WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:00.630 --> 00:00:04.730 Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. 2 00:00:04.730 --> 00:00:07.640 Do you want to learn English with songs? 3 00:00:07.640 --> 00:00:17.070 Let's talk about 11 songs that are awesome for learning about English. 4 00:00:17.070 --> 00:00:23.488 For me, when I listen to songs, I feel energized, and excited, I feel optimistic about life, 5 00:00:23.489 --> 00:00:28.390 and I hope that this is the same for you, especially when you listen to music in English, 6 00:00:28.390 --> 00:00:33.890 because there's times in your English journey when you feel down, you feel like you're not 7 00:00:33.890 --> 00:00:38.680 going anywhere, you're not improving, and I hope that music, especially the songs that 8 00:00:38.680 --> 00:00:43.380 I'm going to share with you today will help to boost your spirits, and also help you to 9 00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:47.470 get comfortable speaking and using English. 10 00:00:47.470 --> 00:00:50.220 Why are songs good for learning English? 11 00:00:50.220 --> 00:00:57.870 A lot of songs use multiple verb tenses, expressions, phrasal verbs, idioms, a lot of useful daily 12 00:00:57.870 --> 00:01:06.719 language, and they help you to speak if you're willing to sing, so if you are willing to 13 00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:12.159 sing along with the chorus, sing along with the singer, you're going to be able to use 14 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:13.159 English. 15 00:01:13.159 --> 00:01:18.450 You didn't need to make the sentences yourself, so you're just able to speak and imitate, 16 00:01:18.450 --> 00:01:22.680 and hopefully have this positive, optimistic attitude. 17 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:27.920 Before I share these 11 songs with you, I want to address a question that I'm sure a 18 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:32.909 lot of you are thinking, "Vanessa, English songs are so fast. 19 00:01:32.909 --> 00:01:36.590 How in the world can I understand each of the words?" 20 00:01:36.590 --> 00:01:39.139 I have a couple suggestions. 21 00:01:39.139 --> 00:01:41.679 First of all, you can look up the lyrics. 22 00:01:41.679 --> 00:01:43.259 Lyrics are the words of the song. 23 00:01:43.259 --> 00:01:48.479 Look up the lyrics on Google, even print them out if you want, listen to them, read them, 24 00:01:48.479 --> 00:01:55.749 try to follow along as the singer is singing, or on YouTube, there are a lot of versions 25 00:01:55.749 --> 00:02:01.590 of the songs that include lyrics, so the lyrics will follow as you're watching the video, 26 00:02:01.590 --> 00:02:05.659 and that's really helpful, even if you just memorize the chorus. 27 00:02:05.659 --> 00:02:09.530 The chorus is the part that repeats a lot again and again. 28 00:02:09.530 --> 00:02:12.580 If you just memorize the chorus, you're already using English. 29 00:02:12.580 --> 00:02:13.590 You're speaking. 30 00:02:13.590 --> 00:02:16.450 You're using those muscles, and that's so valuable. 31 00:02:16.450 --> 00:02:20.960 The first four songs that I'm going to share with you are older songs. 32 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:25.180 That doesn't mean that if you grew up with these songs, you are old. 33 00:02:25.180 --> 00:02:28.730 It just means that they're not from the past 10 years. 34 00:02:28.730 --> 00:02:31.020 They're older than 10 years. 35 00:02:31.020 --> 00:02:38.139 Then, the next four songs are more poppy, more current songs that came out in the last 36 00:02:38.139 --> 00:02:39.139 10 years. 37 00:02:39.139 --> 00:02:43.529 Then, the final three songs are just some miscellaneous songs that I thought would be 38 00:02:43.530 --> 00:02:44.870 useful to include. 39 00:02:44.870 --> 00:02:46.889 You can find the links to all of these. 40 00:02:46.889 --> 00:02:47.919 They're YouTube videos. 