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THE EVOLUTION OF SONG LYRICS

8/27/2013

Remember the times when it was all about love: sweet, faithful, ever-lasting love?

If you do, you're getting old.

It's been a long way from "I want to hold your hand" to "We might not get tomorrow / Let's do it tonight!"... The reality hasn't changed that much; at the time The Beatles sang the cute song with the above title, they were in Hamburg, Germany, doing drugs, pulling all-nighters at clubs and allegedly having more groupies they could handle. The '60s and the '70s were probably the most decadent decades in recent history, when it comes to relationships and sexuality. It totally beats me how they managed to produce some of the most beautiful song lyrics (along with lots of unplanned babies). The '80s got a bit further - into sickeningly sweet, knee-bending, heart-melting ballads. It was all pure bliss even in the '90s - until the 21st century rolled in.

A sampler? Here it is:
    "Look into my eyes, you will see
      What you mean to me
      Search your heart, search your soul
      And when you find me there you'll search no more"
            Bryan Adams ("Everything I Do...")

                        "I am a man who will fight for your honor
                         I'll be the hero that you've been dreaming of
                         We're gonna live forever
                         Knowing together that we did it all for the glory of love"
                                Peter Cetera ("For the Glory of Love")

                                        "So close, no matter how far
                                         Couldn't be much more from the heart
                                         Forever trust in who we are
                                         And nothing else matters"
                                                 Metallica ("And Nothing Else Matters")

                                                          "Love me tender, love me sweet
                                                            Never let me go
                                                            You have made my life complete
                                                            And I love you so"
                                                                Elvis Presley ("Love Me Tender")

You don't even need to see them - and they were so handsome! - to fall head-over-heels in love with those guys! Just the same way as men are all visual, we women can go crazy hearing things like that. It's true. I would have had a thing for Bryan Adams even if he looked like Danny De Vito - after all the sap he has produced over the past 35 years! I was this close to chaining myself to his boat in Plattsburgh a few years ago, just to meet him. Not kidding.

Now let's review what's on these days.

I was driving my little daughters and a friend of theirs (all between the ages of six and nine), when I got a bit of a jolt from the song playing on the radio:
    "If happy-ever-after did exist
      I would still be holding you like this
      All those fairy tales are full of it
      One more stupid love song, I'll be sick"
            Maroon 5 ("Payphone")
This was actually funny, coming from three little girls, singing along at the top of their lungs. By the way, "stupid" is the family-friendly version for radio, while in the video the word is "f***ing". I'll leave it to you to guess the original word replaced by "it". This song would never have made it to the top in 1963. Or 1983.

Don't get me wrong: I love Maroon 5, their edge and their talent. Just comparing, not judging!

Not convinced? How about the oldest, lamest drunken pickup line about only living once, the only reality being right now, and tomorrow not being granted to us? I swear, it's the only thing you hear these days, in every hit, on every station:
    "For all we know we might not get tomorrow
    Lets do it tonight
    Grab somebody sexy tell 'em hey
    Give me everything tonight"
        NE-YO ("Give Me Everything")
Awww, turns out it's not even you - it's just anybody in your immediate grabbing area! Now doesn't this make you feel special?

               "Baby let's do it right now
                Baby let's do it right now
                Baby let's do it right now
                Baby let's do it right now
                I got the time - I got the love
                Baby I'm a rubber cement man
                Baby won't you do it with your hand..."
                            Bad Examples ("Rubber Cement Man")

I don't know about you, but my heart is melting. And the English teacher in me is weeping.

And I'm not even going into the hard-core rap. It's today's regular, mass media blasting all this, bleeping a word here and there, just to attract some more attention to the fact that the soundtrack of our lives has become one big swearing, cursing, ghetto-inspired work of art.

Makes you nostalgic for the time when The Rolling Stones could only sing "Let's spend SOME TIME together" because "Let's spend the night together" was too raunchy for prime-time TV; or the scandal caused by Jim Morrison when he dared sing "Girl, we couldn't get much HIGHER" on live TV, before delays and recording took care of the decency required (and wardrobe malfunctions).

I love teaching English with songs: they have the real everyday modern language in them, help the students improve their listening comprehension, bring some fun into a classroom, and can be used to practice grammar and spelling...

I'm far from being a prude. I'm not preaching or pretending to be overly shocked.
But the guy who tries to impress me or my daughters with this kind of lyrics had better watch out.

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HAVE - GOT - HAVE GOT?

8/15/2013

1 Comment

I decided to be nice and not comment on a colleague's blog on LinkedIn recently. She presented her knowledge as the universal truth, and tried to explain to the rest of the world that "have/has got" doesn't exist as a combination... According to her, "have" is a verb, and "got" is only possible as the past tense of "get" - and that's it. Got it?
Let's not forget that the language is still called English (not "American") and the original country where it all started out still loves to use "I have got" to express possession - as in "This room has got a lovely view". In a typical North American, pragmatic way, it has been shortened to "have/has" with the same meaning - as in "They have a new car"; but it doesn't give us the right to claim the original is wrong. The British version goes as far as "have to" being "have got to". And this particular form is not exactly new to North America: you're much more likely to say "Gotta go/run to the bank"("I have got to go/run...") than "I have to go/run to the bank".
In Canada, I've noticed that both British and American English are acceptable and used randomly. Add the French influence - and it becomes a unique, colorful, local version. Officially, it's 28 degrees outside (°C); but the pool is 80 (°F), so it's warm enough to swim. This duality is probably not even noticed by anyone other than linguists and newcomers who try to say they are 1.70m tall - and after a few blank stares switch to 5'7". And then the rain falls in millimeters, and the snow accumulates in centimeters. How much fun is that?

