Foreign Languages and Music

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Alright, I am not sure if this is an AS thing, but can anyone sing a foreign song, and you don't know the language but you remember all of it? I can do this all the time, I have alot of foreign music and people give me weird looks when they see me singing a song in japanese or russian or what ever and I know every word. And I can do this after hearing the song like two or three times. But the weird thing is that I don't really do this with english songs to well. I have to hear it more times in english to memorize it.

Anyone else? Or anything similar?

My guess is this, that like me you are a gifted mimic, and the reason you have trouble with songs in English, is because you speak English and your brain stops to evaluate the meaning of the words you are singing, and intellectualize the words you are singing, whereas, since you are only repeating the foreign songs as a mimic, you are just repeating the pattern of the "sounds" verbatum---sounds plausible doesn't it?

I can do it with any kind of music and/or language. I used to listen to the radio and KNOW I know the song, but can't think of the words. But as soon as it is time to start singing, out they come...I hear myself sing them and say "Oh, yeah, THAT'S IT!!" (No, I don't understand how it works.)

I can sing 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' in German, but I understand it.

And I translated 'Yellow Submarine' into French once.

But I'm the same as liberty

I listen to a lot of music with foreign words and sign along - No idea what their singing about though.

It's pretty much the same as singing a melody, the same as when you hum an instrumental part.

I listen to a lot of foreign music, and I've come to memorize quite a few songs in different languages. Even if I stumble over speaking an unfamiliar language, I can sing it without much of a problem. I do get strange looks when I sing in Chinese

I do that a lot. Granted, the only foreign language I really listen to is some Japanese, and I'm learning that right now. But my skills are very simple so I don't understand even 10% of what is being said in Japanese songs, unless of course it does that thing where it tosses in some English to be contemporary, which is also common.

So yeah. I know the words to a few Japanese songs and I'm steadily getting more familiar with others. I understand very little of the language, though.

I can memorize English songs very quickly, though. After a few tries, and usually following along with the lyrics online, I'll have it down.

Yeah, I have this intuition where I know some of the words to a song even if I've never heard it before. If I listen to the radio and a song I don't know comes on, I'll be quickly singing along to the verses/chorus just by correct one-time guesses of what comes next.

I know "Silent Night" in German and "O Come All Ye Faithful" in Latin.

I learned "Silent Night" in German in music class in grade school. I still remember every word

It is good to know I'm not the only one who does this. Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Hindi, Lakota and Tuscorora are languages I can sing songs in. I do have an idea of what they are saying, although that was only after the fact. My son only listens to Japanese music and can repeat. What an interesting gift to have.

One of my co-workers at the library knows the Marseillaise in French. As she was singing it, I thought of a special on the Olympic Games where French marathoner Alain Mimoun had won the 1956 marathon, after two previous Olympiads in which he had finished second to Czech Emil Zatopek.

I know "Alouette" in French, even though I never took French. (I took Spanish in school. I learned "Silent Night" in Spanish once, but don't remember all the words.)

I listen to some Japanese rock music, though I can't really sing along to most of the songs. Especially by a band called Dir en grey.

Their singer never attended high school (he decided he just didn't want to go), so even his Japanese is terrible.

Though I have seen MANY aspie traits in him, so it's possible he could be.

Other bands, such as the pillows, are easier to sing along to.

I did, too! But now I can't remember all the words. I'm sure it would all come flooding back, though, if I could but glance at the sheet music.

/LOVE music
/probably saved my life in adolescence
/listen to ALL KINDS of music, bluegrass, electronica, blues, traditional, Celtic, middle eastern, Chinese erhu, hand drumming...pretty much anything but really hard thrash metal (too much, just TOO MUCH)

I sing along to quite a few Japanese songs I like.

I am sort of learning japanese through all the media that I am absorb, music, shows with substitles, ect. Like a few times my boyfriend asked me what so and so is in japanese and I knew it off the bat. So I think I know more than I think I do. It is odd with japanese a bit since I have never taken a class in it, the language I have studied is french, I am thinking about taking russian because so many people speak it where I live, but I can't get a handle of french songs as well as japanese or russian. Althought I sometimes sing, the french Kings of Convience song to myself. I know what that means though. Although recently I have learned to be a bit wary of admitting I know some french because this guy has started calling me "ma petite fleur" pardon my spelling. which means my little flower. Yeah, just a bit creeped out. haha.