Sasha
Professional Teacher
Do you understand everything here? This is a video clip by Eminem https://youtu.be/XbGs_qK2PQA?t=207 I honestly, fail to understand everything except for a tiny percent of the words he is using. I was impressed by the fact that some rap performers have vocabulary that could be compared to the one that Shakespeare used to have.. Well, I have double feelings. I guess rap songs could be a good way to increase your vocabulary?
Aug 19, 2020 10:02 AM
Answers · 5
1
Sasha, I don't listen to a lot of radio recently, but there are lyrics versions of all/most of these songs, so we can learn the words. Here's one that says is a slowed-down version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fIuj-2zEYo
August 19, 2020
1
Eminem is known to be a really, really, really fast rapper. Shakespeare made up a lot of words, expecting that his audience would like his wordplay and be able to use context to figure out what he meant. Turns out, he was right. Some rappers do the same thing. They are also right. I wouldn't rely solely on rap to increase your vocabulary. For example, I looked at the lyrics for this song - he does a lot of really interesting things. But some are plays on words that only make sense if you lay the foundations for them. Some are references to American pop culture and political culture of the past 25 years (which again, use contextual knowledge for both the speaker and the listeners). Some is just flat out crude (because it's Eminem). If you just used this song to learn vocabulary, you'd likely not express yourself well because you're missing some of the background that the song wants & you'd be likely to offend people (hopefully unintentionally) because parts of the song are being intentionally offensive.
August 19, 2020
Hey Sasha! Eminem is known for saying a huge amount of words in each of his raps, so I can definitely understand how his raps would be difficult to understand. He also plays with the syllables/natural pronunciation of some words and he is known for using many words that have double meanings in English. As an example, in a much slower song with Rihanna "Love the Way You Lie" he says (about someone cheating in a relationship): Life is no Nintendo game, but you lied again Now you get to watch her leave Out the window, guess that's why they call it window pane (here, he's double a double meaning on the physical piece of glass window pane vs. "window pain" which isn't a common phrase in English but the meaning is understood to be that it's painful to stand at the window and watch someone you love walk away. But this word play is something that he does all the time in every rap! Also, there are just so many cultural references in Eminem songs/rap in general - in Rap God, he talks about the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, Rapunzel (a fairy tale character), elevator music (a type of music that's supposed to be soothing but is characterized as being generically boring and possibly annoying), and so many others - it seems like there's at least 1 cultural reference every 10 seconds or so. Maybe more. So yes, continue to listen to Eminem but try not to get discouraged. You chose one of the fastest English speakers and one of his fastest raps to study! :)
August 19, 2020
да смиритесь уже что языки это не Ваше в который раз наблюдаю карлика около баскетбольной площадки -- дворфы, вернитесь в метро!
August 19, 2020
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