41 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:53.549 My preferred YouTube video, you can find them in the comments so that you can watch every 42 00:02:53.550 --> 00:02:58.100 single one of these songs, and that's my challenge for you, to choose one or all of these, spend 43 00:02:58.100 --> 00:03:01.000 some time feeling happy, and using English. 44 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.580 My first recommendation is Billy Joel's song, 'Uptown Girl'. 45 00:03:05.580 --> 00:03:10.190 In this song, you're going to learn some great expressions like, "Get a choice", "Get tired 46 00:03:10.190 --> 00:03:12.520 of", "Fall in love with someone". 47 00:03:12.520 --> 00:03:19.139 These are just daily life expressions, but this music is kind of like 1950's style, but 48 00:03:19.139 --> 00:03:25.599 it was made in the 1980's, so it has some really great, catchy tunes, catchy chorus, 49 00:03:25.600 --> 00:03:28.680 and I hope that it will help you with your English. 50 00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:34.010 The second song that I recommend is from a band that is considered the most important 51 00:03:34.010 --> 00:03:36.700 for helping English learners learn English. 52 00:03:36.700 --> 00:03:38.670 Can you guess what band that is? 53 00:03:38.670 --> 00:03:40.240 It's The Beatles. 54 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:46.020 I could have a full video giving you recommendations for Beatles songs, but I realized that a lot 55 00:03:46.020 --> 00:03:50.460 of people already know the Beatles, so I chose one that I think is really important, and 56 00:03:50.460 --> 00:03:52.930 that is 'We Can Work It Out'. 57 00:03:52.930 --> 00:03:58.760 It's short, fun, it includes a great phrasal verb, "We can work it out", and you're going 58 00:03:58.760 --> 00:04:04.620 to feel like you can repeat these songs again and again because it's going to repeat some 59 00:04:04.620 --> 00:04:05.800 of the same words. 60 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:08.760 You're going to learn expressions like, "Time can tell". 61 00:04:08.760 --> 00:04:12.819 I hope that this will help you to add to your vocabulary. 62 00:04:12.820 --> 00:04:17.680 My third recommendation is Leonard Cohen's song, 'Hallelujah'. 63 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:21.779 In the description of this video, I actually didn't include his version. 64 00:04:21.779 --> 00:04:27.619 I included a Pentatonix version because I feel like this is maybe a little more modern 65 00:04:27.620 --> 00:04:30.129 sounding that's full of energy. 66 00:04:30.130 --> 00:04:34.149 It's your choice which one you think is better, but I wanted to include this song because 67 00:04:34.150 --> 00:04:41.170 there are a lot of great verbs, and also, the style of speaking is slow, but it's still 68 00:04:41.170 --> 00:04:45.529 filled with energy, so you're going to want a lot of great verbs, and also, you're going 69 00:04:45.529 --> 00:04:51.209 to hear the present perfect a lot, "I've walked", "I've seen", "I've gone". 70 00:04:51.210 --> 00:04:55.779 You're going to hear that, and I hope that all of these songs really will include verb 71 00:04:55.779 --> 00:05:00.449 tenses that are going to feel more comfortable to you after you listen to the songs. 72 00:05:00.450 --> 00:05:08.790 My fourth and final recommendation for somewhat older songs is from Queen, 'Somebody To Love'. 73 00:05:08.790 --> 00:05:13.490 Every time that I listen to Queen, I get so much energy, and I always think, "Why don't 74 00:05:13.490 --> 00:05:15.279 I listen to Queen more often?" 75 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:20.939 For some reason, this is the perfect style of music for me, so I tried to choose a song 76 00:05:20.940 --> 00:05:26.380 that wasn't too challenging, but it also had some great things that you can use for learning 77 00:05:26.380 --> 00:05:27.380 English. 