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Foreign Language Lyrics help me to help you

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PracticePractic
1
PracticePractic | 08-12-2016 12:06
Hi everyone!

Now that we have a system that rewards contributions to the site, I can suggest here (its a "killer idea" after all) that if we all do a little work, we can add "Foreign Language Lyrics" directories (Listings by Language and/or Country) to this site.

I wonder how many people (other than myself) come here looking for song lyrics in a foreign language. But might not know the language intimately enough , don't know how its written in that language ---remember titles can switch positions of key words depending upon the grammar of the language when you try to switch from English to French, German or Nordic languages, etc.. (I left out a whole series of languages where the letters change also, as in Russian, Japanese, Chinese, or Arabic).

Ok, my suggestion is

That I'll set up new discussions (unless Ray can do it for me as "tabs" like the Lyrics can be found as to the "browse by name" "browse by artist" series.... to allow us to "browse by language/country") One new discussion topic per language/country and we all can list (copy and paste) links to songs as they appear one by one on the chart lists or we find them elsewhere on LSI--everyone can do a little of this and the work will get done over the next few years without anyone having to work all the time at it!.

This is especially helpful for those who do not speak the language, but nevertheless for various reasons are tasked with finding a song/ appropriate lyrics for a song, in a foreign language ....

Yes, I'm aware Google and web pages will translate them for us...but that is once we "find" the song by title... and if you don't know the title in the foreign language you're out of luck. (Anyway ---check out the songs Celine posts in "what are you listening to now?" etc topics---and you want to hear them in the original language and read the lyrics in the original language as well as having that translation handy to know what the song is about----if there is no original English version of it!).

I'm certain (and I hope ) that Celine is reading this and can give some good examples of song titles in French that look nothing like, not even close to their English counterparts as the word is so different it can't be determined.... (from the Pointless! game: "Yesterday" the famous song title by the Beatles translates into "Hier" in French.... "Ontem " in Portugese..... and "Gisteren" in Dutch)

I'm certain there are many who speak and read various foreign languages and are willing to post in the foreign languages alphabetical order on these new directories lists of the songs we have in each foreign language.

[For later on---if someone wants to get fancy---why not link each foreign lyrics directory entry to the "English" version of the song if it exists?]

I thought up this solution as I've had the experience of looking in search engine for a song that is written in a foreign language BUT I or they don't know the exact title of the song? Searches might come up "empty" over and over again as we're just missing one critical word that the search engine would be willing to show us the results if we only knew that word in the title in the Foreign language original.

By the way, that is why this relates back to my original earlier posting about the "Search Engine" used by LSI---makes sense now doesn't it?

Don't bother looking for it as I think I said it in a different manner, but I began a thread like this back in 2014? But I knew less about the workings and content of LSI back then..... so this is a better representation of what I'd like to have available to "browse" through as well as having it searchable by the LSI Search Engine.

What does everyone else think?

Especially I'd like to hear from those who speak/read/ and listen to music in a foreign language to make the site more friendly to visitors who know English but its their second language to another native/born language---and they would want to find songs in that language.

[Oh in case someone suggests back to me that I can just use the "charts" from other countries----does not always work as an English lyric song might be on the charts (many of them!) and not necessarily songs in that country's own language---and what if you want a song from a few years back that you need? Its no longer on the top 100 of that country's language, etc chart topper! How do you find that older song (again use example of trying to find "Yesterday" gets 5 results including two in French--but no other languages for that famous song ---that are NOT the real Beatles "Yesterday" song----see this link to "Yesterday Les Beatles" (which is not using the French word Hier in title!) ]
5 comments
Ray
2
Ray | 09-12-2016 15:43
Thanks for the thinking, I always appreciate it when people come up with ideas to improve LSI!

About this "browse by language/country" idea, it is a complicated one. This is not an idea I can implement in a day. Let's look at the time and effort and the gain.

I see a big problem in how to get all songs identified with the language and country info. LSI has over one million songs, I don't see a realistic way to do this by hand through moderating, too much work. Also, I'd prefer moderators to use their time to do the most important thing: adding songs and make sure they contain lyrics.

Then about the gain. I can't exactly tell how popular this option would be. But I can tell how popular the (sort of) similar options ("browse by artist" and "browse by genre") are; absolutely zero. People don't use these lists at all. There is absolutely zero interest in thes options.

So I have to conclude that this idea is probably not a killer idea, it will probably not increases traffic on LSI. And since it would take an anormous amount or time and effect to setup it up, I don't think it's a go.

Thoughts?
Rubbo81
0
Rubbo81 | 13-12-2016 13:47
To be honest I don't think that searching the song with the translated title would be a good idea. Because if you don't know the original title, how can you possible know the title in your language??
For example I'm Italian but I never try to found foreign song using an Italian translation of the title.

It happens that sometimes I want to translate a piece of the lyrics, but I don't see any point to put the translation here on LSI, as you wrote google translator is more than enough
Just my opinion of course
marciacatt
1
marciacatt | 03-01-2017 01:54
hi I am trying to find the music/lyrics to a song by Princess Stephanie, in french, that tell a story about her cutting up ?curtains? with scissors because she is jealous. it is from the 1980s/// thanks
Olivia_Ka
0
Olivia_Ka | 03-01-2017 02:05
Hello Marcia!

Did you mean Les bêtises by Sabine Paturel? From 1986.
PracticePractic
1
PracticePractic | 03-01-2017 06:11

Perfect example Marcia!

This is what I'm thinking about is missing here on LSI....

Its not for everyone...but as you as (like me) from the United States....

First language may be English---but you know some French---and you wanted to find this particular song for whatever good reasons you have of your own...

And Google and the search engines here at LSI are no help at all!

What you needed was a French song expert like Celine!

She answered your question and provided a video and link!

But even more so----I'm trying to provide a single location to store and search through (or several locations ideally---one for each country/language hopefully---there might be 100 such topics that can be created by myself and others over time to accommodate this data base).

Haven't done it yet [Edit: I started today to get it going] as I'm working on a simple title formula that would properly tag these topics, so that anyone looking for a song in a particular language would easily find it here (as much as I can place myself (with the help of native speakers of course in each country)---within the context of the song...

Since I know a few French songs---I'll start with the one that Celine just gave me here and create that topic right now....
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