Silly but funny anyway….

I have a weakness for jokes about the Royal Family ….

PHRASAL VERBS and MUSIC. Let’s build a nice list of catchy songs

A different way of learning those ‘sometimes hated’ Phrasal Verbs (PV’s) is through MUSIC!

There are so many catchy songs you already know! and you probably hadn’t realized they have cool PV’s….

The idea is to collect some interesting songs here.

You don’t have to understand or learn the lyrics of the song, just the PV; it’s music will probably help you learn and recall those verbs (especially if you have an auditory memory 🙂

PLEASE post the songs you know/like by adding a comment below. I’ll do the same. We can all together update the list from time to time…

AND!!!  sing along!  why not karaoke singing to practise those newly leart verbs? Here (you’ll find the lyrics to some great songs!) Remember that the only way of learning new vocabulary is by repetition and looking for oportunities to use it!  Why not singing? Sounds fun to me….

Let’s get our own list started:

1. BOB MARLEY. GET UP, STAND UP

What is he singing?  Get up, Stand up for your …..?…, Don’t give up the ..?….

This song is about taking action to avoid oppression. Marley wrote it with Peter Tosh, and the song was influenced by their upbringing in Jamaica, where they had to fight for respect and acceptance for their Rastafarian religion.

If you’d like to know more about the inner meaning of songs, check this out “Songfacts.com”

2. RED HOT CHILLY PEPPERS. GIVE IT AWAY

In an interview the band explained that this song, which sounds like it has no meaning, is about the theory that “The more you give, the more you receive, so why not give it all away?

3. THE BEATLES: 1) DONT’T LET ME DOWN, 2) WE CAN WORK IT OUT

4. BEN E. KING. STAND BY ME

Careful with direct translations here. It doesn’t mean ‘Quédate a mi lado’, the right translation into Spanish is ‘Apóyame’

“Stand By Me” was the name of a Gospel hymn. It  became popular in churches throughout the American south and was recorded by various Gospel acts in the 1950s

5. Another STAND BY ME, this time by OASIS, a little bit of a different type of song….

Noel Gallagher explained that he was dealing with a bad bout of self-inflicted food poisoning when he wrote this song. To appease his mother, who called to make sure he was eating properly, he made himself a big dinner that got him sick. This is the inspiration for the opening lines: “Made a meal and threw it up on Sunday, I’ve got a lot of things to learn.”

Another way of saying to throw up????……… vomit

6. DAVID GUETTA. WHEN LOVE TAKES OVER

“Cuando el amor toma el control” Another example: a terrorist took over the airport.

7. GREEN DAY. WHEN I COME AROUND

“Cuando lo reconsidere, cuando cambie de opinión”. For example: At first he didn’t want to do it, but he came round (cambió de opinión)

8. KOOL AND THE GANG. JUNGLE BOOGIE

This ‘tune’ (another word for ‘song’ – comes from ‘to tune’ sintonizar) belongs to the soundtrack of one of my favourite films “Pulp Fiction”.

The funny thing is that they keep repeating “Get down, get down” all the time! which means ‘Baila, baila’.  Yeah! In fact, you can’t help but dance this song!

9.  The Beatles – With A Little Help From My Friends 

GET BY: “to get past an obstacle with difficulty”, “surviving a hard life”. Buscarse la vida, salir adelante, arreglárselas, apañárselas.Synonyms: cope, subsist, manage on, get along.

How can he get by on so little money? ¿Cómo puede arreglárselas con tan poco dinero?

NOW….

DON’T STOP IT HERE!!!!!   LET’S CONTINUE BUILDING THIS COOL LIST!!!  send your comments

ALSO…… Here you have some links to compilations of PV’s in songs. Sure you know many of them. Click 1, Click 2, Click 3, and more and more and more….

A statement about beauty ideas

Grammy Award-winning, singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat released her new EP, Gypsy Heart Side A. Her album’s lead single “Try” makes a powerful statement about beauty ideals.

Listen and leave your comments: Have you ever felt the preasure or put preasure on people to look physically attractive?

 

THE KINKS-LOLA LIVE

I’m sure you’eve heard this song before, but… what do know about the story behind it?

First, try to listen to and understand the song without reading the lyrics. If you can’t, try again and read them. Learn new vocabulary and pay attention to sentence structure.

Now you can answer to my question above. Imagine you are talking to me or to a friend … “Have you ever heard the song Lola, by the Kinks?  (here you can hum the tune – tararea la canción/melodía) Did you know that …..?

 

What’s this song about?

Adele “Someone like you”

This is not only a beautiful song to listen to, but can also be a good listening exercise for you, learners of English.  Listen carefully, I think it is easy to understand the lyrics. Try to get the story or the reason why Adele wrote this song.  Later, compare against the lyrics.

I hope you like it.

 

 

Learning with music is fun and easy

Sometimes we are tired after a long day of work and have no energy to revise or study English…. Listening to a song of one of your favourite bands could be a fun and relaxing way of studing, don’t you agree?

Besides, according to BPS Research Digest, as published in one of their reports of PSYCHOLOGIES Magazine, the answer to the age old question of learning a language, “might lie in a song…The researchers concluded that we find it easier to remember words if they’re set to music, partly because it’s more emotionally engaging, but also because the words are structured in a way that makes it easier for us to ‘segment’ the information and store it in our memories”.

Let’s give it a try, then. We may use this link to suggest and/or exchange songs we like from which we can also learn some interesting vocabulary or spot grammar structures in use.

My first suggestion is: Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps by Cake

First, watch the video (which I find particularly sweet), relax and try to get the general idea or message of the song.  Next, read the gapped lyrics trying to complete the missing words: you will learn two essential phrasal verbs. Listen again and check if you got them. Did you get the message from the beginning? did you need to give it a second or third try? That’s not important, though; Don’t worry if you didn’t understand everything from the beginning, what’s important is what you have learnt.  Remember! use your dictionary as last resource; Dictionaries are great but we should first try to guess meanings of new words from their context, right?

If the video doesn’t work in your email, then just visit the following URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqQQrLPdyws

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps

By Cake

You won’t admit you love me.
And so how am I ever to know?
You only tell me
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

A million times I ask you,
And then I ask you over again.
You only answer
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

If you can’t ________________,
Well never get started.
And I don’t wanna ____________
Being parted, broken-hearted.
So if you really love me,
Say yes.
But if you don’t, dear, confess.
And please don’t tell me
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

If you can’t ________________,
Well never get started.
And I don’t wanna ____________
Being parted, broken-hearted.
So if you really love me,
Say yes.
But if you don’t, dear, confess.
And please don’t tell me

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps,
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps,
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.