78 00:05:27.380 --> 00:05:34.779 In this song, they repeat the question again and again, "Can anybody find me somebody to 79 00:05:34.779 --> 00:05:35.779 love?" 80 00:05:35.779 --> 00:05:41.339 Here, you're going to practice question sentence structure, and even though the words are a 81 00:05:41.339 --> 00:05:46.749 little tough, I recommend checking out the lyrics and trying to follow along, even if 82 00:05:46.750 --> 00:05:48.290 you just sing the chorus. 83 00:05:48.290 --> 00:05:53.559 This is going to give you a lot of energy, and I hope positive feelings about English. 84 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:59.170 My fifth recommendation comes from my pop song recommendations that are a little more 85 00:05:59.170 --> 00:06:00.230 modern. 86 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:04.249 This one is Jason Mraz's song, 'I'm Yours'. 87 00:06:04.250 --> 00:06:09.690 Unfortunately, Dan does not like this song, my husband, so he didn't want me to include 88 00:06:09.690 --> 00:06:16.229 it in this list, but I feel like he speaks so clearly that it's great for pronunciation. 89 00:06:16.230 --> 00:06:20.470 If you can repeat the chorus, it's going to help your speaking muscles, so even though 90 00:06:20.470 --> 00:06:24.510 some people don't like this song, I hope that you'll enjoy it, and I hope that you'll be 91 00:06:24.510 --> 00:06:26.470 able to repeat these words as well. 92 00:06:26.470 --> 00:06:32.570 I do want to let you know that he includes a grammar mistake in the chorus, and this 93 00:06:32.570 --> 00:06:38.089 is pretty typical, and I want to try to explain why maybe he chose to use a mistake. 94 00:06:38.089 --> 00:06:42.019 In English, it's not a good idea to use a double negative. 95 00:06:42.020 --> 00:06:45.990 That means two negative words in the same sentence. 96 00:06:45.990 --> 00:06:54.120 He says, "I won't hesitate no more", and here, he's using the word 'Not' and 'No', so there's 97 00:06:54.120 --> 00:06:55.150 two negatives. 98 00:06:55.150 --> 00:07:02.210 Technically, he should say, "I won't hesitate anymore", but he's a songwriter, so we say 99 00:07:02.210 --> 00:07:04.770 that he has poetic license. 100 00:07:04.770 --> 00:07:09.550 He can do what he wants if it makes him feel more comfortable, and it makes the song flow 101 00:07:09.550 --> 00:07:11.150 better to have a mistake. 102 00:07:11.150 --> 00:07:12.150 Okay. 103 00:07:12.150 --> 00:07:17.330 Whatever, but I wanted to let you know that he is including this, and maybe it's because 104 00:07:17.330 --> 00:07:22.560 when they listen to that song, they'll recognize it as a mistake, but it's a song, so we kind 105 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:26.590 of are a little more flexible when it comes to songs and grammar. 106 00:07:26.590 --> 00:07:31.320 It needs to rhyme, it needs to feel good, and he just chose to use this. 107 00:07:31.320 --> 00:07:36.060 My sixth recommendation is Pharrell Williams' 'Happy'. 108 00:07:36.060 --> 00:07:41.150 This song is really popular, and if you can memorize the chorus, sing, sing, sing. 109 00:07:41.150 --> 00:07:48.130 Try to sing it as much as possible because not only is it filled with optimism, but it 110 00:07:48.130 --> 00:07:52.910 also repeats a lot of the same words, so I hope that they will stick with you, and that 111 00:07:52.910 --> 00:07:57.620 fixed sentence structure will help you to build on your own sentence structure that 112 00:07:57.620 --> 00:07:59.009 you already know in English. 113 00:07:59.010 --> 00:08:00.790 That's why songs are great for you. 114 00:08:00.790 --> 00:08:04.069 There's a fixed sentence structure, and you're just repeating it, but hopefully having a 115 00:08:04.070 --> 00:08:05.070 good time. 116 00:08:05.070 --> 00:08:09.750 I want to let you know that in his song, he also uses a mistake, and it's the same mistake 117 00:08:09.750 --> 00:08:11.820 that you saw in the previous song. 118 00:08:11.820 --> 00:08:13.090 It's a double negative. 