i cant read or write chinese except my own name -doh but i love listening to love songs etc. cause i feel a bit alone these few weeks with christmas etc. i feel EMO /cry xD
i dont hav trouble listenin to it, but i just really pay attention to tha lyrics, thay they sing dat's all
From a musical standpoint, I believe that a really good song would have meaning to the listener. If a song lyrics cannot reach the listener, but the tune is great, it's possible the listener only enjoys half of what he/she could normally enjoy. I'm sure that if a person understood every single lyric, he/she would enjoy the song more..(if they are really into lyrics.) I hear some guys just like tune and don't pay attention to lyrics...whereas girls are the opposite. Anyway, I always wondered...why is it that Cantonese is sung as if it was written on paper? Maybe a reason why Mandarin sounds better is because they sing as if they were speaking....Also English too. I always thought, what if we put conversational words into Cantonese? Wouldn't people understand it more? Wouldn't they enjoy it more? But then, it's also hard to make it sound natural, sound-wise. Try this: if I tried to sing that in Canto haha...don't laugh now. Sorry for my bad translations...typing methods...etc. Popular American song by Paula DeAnda "Walk Away" I can't explain this feeling (ngo mm ho yee gai sic ngo gei gum gok) I think about it every day (ngo mui yaat yat doh woi lum juu) And even though we 've moved on (seuy yeen ngo dei faan dzor saow) it gets so hard to walk away...walk away (don ying yeen ho laan lei hoi...lei hoi...) On to other thoughts: Mandarin songs that I can mostly understand (cause I cheated and looked up the lyrics) that sound really good to me Ivana Wong 我真的受傷了- I'm truly hurt Leon Lai had an acoustic version - 甜密密 Sweet (song is originally sung by Theresa Tang) Andy Hui and Evonne Hsu - Lian Ai Ping Lu
I have no problem listening for the lyrics in cantonese, however, that is quite conditional since I am easily distracted by bad cantonese. A few of the HK singers cannot speak properly, they speak with an accent that is "lan yum", in that case I may not be able to get ALL the lyrics in its entirety. I love Li Xi for his brilliance in lyrics, how can one NOT be tempted to just study his verses like poems?
Not being able to understand the music doesn't mean you can't enjoy it. After all, I speak Mandarin fluently and can understand 40% of Cantonese, but I like songs from both languages equally. Why? Because music is a freedom of expression. A person should be able to listen and enjoy whichever music he/she desires. In fact, I must say that I sometimes even have problems listening to Mandarin songs, because they were so poorly sung, while other times, I would have absolutely no trouble listening to Cantonese songs. The fact of the matter is that the language of the song really shouldn't matter. For instance, I, personally, listen to beautiful/catchy music from various languages: English--"Everytime We Touch" by Cascada, "Truly Madly Deeply" by Savage Garden, "Cry" by Mandy Moore; Mandarin--"明明很爱你" by 黄品冠&梁静茹, "你是我的一滴淚" by Alec Su; Cantonese--"the song from Eternal Happiness" by Raymond Lam, "實情" by Bernice Liu, "你不是好情人" by Twins; and even Korean--"因为是女子" by Jang Nara. THESE ARE ALL GREAT SONGS TO ENJOY!
i can understand the majority of the lyrics for current cantopop... not so much for older songs... but i miss those.... they had so much more meaning... ^^ sigh.
yea i ahve this problem.. mainly because most of its too fast and canto isnt my 1st language so im not used to hearing it as much as english stuff
i don't have trouble, but that's probably because i go to chinese school.. i think sir_denster described it really well.. cantonese speaking and writing are two different things and when writing cantonese, it takes the form of mandarin speaking. that's why when writing chinese essays, they're better formed and flows better when you think of the whole essay in mandarin as oppose of cantonese. going back to the lyrics: that's why some cantonese lyrics are hard to comprehend because they aren't written in cantonese speaking form (unless you listen to LMF or rap songs xP)
Yep half time really don't understand what they're singing. Just able to catch word here or there. Pretty sad.
like all the time... first of all.. when Canto pple sing.. itz the TOTAL OPOSITE OF THE WAY WE SPEAK! itz almost like shakespeare if u know what i mean... modern.... and if Canto pple try to rap... lets not even start if u get one word rite.....
i go for the melody, but i find it amusing when i heard Edison rap in Cantonese like the song "tai lek D". its so funny but still i prefer Mandarin song as it sounds more nicer and gentle than Cantonese version.
yeah even though i speak cantonese...but i do sometimes have troubles when listening to the music becuz the lyrics are in formal writing...and i speak slang heehehe
yea - some songs don't seem to really have a meaning anymore, but i do understand canto music, tho these days i prefer mandarin music
Sometimes. Mostly its the poor quality of song-writing these days. Kinda the whole Britney-pump-out-lots-of-songs-phenomenon.
