Flow, but I just won't get as much Return on Investment as I would learning a rap song.
Indeed, I chose to learn a particularly challenging rap song for this same reason - I want to achieve a basic command of French Flow in as few syllables as possible. The next songs you will hear me rap will be of comparable difficulty.
This is why, before I learn any word or grammar concept, I focus exclusively on my understanding and mastery of the sounds.
So why do I focus memorizing rap lyrics instead of normal speech or other types of music?
- Song lyrics are easier to remember than normal speech because of the mnemonic power of music.
- Compared to other forms of lyrical music, rap lyrics are typically faster (i.e. higher syllable/second rate) and thus closer to normal speech.
To expand the last point, I could learn a slower, more melodic song and it would indeed help me train my Flow, but I just won't get as much Return on Investment as I would learning a rap song.
Indeed, I chose to learn a particularly challenging rap song for this same reason - I want to achieve a basic command of French Flow in as few syllables as possible. The next songs you will hear me rap will be of comparable difficulty.
Final Notes
- If you want to learn how I was able to Self-Teach myself using Rhythmic Phonetic Training, read my guest post on Fluent in 3 Months about How I learned to rap in 4 languages I didn't know in one night using Audacity.
- If you want to learn to Rap in Spanish, Portuguese, French or Mandarin, check out the courses in The Mimic Method Flow Series.
- You can also Sign up for the FREE Flow Mini-Lessons or Discover new music in different languages on The Mimic Method Facebook Page.
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