119 00:08:13.090 --> 00:08:19.220 Here, he is just using his poetic license to have this song feel the way he wants, but 120 00:08:19.220 --> 00:08:22.499 he says, "Can't nothing bring me down." 121 00:08:22.500 --> 00:08:24.790 Here, we have 'Not' and 'Nothing'. 122 00:08:24.790 --> 00:08:30.020 Two negatives, but really, it should be, "Nothing can bring me down." 123 00:08:30.020 --> 00:08:34.720 We're taking out 'Not', but he uses it, and he thinks that it's going to feel good in 124 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:36.830 the song, and he's the artist. 125 00:08:36.830 --> 00:08:39.640 It's his choice, right? 126 00:08:39.640 --> 00:08:45.580 The seventh song that I recommend is also a pop song, and it's kind of my guilty pleasure 127 00:08:45.580 --> 00:08:46.800 song. 128 00:08:46.800 --> 00:08:51.210 Guilty pleasure means that I'm a little bit embarrassed, but I like this song, but it's 129 00:08:51.210 --> 00:08:52.360 just so fun. 130 00:08:52.360 --> 00:08:53.770 I can't help it. 131 00:08:53.770 --> 00:08:56.880 It is Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Call Me Maybe'. 132 00:08:56.880 --> 00:08:58.509 I'm sure you've heard this song. 133 00:08:58.510 --> 00:09:02.030 There are plenty of parodies on YouTube. 134 00:09:02.030 --> 00:09:08.130 That means that people took the same idea for the song, but added different words, and 135 00:09:08.130 --> 00:09:10.820 it's perfect for that kind of thing. 136 00:09:10.820 --> 00:09:14.179 In this song, you're going to learn a lot of great expressions. 137 00:09:14.179 --> 00:09:19.039 She uses a lot of phrasal verbs and daily life expressions that I hope will be useful 138 00:09:19.040 --> 00:09:20.040 to you. 139 00:09:20.040 --> 00:09:26.599 Some examples are "Just", or "Look right at someone", or, "Came into my life". 140 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:30.100 These are phrasal verbs and daily life expressions. 141 00:09:30.100 --> 00:09:33.750 The eighth pop song is the ultimate pop song. 142 00:09:33.750 --> 00:09:39.360 It is Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off', and of course you're going to learn the phrasal verb, 143 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:45.740 "Shake off something", but this includes a lot of repetitions, so it's perfect for pronunciation. 144 00:09:45.740 --> 00:09:50.429 The chorus of this song repeats the same words again, and again, and again, "Play, play, 145 00:09:50.429 --> 00:09:53.309 play, play, play", "Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." 146 00:09:53.309 --> 00:09:57.669 She repeats these words, so I hope it will help your pronunciation, and also your sentence 147 00:09:57.670 --> 00:10:00.370 structure, and hopefully your optimism too. 148 00:10:00.370 --> 00:10:06.311 The idea of this song is if someone is hating what you're doing, don't worry about it. 149 00:10:06.311 --> 00:10:09.040 Shake it off, so this is a great idea for English. 150 00:10:09.040 --> 00:10:10.590 If you make a mistake, poof. 151 00:10:10.590 --> 00:10:11.750 Shake it off. 152 00:10:11.750 --> 00:10:14.900 Don't worry about it, feel better about it, and forget it. 153 00:10:14.900 --> 00:10:16.289 Shake it off. 154 00:10:16.290 --> 00:10:19.880 The final three songs are in another category. 155 00:10:19.880 --> 00:10:21.429 They're not really older songs. 156 00:10:21.429 --> 00:10:25.009 They're not really pop songs, but I wanted to include them today. 157 00:10:25.010 --> 00:10:32.700 The first one is the song 'Jolene', and I added the version that Miley Cyrus sings, 158 00:10:32.700 --> 00:10:36.580 but Dolly Parton was the original singer of this song. 159 00:10:36.580 --> 00:10:43.139 This song is a country song, and it's about revenge and jealousy, kind of the opposite 160 00:10:43.140 --> 00:10:46.309 of 'Happy' and 'Shake It Off'. 161 00:10:46.309 --> 00:10:50.169 It's about revenge and jealousy, and you're going to learn a lot of great descriptions 162 00:10:50.170 --> 00:10:51.549 of people. 