Writing lyrics in languages other than English

[lucas]

Quote:I try to translate American with a southern accent into English but I just can't get it right. I totally dig that you guys are doing this stuff! Who's got links?? I wanna hear too!He he he..!Squids..!My kids started university again. No more Vacation. No more kids. Lots of peace, until tonight..I bet is must be dificult to translate American into English. They sometimes do seem like two different languages. I south Africa, we have many diffent dialects as well, and that adds to the confusion over here.. The there is the the language the kids speak today.. I can hardly understand them, though it sounds like English.. The more i think about it, the more I ralize that I have, against all odds, successfully turned into my Dad.. he he heStay wellLucas

[ncc1701]

Apr 15, 2008, 2:49am, lucas wrote:Are you still doing translation? Al the Scandinavian languages sound most beautiful but are very difficult to understand. With French, Spanish and Italian you can somehow get by with the Latin connection. Is Swedish your home Language?I learned Swedish during my junior year in high school (11th grade) when I was an exchange student. I was officially being sent to Finland, but the town they placed me in was Mariehamn, which is on an archipelago right inbetween Sweden and Finland. Politically, it's part of Finland, but the culture and the heritage is Swedish from centuries back.I found out in a hurry how lucky I was! Finnish is an extremely difficult language to learn and related to only one other language in the world, Estonian. Swedish, on the other hand, is a breeze!! Very phonetic, simple rules, same general structure as English and German and the other Scandinavian languages. (Plus, it's so fun to speak!)When I got back to the States, I figured I wanted to get a degree in Swedish and have a career as a translator. I wanted to sit and translate written material from Swedish into English. I got my degree from the University of Oregon but quickly found out two things: 1) there isn't a whole lot of demand for Swedish-to-English translation; and 2) it doesn't pay crap. So I worked a bunch of office jobs until I landed my current gig, which is editor of a weekly arts and entertainment magazine at our local newspaper. It's ironic that I ended up in Astoria, Oregon, which has the biggest Finnish population west of Minnesota!Knowing the language comes in handy once in a while - mostly for finding unique names to give our pets - but I hardly ever actually USE it. I'd be too embarrassed to try to hold a real conversation with a native speaker. The whole exchange year thing was a great experience, though. Love to go back someday.Kathleen

[linziellen]

I'm sat listening now Lucas.Wonderful, what an amazing language and beautiful music.I'm hearing all sorts and inventing while I go along! I'm sure you're not really singing about cyber bots and fried egg yolks in France but to my ears you are seriously though this is great.I think I may have to look into Afrikaans. I like to dabble in other languages now I have French pretty much in the bag. Again I will say that it's mind boggling what exposure does to the brain. Guess that's what's happening to all of us within our music genres. Thanks for sharing this.Love your story Kathleen Lindsey

[milfus]

yeah, I had to translate a bunch and most cases I had a distinct advantage of not being fluent, so I had to get the general gist and meaning, and then find words to express it as true to form as I could, the side effect of this is that every song I translated was extremely well liked by the artist, because the words changed with the language, but the soul of the song stayed the same. I know it seems obvious, but the guy I was working with, would mull over the words for hours and try to mechanicly translate the lyrics, and then fudge them for a closer meaning, and most of his songs ended up sounding like a translation, rather than a song.food for thought *shrug*

[lucas]

Hi Guys!I am on tour at the moment and don't have full acees to the internet.. I wil be home again in a week and then I'll answer all your posts properly.. Stay wellLucas

[linziellen]

Hi Lucas,"Oh to be on tour" Hope you're having fun. Take care,Lindsey