Learning English the old fashion way, with music and hardwork

First contact with English music

My (Mirek) first contact with English happened when I was 13 and it was rather funny. I could say was initiated to English in a jungle. You must agree when you read the following story. It was a musical jungle.

Source of English Music

I always liked to listen to music, the main source of top hits was then for me, Radio Luxembourg (located in London) and I really was a faithful listener, every  night for many hours. I did not understand what they were talking about but I tried to understand names and titles of songs, I still wonder how could I be so stupid to believe they used classic text book proper king’s English.

Slade and Music

I shall mention some examples to let you know what I mean. My first favorite group was Slade. Now I know their name, but then I tried to looked it up in one dictionary after another, for any similar words and I could not find anything, so I tried to watch the records covers and what I could see made me surprised more. First their album I saw was Slayed, then later I saw Slavde, then Sladest, no word could be found.

Music Lyrics

So I gave up the name and started to analyze titles (it was much too early for lyrics). Again with Slade “Cos I luv you”  no idea although I started to catch something, then “Weer all crazee now” and “Look at last nite” the idea appeared like lightning ‘ those stupid bastards do not use orthography. So then I started to think out. What would a poet have if he was writing his poem’.

Easier Music to learn English

The conclusion was, I had to find something easier. One day I was watching a video clip of a country American song, “I’m walking the floor over you.” I saw a sad man walking up and down in a small shack, probably thinking about his girl. Then after the song Polish speaker translated the title ‘ I am walking on the floor in a room which is located one floor higher than your room. I was shocked because that shack had only one floor! And he was not moving on the attic as there was none. And probably no basement. So I said to myself ‘what a stupid jerk, I must check everything by myself’.

Polish – English dictionary

The next step was to beg my parents to buy me at least small English -Polish dictionary, I had to use reasonable cause as the first answer was ‘you don’t need it!’. So I talked a while about my deep interest in English and finally I heard ‘OK’. And from this event I had to practice what I was talking about previously, to show my parents that I was reliable and honest.

Tags: learning english, learning with music, music