Every time I think of languages, I think of accents and how unique they sound depending on where one lives. Even in the same country, one is able to hear many different accents, which sometimes are not totally understood by speakers of the same language. Also, it's not unusual to hear a guy from the US complaining he didn't get what a newcomer from the UK just said. Or Australians joking on how Indians sound like. That shows how rich languages are and how much they constantly change over the years.
However, such misunderstandings, jokes, or I would say, exchanges can be seen all around the world. Brazil and Portugal share not only cultural values, history, food and the passion for soccer. Language is probably the strongest connection between these two lusophone countries. Even so, it has developed so uniquely in each of them that some people say Brazil and Portugal don't speak the same language.
As an accent lover, I decided to record a few videos reproducing some accents around the world. The one below is how an Indian speaking English would sound like.
The passion for music is diverse and widespread: from hip hop to heavy metal, fans all around the world can be found. Some, like me, are eclectic. But regardless of taste, I've never heard of anyone who does not enjoy at least a specific music genre, or who's not a fan of that band whose songs can't get out off its listener's head.
Some people though, go further: "How would a song from Poland sound like?", a Canadian guy wonders; or "Which styles of music could I find in Turkey?", a girl from the Philippines thinks to herself.
It may be a bit weird to listen to something unlike anything you've heard before, either for its beats or for the sounds of a language. But who's never dreamed of a journey around the world? Music can take you further simply by pressing play.
Despite having Portuguese as my native language, I've been listening to songs in English since I was young. But as I became familiar to the anglophone world, Russian turned into my first passion. That language sounded so cool when I heard its introductions on a language learning page for the first time that it got to me. The first band I got to listen to was Градусы (Gradusy), or "Degrees" in English. That pop rock band messed with me in a way I couldn't explain. I just knew I liked it and I wanted to get to know even more about it. Multilingual lyrics pages were of good help at first, as I could follow both its lyrics in Russian and its translation in English.
Now, my "Songs around the world" folder is filled with songs from more than 20 different languages, including: Croatian, Estonian, Danish, Greek, and even Xhosa (the click language). Unfortunately, I can only communicate in a few of the languages on my list: Portuguese, English, Spanish and getting better at French, and I know the basics of German and introductions of some languages, but I'm sure that if I choose to pick any of these languages to learn, listening to them first, enjoying its sounds, is gonna boost me to keep learning it with much more pleasure.
So, if you are curious to find out how that band mentioned above sounds like, here is the first song I got to listen from Градусы (Gradusy), Голая (Golaya), or "Naked", in English.
I've always enjoyed music and languages. So I decided to create a blog to share with my interests on songs of the most varied genres, as well as its connection to languages. Listening to songs from different countries has made me open my horizons to accept new styles of music, new ways of expressing through music and last but not least, it has expanded my curious linguistic side.
I'll be talking as well about accents, dubbing and much more.