163 00:10:51.550 --> 00:10:57.510 They're describing a woman in this song with auburn hair and ivory skin, so you're going 164 00:10:57.510 --> 00:11:01.970 to learn these adjectives that also ways to describe someone. 165 00:11:01.970 --> 00:11:05.750 My 10th recommendation is Ed Sheeran's song, 'Perfect'. 166 00:11:05.750 --> 00:11:09.700 This song has a lot of words, but he speaks clearly. 167 00:11:09.700 --> 00:11:15.339 It's a kind of slow, love ballad, but it's also filled with energy and positivity. 168 00:11:15.339 --> 00:11:20.708 He uses some great expressions that native speakers use a lot, such as, "Whisper underneath 169 00:11:20.708 --> 00:11:24.259 my breath", or "Fight against all odds". 170 00:11:24.260 --> 00:11:28.510 These are kind of like idioms, but they're more like daily expressions, so through this 171 00:11:28.510 --> 00:11:35.660 song, I recommend watching either the lyrical video or looking at the lyrics on a paper, 172 00:11:35.660 --> 00:11:41.350 and really going over these and singing with it, trying to feel passionate with this song. 173 00:11:41.350 --> 00:11:48.279 My final and 11th recommendation comes from the internationally loved band, Maroon 5. 174 00:11:48.279 --> 00:11:50.839 It is the song, 'This Love'. 175 00:11:50.839 --> 00:11:56.080 There are also a lot of words in this song like the previous Ed Sheeran song, but you 176 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:57.080 can do it. 177 00:11:57.080 --> 00:12:02.340 This song is infused with a lot of energy, and he uses some great expressions, such as, 178 00:12:02.340 --> 00:12:04.179 "Take a toll on me". 179 00:12:04.179 --> 00:12:08.239 This is something that might be new for you, so when you encounter new expressions like 180 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:14.059 this, I recommend looking them up, asking someone, researching, trying to use this and 181 00:12:14.059 --> 00:12:18.109 find out what it means because you're going to get a bigger picture of the song, and then 182 00:12:18.110 --> 00:12:20.360 when you hear it, sing along with it. 183 00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:23.660 You can use it yourself, and it's a great way to use new expressions. 184 00:12:23.660 --> 00:12:30.029 All right, my challenge for you is to check out some of the links for these songs, listen 185 00:12:30.029 --> 00:12:37.200 to as many as possible, and choose one that you can look at the lyrics, and try to repeat 186 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:38.200 after them. 187 00:12:38.200 --> 00:12:42.958 This is a great way to shadow, but also have some positive energy around English. 188 00:12:42.958 --> 00:12:44.559 Hopefully, it will boost you. 189 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:47.049 Maybe it will give you a boost in the morning when you're getting ready. 190 00:12:47.050 --> 00:12:52.100 Hopefully, it will help you to feel positive and optimistic about your English journey 191 00:12:52.100 --> 00:12:57.820 because I know it's not always easy, so songs are a great way to pick up your spirits. 192 00:12:57.820 --> 00:12:58.820 Choose one of these. 193 00:12:58.820 --> 00:13:02.140 Let me know in the comments which one of these would you like to listen to. 194 00:13:02.140 --> 00:13:06.650 Do you have any other songs that you'd like to recommend to other people to listen to? 195 00:13:06.650 --> 00:13:10.580 Thanks such much for learning with me, and I'll see you the next time. 196 00:13:10.580 --> 00:13:11.580 Bye. 197 00:13:11.580 --> 00:13:17.840 The next step is to download my free e-Book, '5 Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker'. 198 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:21.920 You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently. 199 00:13:21.920 --> 00:13:25.640 Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons. 200 00:13:25.640 --> 00:13:26.769 Thanks so much. 201 00:13:26.770 --> 00:13:27.170 Bye.