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  • Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

  • Do you want to learn English with songs?

  • Let's talk about 11 songs that are awesome for learning about English.

  • For me, when I listen to songs, I feel energized, and excited, I feel optimistic about life,

  • and I hope that this is the same for you, especially when you listen to music in English,

  • because there's times in your English journey when you feel down, you feel like you're not

  • going anywhere, you're not improving, and I hope that music, especially the songs that

  • I'm going to share with you today will help to boost your spirits, and also help you to

  • get comfortable speaking and using English.

  • Why are songs good for learning English?

  • A lot of songs use multiple verb tenses, expressions, phrasal verbs, idioms, a lot of useful daily

  • language, and they help you to speak if you're willing to sing, so if you are willing to

  • sing along with the chorus, sing along with the singer, you're going to be able to use

  • English.

  • You didn't need to make the sentences yourself, so you're just able to speak and imitate,

  • and hopefully have this positive, optimistic attitude.

  • Before I share these 11 songs with you, I want to address a question that I'm sure a

  • lot of you are thinking, "Vanessa, English songs are so fast.

  • How in the world can I understand each of the words?"

  • I have a couple suggestions.

  • First of all, you can look up the lyrics.

  • Lyrics are the words of the song.

  • Look up the lyrics on Google, even print them out if you want, listen to them, read them,

  • try to follow along as the singer is singing, or on YouTube, there are a lot of versions

  • of the songs that include lyrics, so the lyrics will follow as you're watching the video,

  • and that's really helpful, even if you just memorize the chorus.

  • The chorus is the part that repeats a lot again and again.

  • If you just memorize the chorus, you're already using English.

  • You're speaking.

  • You're using those muscles, and that's so valuable.

  • The first four songs that I'm going to share with you are older songs.

  • That doesn't mean that if you grew up with these songs, you are old.

  • It just means that they're not from the past 10 years.

  • They're older than 10 years.

  • Then, the next four songs are more poppy, more current songs that came out in the last

  • 10 years.

  • Then, the final three songs are just some miscellaneous songs that I thought would be

  • useful to include.

  • You can find the links to all of these.

  • They're YouTube videos.

  • My preferred YouTube video, you can find them in the comments so that you can watch every

  • single one of these songs, and that's my challenge for you, to choose one or all of these, spend

  • some time feeling happy, and using English.

  • My first recommendation is Billy Joel's song, 'Uptown Girl'.

  • In this song, you're going to learn some great expressions like, "Get a choice", "Get tired

  • of", "Fall in love with someone".

  • These are just daily life expressions, but this music is kind of like 1950's style, but

  • it was made in the 1980's, so it has some really great, catchy tunes, catchy chorus,

  • and I hope that it will help you with your English.

  • The second song that I recommend is from a band that is considered the most important

  • for helping English learners learn English.

  • Can you guess what band that is?

  • It's The Beatles.

  • I could have a full video giving you recommendations for Beatles songs, but I realized that a lot

  • of people already know the Beatles, so I chose one that I think is really important, and

  • that is 'We Can Work It Out'.

  • It's short, fun, it includes a great phrasal verb, "We can work it out", and you're going

  • to feel like you can repeat these songs again and again because it's going to repeat some

  • of the same words.

  • You're going to learn expressions like, "Time can tell".

  • I hope that this will help you to add to your vocabulary.

  • My third recommendation is Leonard Cohen's song, 'Hallelujah'.

  • In the description of this video, I actually didn't include his version.

  • I included a Pentatonix version because I feel like this is maybe a little more modern

  • sounding that's full of energy.

  • It's your choice which one you think is better, but I wanted to include this song because

  • there are a lot of great verbs, and also, the style of speaking is slow, but it's still

  • filled with energy, so you're going to want a lot of great verbs, and also, you're going

  • to hear the present perfect a lot, "I've walked", "I've seen", "I've gone".

  • You're going to hear that, and I hope that all of these songs really will include verb

  • tenses that are going to feel more comfortable to you after you listen to the songs.

  • My fourth and final recommendation for somewhat older songs is from Queen, 'Somebody To Love'.

  • Every time that I listen to Queen, I get so much energy, and I always think, "Why don't

  • I listen to Queen more often?"

  • For some reason, this is the perfect style of music for me, so I tried to choose a song

  • that wasn't too challenging, but it also had some great things that you can use for learning

  • English.

  • In this song, they repeat the question again and again, "Can anybody find me somebody to

  • love?"

  • Here, you're going to practice question sentence structure, and even though the words are a

  • little tough, I recommend checking out the lyrics and trying to follow along, even if

  • you just sing the chorus.

  • This is going to give you a lot of energy, and I hope positive feelings about English.

  • My fifth recommendation comes from my pop song recommendations that are a little more

  • modern.

  • This one is Jason Mraz's song, 'I'm Yours'.

  • Unfortunately, Dan does not like this song, my husband, so he didn't want me to include

  • it in this list, but I feel like he speaks so clearly that it's great for pronunciation.

  • If you can repeat the chorus, it's going to help your speaking muscles, so even though

  • some people don't like this song, I hope that you'll enjoy it, and I hope that you'll be

  • able to repeat these words as well.

  • I do want to let you know that he includes a grammar mistake in the chorus, and this

  • is pretty typical, and I want to try to explain why maybe he chose to use a mistake.

  • In English, it's not a good idea to use a double negative.

  • That means two negative words in the same sentence.

  • He says, "I won't hesitate no more", and here, he's using the word 'Not' and 'No', so there's

  • two negatives.

