Any tricks to memorizing foreign-language songs?

Question

I want to learn X-Japan's 'Forever Love', but I have big-time trouble memorizing Japanese lyrics! How do singers memorize songs in languages that they aren't familiar with? I have an easier time with German.

Answer 1

I think Doc has the right idea.  When I was in my early music studies, I took voice as my secondary instrument.  We had to learn songs in Italian, Latin, French, German, and Spanish...and in that order.  I've never had to sing in Russian or a Far Eastern language, so you have my ultimate respect if you can pull off a song in Japanese!  

Nonetheless, my voice teacher always required her students to translate the text to the music, so the student would know how to interpret the music correctly.  It also made it easier to memorize the words because after translation, the words had meaning to you, instead of being just a group of foreign sounds.  

My teacher was proficient in Western European languages, but I don't think even she would try to sing in Japanese without learning the correct diction from a native speaker.  There are universal phonetic dictionaries out there that would help you with pronunciation, but I don't think they include Far Eastern languages.  Your best bet would be to make friends with a native speaker, and have him or her help you with the translation and diction.  Then once you're able to speak the words and have a fairly good idea of what they mean, it would be easier to memorize the words.

Answer 2

i think they just go over it a lot

Answer 3

If you want to sing a foreign-language song really well, you should be at least a little familiar with the language that it's in. Otherwise you'll miss the subtleties of pronunciation of words, or the emphasis of words in the sentences.

If you have studied a language at least a little, you'll have a better idea of how the language is supposed to sound and how sentences are constructed. You don't need to be completely fluent to sing well, but it helps if you have at least a little knowledge.