Foreign Languages

[giannifive]

Hey Dave (and anyone else who's interested). When you spend time in a foreign country, with a foreign language that is not your native language, do you find that you start to hear musical sounds in that language? In other words, when you "sing" along to the guitar parts, do you do it in the native language, with that language's sounds? I know from my time spent in other countries where I've tried to learn the language this definitely happens to me. When I spent a week in rural Quebec (where they only spoke French), I started hearing many sounds that are in French but not in English in the music, like the "u" in "une", the guttural "r", and many of the nasal vowels. Also, when I spent some time in Finland, I started hearing the Finnish "y" (sounds like "u" in "une" in French), and "ö" (sounds like trying to pronounce "er" with your lips pursed) in music. The reason I find this interesting is because it seems like what we hear, in terms of tone, can be limited by the sounds available in our native language. For example, many of the native English speakers I've talked to can't hear the Finnish "y" sound well enough to distinguish it from "ooo" or "eee".

Anyway, just wondering.

[ADVJR]

I'm not Dave, but speaking for myself, I find a lot of inspiration listening to music while in foreign countries. Most of the time it can be subconscious. Sometimes you get a unique sense of rythm simply by being in a foreign o****ry and interacting with the culture. Other times I'll hear a radio playing in a taxi cab and I totally ignore the song but turns out to inspire some odd riff or entire song after which I scratch my head and wonder where the hell I came up with it.
But that's just me. I'm sure many people find ther inspiration in many differnt ways.