Yesterday I taught Chinese in the morning (Open University L197 – Beginners’ Chinese module), and came home to watch Eurovision in the evening.
I must admit it was a wonderful day to indulge myself in languages and multi-cultures for a whole day.
My colleague Fernando Rosell-Aguilar at the Open University wrote this wonderful piece: Parlez-vous Eurovision?. His article explores why so many of the songs were sung in English, as English-language songs dominated the Eurovision Song Contest in its 60th anniversary.
Of the 40 songs that entered the competition this year, 33 were in English and one was sung in both English and Romanian.
I’ve only just realised that sign language was used for the first time in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Electro Velvet – Still In Love With You (United Kingdom) – Eurovision 2015
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Now let’s enjoy the winning song again: Måns Zelmerlöw – Heroes (Sweden) – LIVE at Eurovision 2015
And, here is the same winning song, with Sign Language. Enjoy!
Heroes (Sweden) – Eurovision 2015
Performer: Måns Zelmerlöw
Song writer(s): Linnea Deb, Joy Deb, Anton Hård af Segerstad
Song composer(s): Linnea Deb, Joy Deb, Anton Hård af SegerstadDon’t tell the gods I left a mess
I can’t undo what has been done
Let’s run for cover
What if I’m the only hero left
You better fire off your gun
Once and forever
He said go dry your eyes
And live your life like there is no tomorrow, son
And tell the others
To go sing it like a hummingbird
The greatest anthem ever heard:We are the heroes of our time
But we’re dancing with the demons in our minds…
We are the heroes of our time
Hero-uh-o-o-oes
O-uh-o-o-oh
We’re dancing with the demons in our minds
Hero-uh-o-o-oes O-uh-o-o-ohThe crickets sing a song for you
Don’t say a word, don’t make a sound
It’s life’s creation
I make worms turn into butterflies
Wake up and turn this world around
In appreciation
He said I never left your side
When you were lost I followed right behind
Was your foundation
Now go sing it like a hummingbird
The greatest anthem ever heard:We are the heroes of our time
Hero-uh-o-o-oes
O-uh-o-o-oh
We’re dancing with the demons in our minds
Hero-uh-o-o-oes O-uh-o-o-oh(We keep dancing with the demons
You could be a hero)Go sing it like a hummingbird
The greatest anthem ever heard
Now sing together….We are the heroes of our time
Hero-uh-o-o-oes
O-uh-o-o-oh
But we’re dancing with the demons in our minds
Hero-uh-o-o-oes O-uh-o-o-oh
We are the heroes of our time
Hero-uh-o-o-oes
O-uh-o-o-oh
But we’re dancing with the demons in our minds
Hero-uh-o-o-oes O-uh-o-o-ohWe are the heroes
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I would love to have learned a language. As it is, I can manage restaurant French and Italian. The next best thing was to make sure my sons learned another language and I sent one to France and the other to Spain and they became fluent. They both said that the first 3 months was awful and then it clicked and they began to converse.
Learning at night school, I began to make progress when I stopped worrying about gender and tenses like you are taught at school. Just get going and learn to get it right later, if you can.
If you do not learn a language before puberty, you will never be a truly native speaker. Why, then, do we not teach languages to young children when they can absorb them?