Matador just published another piece of mine titled 8 Bands to Help You Learn Mandarin Chinese. In it, I recommend eight bands and artists, primarily folks who write and sing their own original music, that can help boost your Mandarin Chinese studies. Here’s a snippet of it:
HEAVY APPLICATION OF THE “KARAOKE METHOD” has improved my Chinese and taught me some conversational phrases like bùzhībùjué (unnoticeably) and búyào jiànwài (don’t be a stranger).
To find out what bands and artists I recommended, read the full piece at Matador now. And if you like it, share it. Thanks!
What a great idea to collect them! Thanks for the three that I did not know of.
Actually, now I am listening to you, not the Mandarin songs:) Thanks.
I am going to check the music out. Thank you for the suggestions. 🙂
Joanna Wang’s jazz is good. I like it.
It is true that one of the fun ways to learn a language is through songs. No doubt the range of vocabulary used may be limited, but at least you get to learn and retain what you have learned better because it is, well, fun! Jay Chou is still popular here and some karaoke outlets here still stock Teresa Deng’s songs. I agree that Teresa’s songs are easy to learn and that Jay Chou’s songs are not easy to sing well.
Very good list. But even many native Chinese cannot understand what
Jay Chou is singing. It’s gonna be tough for Chinese learners. Another super famous band is China is May day. Read about its new concert on http://www.gurulu.com/en this weekend.
Thanks for sharing! I always believe motivation is the best catalyst for learning a language and its culture. Songs from the target language is one of the best motivations. It is not only relaxing to listen to these wonderful entertainers, but learn something with them. For those who want to explore more this mysterious ancient language and culture, http://chinesehulu.com/ has a bunch of video lessons. Just check it out! : )