  • Technically, he should say, "I won't hesitate anymore", but he's a songwriter, so we say

  • that he has poetic license.

  • He can do what he wants if it makes him feel more comfortable, and it makes the song flow

  • better to have a mistake.

  • Okay.

  • Whatever, but I wanted to let you know that he is including this, and maybe it's because

  • when they listen to that song, they'll recognize it as a mistake, but it's a song, so we kind

  • of are a little more flexible when it comes to songs and grammar.

  • It needs to rhyme, it needs to feel good, and he just chose to use this.

  • My sixth recommendation is Pharrell Williams' 'Happy'.

  • This song is really popular, and if you can memorize the chorus, sing, sing, sing.

  • Try to sing it as much as possible because not only is it filled with optimism, but it

  • also repeats a lot of the same words, so I hope that they will stick with you, and that

  • fixed sentence structure will help you to build on your own sentence structure that

  • you already know in English.

  • That's why songs are great for you.

  • There's a fixed sentence structure, and you're just repeating it, but hopefully having a

  • good time.

  • I want to let you know that in his song, he also uses a mistake, and it's the same mistake

  • that you saw in the previous song.

  • It's a double negative.

  • Here, he is just using his poetic license to have this song feel the way he wants, but

  • he says, "Can't nothing bring me down."

  • Here, we have 'Not' and 'Nothing'.

  • Two negatives, but really, it should be, "Nothing can bring me down."

  • We're taking out 'Not', but he uses it, and he thinks that it's going to feel good in

  • the song, and he's the artist.

  • It's his choice, right?

  • The seventh song that I recommend is also a pop song, and it's kind of my guilty pleasure

  • song.

  • Guilty pleasure means that I'm a little bit embarrassed, but I like this song, but it's

  • just so fun.

  • I can't help it.

  • It is Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Call Me Maybe'.

  • I'm sure you've heard this song.

  • There are plenty of parodies on YouTube.

  • That means that people took the same idea for the song, but added different words, and

  • it's perfect for that kind of thing.

  • In this song, you're going to learn a lot of great expressions.

  • She uses a lot of phrasal verbs and daily life expressions that I hope will be useful

  • to you.

  • Some examples are "Just", or "Look right at someone", or, "Came into my life".

  • These are phrasal verbs and daily life expressions.

  • The eighth pop song is the ultimate pop song.

  • It is Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off', and of course you're going to learn the phrasal verb,

  • "Shake off something", but this includes a lot of repetitions, so it's perfect for pronunciation.

  • The chorus of this song repeats the same words again, and again, and again, "Play, play,

  • play, play, play", "Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate."

  • She repeats these words, so I hope it will help your pronunciation, and also your sentence

  • structure, and hopefully your optimism too.

  • The idea of this song is if someone is hating what you're doing, don't worry about it.

  • Shake it off, so this is a great idea for English.

  • If you make a mistake, poof.

  • Shake it off.

  • Don't worry about it, feel better about it, and forget it.

  • Shake it off.

  • The final three songs are in another category.

  • They're not really older songs.

  • They're not really pop songs, but I wanted to include them today.

  • The first one is the song 'Jolene', and I added the version that Miley Cyrus sings,

  • but Dolly Parton was the original singer of this song.

  • This song is a country song, and it's about revenge and jealousy, kind of the opposite

  • of 'Happy' and 'Shake It Off'.

  • It's about revenge and jealousy, and you're going to learn a lot of great descriptions

  • of people.

  • They're describing a woman in this song with auburn hair and ivory skin, so you're going

  • to learn these adjectives that also ways to describe someone.

  • My 10th recommendation is Ed Sheeran's song, 'Perfect'.

  • This song has a lot of words, but he speaks clearly.

  • It's a kind of slow, love ballad, but it's also filled with energy and positivity.

  • He uses some great expressions that native speakers use a lot, such as, "Whisper underneath

  • my breath", or "Fight against all odds".

  • These are kind of like idioms, but they're more like daily expressions, so through this

  • song, I recommend watching either the lyrical video or looking at the lyrics on a paper,

  • and really going over these and singing with it, trying to feel passionate with this song.

  • My final and 11th recommendation comes from the internationally loved band, Maroon 5.

  • It is the song, 'This Love'.

  • There are also a lot of words in this song like the previous Ed Sheeran song, but you

  • can do it.

  • This song is infused with a lot of energy, and he uses some great expressions, such as,

  • "Take a toll on me".

  • This is something that might be new for you, so when you encounter new expressions like

  • this, I recommend looking them up, asking someone, researching, trying to use this and

  • find out what it means because you're going to get a bigger picture of the song, and then

  • when you hear it, sing along with it.

  • You can use it yourself, and it's a great way to use new expressions.

  • All right, my challenge for you is to check out some of the links for these songs, listen

  • to as many as possible, and choose one that you can look at the lyrics, and try to repeat

  • after them.

  • This is a great way to shadow, but also have some positive energy around English.

  • Hopefully, it will boost you.

  • Maybe it will give you a boost in the morning when you're getting ready.

  • Hopefully, it will help you to feel positive and optimistic about your English journey

  • because I know it's not always easy, so songs are a great way to pick up your spirits.

  • Choose one of these.

  • Let me know in the comments which one of these would you like to listen to.

  • Do you have any other songs that you'd like to recommend to other people to listen to?

  • Thanks such much for learning with me, and I'll see you the next time.

  • Bye.

  • The next step is to download my free e-Book, '5 Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker'.

  • You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

  • Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

  • Thanks so much.

  • Bye.

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

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