Back to "have" and "have got":

"America's Got Talent"
"You've Got A Friend" (James Taylor)
You've got to (gotta) be kidding me!
"What have I got to do / To make you love me?" (Elton John, "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word")

and so on, and so forth... What, Sir Elton is British, you say? Where is his accent then? And where is his latest show? And where did he rise to stardom? On the other side of "The Pond"!

GET - GOT - GOT(TEN)

This one is a separate verb, which can mean pretty much anything. I often tell my students - only half-kidding - to use "get" when they can't come up with the verb they need. My personal suspicion is that "get-got-got" was transformed into "get-got-gotten" in America, just due to its similarity to "forget-forgot-forgotten"; but it's a hunch, not a rule.

In everyday communication, most commonly, "get" is used to express:

"obtain": one goes to the kitchen to get some water, or needs to get some sleep, or to get enough milk to provide calcium to a growing body ("Got milk?");
"understand": some get it - and some don't, or you heard a joke - but didn't get it;
"become": you get really fluent if you practice a new language, you get a promotion or a raise at work, you get better after an illness;

All right, I hope you got all this straight, because I gotta go now...
:-)

1 Comment

THE NAME OF THE GAME

8/11/2013

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My early TEFL/TESL teaching years back in the 1990s were the most rewarding in my life; probably not so much in terms of cash - compared to a lawyer's career, for example - but invaluable when it came to creating connections and, most importantly, the job satisfaction coming from the visible, measurable results: when having a decent conversation with a student in English after a few months of intense but fun learning, which started at the ABCs.

As someone who has spent many years Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)*, I have made observations that are hardly surprising: turns out, adults love playing just as much as children do! In my own experience, no more than two percent of my students ever questioned my slightly unconventional methods of learning, which incorporated English language puzzles, charades, contemporary music hits and so on. Occasionally, there would be a serious guy asking why we were wasting our time matching words
with pictures, but later he would get down on all fours on the carpet, make a story with the group - and forget about the traditional ideas of learning (which are associated with pain and suffering along the way!).

ESL - the dangerous misconception

There is a huge misconception about language games, music and all visual media in the classroom, as sources of entertainment and nothing more**. On top of this, young TESL learners are presumed distracted and unwilling to learn. Connect those two, and you have the solution: if your students are lacking in interest or motivation, the reason is most likely boredom. The traditional textbook-workbook-pen-chalk-blackboard concept may be still good, but it most definitely is only a small part of the arsenal an EFL/ESL teacher can use in an attempt to make the classes a success.

It's a proven psychological fact that we retain much more when we are interested in the subject of learning. Our memory is very selective this way. Events and experiences that have impressed us or moved us deeply are engraved in our memory years and decades later, while we all have boring subject exams we have passed and completely forgotten about within weeks. Take a sports fan who knows every detail about his favorite team or player, plus stats and goal situations, championships, positions on the field, etc. I could never even try to remember that, since sports are not even remotely interesting to me. But ask me about my favorite musicians, and I will tell you about every album, every landmark in their lives - believe it or not, I know
every word of every song of my favorite band from the time I was growing up (it's too embarrassing to mention but I like them to this day), and I have won contests and prizes because of my useless trivia knowledge, based on pure interest in the subject.

Mix it up in the ESL classroom

Dear fellow teachers out there, please do not be afraid to venture out of the book, lesson plan, subject matter - or whatever else you have planned for your day or session. There has never been a better time to incorporate fun into EFL/ESL learning, and resources have never been more abundant. Take those clips off the internet, use them to prove a point ("I don't know nothin' about no stolen paintings!", from a movie, took care of "using double negative", and made us all laugh, because this example is even triple!) - then go ahead with the planned practice. You'll be amazed at the results.

Ask your ESL students about their interests and bring class materials that would not only engage them, but make them look forward to that class. Preparation is minimal, and you can use the props multiple times. Silliness and fun can be the surprising allies on your way to achieving excellence in teaching
English.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*In most countries out of North America, English comes as a third, maybe
even fourth foreign language. There are differences between EFL and ESL, depending on location and surroundings.

**I have a very well-sold book on the subject ("Don't Worry, Be Happy -
or how to learn English while enjoying yourself", 1992)

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Author

A Europe-born-and-raised, but also suburban mother of two, with a passion for languages, cultures, writing, travel and knowledge - combining my 20-something years of teaching and marketing into a language school on the North Shore of Montreal. Quebec, Canada.
Finally, I've put my university degrees and creative energy to work - in harmony!
I sincerely hope you enjoy my vision, humor and creations.
------------------------------------------
Une femme d'Europe mais aussi une mère de banlieue, avec la passion pour des langues, des cultures du monde, d'écriture, des voyages et de la connaissance - en combinant mes 20+ ans de l'enseignement et de marketing dans une école de langues située sur la Rive-Nord de Montreal, Québec, Canada.
Enfin, j'ai mis mes diplômes universitaires et mon énergie créative au travail, ensemble!
J'espère sincèrement que vous apprécierez mes idées, mon humeur et mes créations.

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THE EVOLUTION OF SONG LYRICS

HAVE - GOT - HAVE GOT?

THE NAME OF THE GAME

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